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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 2022)
2 Wednesday, February 23, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Concerned about our town Letters to the Editor… By David Pruett Guest Columnist The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer¾s name, address, and phone number. Letters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor. The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond, or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is 10 a.m. Monday. Town halls in Sisters To the Editor: We are not talking to one another! We are not listening to one another! We need to com- municate to each other within our community in order to work together and get things done in our community. Yes, politics is everywhere and in everything you do but it is now the good, the bad, and the ugly. Civility and speaking with respect to each other is essential in order to get things done 4 environmental action (wildfires/water preservation), racial reckoning, mask or no mask, women9s rights, voters9 rights, educa- tion, infrastructure, farming needs, drought, growth, political tenure, gun policies, house- less remedies, crime control, drug trafficking, See LETTERS on page 9 Sisters Weather Forecast Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Feb. 23 • Sunny Feb. 24 • Mostly Cloudy Feb. 25 • Sunny Feb. 26 • Partly Cloudy 26/9 34/10 39/12 47/25 Sunday Monday Tuesday Feb. 27 • Mostly Cloudy Feb. 28 • Mostly Cloudy March 1 • Mostly Cloudy 48/30 51/32 56/33 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC Website: www.nuggetnews.com 442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759 Tel: 541-549-9941 | Email: editor@nuggetnews.com Postmaster: Send address changes to The Nugget Newspaper, P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759. Third Class Postage Paid at Sisters, Oregon. Editor in Chief: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Easterling Creative Director: Jess Draper Community Marketing Partner: Vicki Curlett Classifieds & Circulation: Beth Jacobsen Proofreader: Kit Tosello Owner: J. Louis Mullen The Nugget is mailed to residents within the Sisters School District; subscriptions are available outside delivery area. Third-class postage: one year, $70; six months (or less), $45. First-class postage: one year, $110; six months, $80. Published Weekly. ©2022 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is pro- hibited. All advertising which appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. assumes no liability or responsibility for information contained in advertisements, articles, stories, lists, calendar etc. within this publication. All submissions to The Nugget Newspaper aper will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper’s s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially, that all rights are currently available, and that the material in no way infringes upon the rights of any person. erson. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of artwork, photos, or manuscripts. Sisters Shootout! Jasper Jensen battles for two against Summit in Sisters Shootout action over the weekend. PHOTO BY JERRY BALDOCK Speaking out publicly is typically not my usual behavior. However, I felt compelled to comment after reading a series of articles (<City investigating new tourism model,= <Projected growth prompts planning projects,= <Focusing on liv- ability,= and <City snapshot 3 traffic will have to slow down=) authored by cor- respondent Sue Stafford in the February 16 edition of The Nugget. Many thanks to Sue for writing these articles, which inspired me to think deeper about our community and the future of Sisters. In the <City investigating new tourism model= article, Sue interviews Council President Nancy Connolly regarding the Council9s exploration of a Destination Management Organization (DMO) and better harness- ing of the state-mandated Transient Lodging Tax (TLT). Nancy is quoted say- ing, <The goal is not to bring more people, the goal is to bring people who share our culture and values and to provide a sustainable year- round tourism base= and in particular <attracting visi- tors who want an authen- tic experience,= giving the example, <in our case ... a small-town Western experi- ence.= She also mentioned that the Council is also try- ing to assure the <quality of life that attracted people to Sisters.= As I read this article, we were driving into town passing by the new Sisters Woodlands property being developed on the former Forest Service property to the left and the Three Wind Development to the right, wondering how this level of development, in addition to the Hayden Homes develop- ments near the high school, contribute to the <small-town Western experience= to be marketed with the proposed DMO. One also must won- der about summer traffic that residents, and the visitors anticipating a <small-town experience= attracted by the DMO marketing plan, will experience once these proj- ects are completed. The <Projected growth prompts planning projects= article delves into Sisters9 population growth projec- tions, anticipated new resi- dents, required housing, and Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) pressures. The article cites an anticipation of 1,100 new housing units in addi- tion to those <already in the pipeline.= The article identi- fies UGB pressures indicat- ing the city is approaching <build-out of its existing [available] land= making it difficult to <accommodate the 1,100 housing units under existing circumstances.= The UGB pressures, described as <grow up= or <grow out= while <maintaining the city9s quality of life= lead to pos- sible future consideration of UGB expansion to preserve the small-town Western experience and to provide housing for an anticipated additional 1,026 residents with the city limits. I look forward to future articles that will address water availabil- ity and infrastructure issues, especially given current summer traffic conditions and water availability during long-term drought and dry wells recently reported. In <Focusing on liv- ability= Connolly notes that <with a DMO, allocation of TLT (Transient Lodging Tax) could be focused on support- ing a year-round program that correlates with our com- munity values and poten- tially providing a future com- munity amenity.= She states that in the past TLT funds have been turned over to the Chamber to use for tour- ism. It would be interesting to see in future articles how the Chamber has used these funds in the past to promote tourism, and how they might be leveraged in the future to promote additional tourism targeted at visitors anticipat- ing enjoying a small-town Western experience. She notes that <Creating a DMO gives Council another way to help create a year-round pro- gram that benefits residents and tourists [while] ensuring we reach visitors with shared cultural values= in the same paragraph that describes the benefits of reduced speed on all city streets. Safety provided by reduced speed is important but also raises the question of increased congestion in the setting of promoting increased visita- tion with a DMO funded by leveraging TLT funds. These comments are presented respectfully by someone who loves this town and surrounding area. Growth and development are intertwined issues that every small town faces sooner or later. This series of articles caused me to be concerned about our town. Embarrassingly, it made me <pull my head out of the sand= and look at things a bit differently. Perhaps that is the measure of good writ- ing and journalism. I for one am thankful, because it caused me to do some addi- tional reading and research. It caused me to become a bit more informed, which is the effect I hope many will expe- rience when reading these, and future, articles pertain- ing to the growth and devel- opment of Sisters. Views expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.