The Nugget Vol. XLV No. 16
POSTAL CUSTOMER
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
www.NuggetNews.com
Wednesday, April 20, 2022
Competing in new Sisters Rodeo event By Ceili Cornelius Correspondent
Brooke Blevins grew up around horses in Central Oregon. Being surrounded by horses at a young age, she always knew she wanted to pursue professional riding and rodeo. Her grandma got her on horseback when she was in diapers. She began riding around the house and trail riding and eventually ended up working on barrel racing and pole bending – both rodeo events. “As I got more confident in events on horseback, I decided I wanted to further build up my confidence and do more with it and get into rodeo,” she said. Pole bending is a timed event that features a horse and rider running a weaving or serpentine path around six poles arranged in a line. Blevins also got into goat tying, which is a version of
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Brooke Blevins will compete in the first-ever running of Breakaway Roping at the Sisters Rodeo in June. The local competitor lists this as her best rodeo event. breakaway roping, but … a main event and got super tie-down roping, but the calf with goats. high-key and knew I could is not thrown and tied. The “I then got into true succeed in it,” she said. lasso rope breaks away when breakaway roping and absoBreakaway roping is a the roped calf stretches it lutely loved it and realized timed event in the same I wanted to pursue this as family as team roping and See RODEO on page 29
Forest-dwelling raises safety concerns By Bill Bartlett Correspondent
On September 8, 2020, arsonists set a fire near the dog park in the city of Ashland in Southern Oregon, leading to the destruction of over 3,000 structures. Surprisingly Ashland was spared, as the fire, fueled by once-in-a-lifetime winds, raced westward along the Bear Creek Greenway bike path and wiped out half of the towns of Talent and Phoenix. The fire was abetted by a second arson fire in Phoenix which merged with the Almeda (Ashland) fire. Three persons died in the fires. One arsonist was convicted and two suspects remain at large. A fourth pleaded guilty and is serving a four-year sentence for setting his car on fire a few miles southeast of Ashland on the same day and time as the Almeda fire. A commonality of all four arsonists is that they lived intermittently in the woods
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surrounding Ashland. Hiking through or driving by the Deschutes National Forest in Sisters is raising flags among citizens and trail users concerned about safety — especially the risk of fire. Residents raised concern about the potential for wildfire at a recent Forest Service open house (see story, page 10; Letters to the Editor, page 19). On any given day, 40 to 50 campsites can be found in the surrounding woods, occupied not by weekend, recreational campers, but by long-term occupants. The majority are homeless — or houseless as is the preferred term of social workers on the front lines working to identify people living in the woods. These workers are assessing the needs of the houseless, while offering what little aid and services there are. A man who calls himself “Leroy” (not his real name, See CAMPING on page 31
PRE-SORTED STANDARD ECRWSS U.S. POSTAGE PAID Sisters, OR Permit No. 15
Funding will confront wildfire crisis A major infusion of cash will bolster local efforts to face down the annual crisis of wildfire in the West. The Forest Service announced $131 million in funding last week to begin implementation of “Confronting the Wildfire Crisis: A Strategy for Protecting Communities and Improving Resilience in America’s Forests,” including $29.1 million in funds directed to increasing treatments on two landscapes in the Pacific Northwest — in central Washington and here See WILDFIRES on page 29
City has new code compliance officer By Sue Stafford Correspondent
Central Oregon native Jacob Smith has assumed the duties of Code Compliance Officer (CCO) for the City of Sisters. This is a new staff position. Smith comes to his job in Sisters after working for the City of Redmond for 15 years, 13 of those as the code compliance officer, which was a new position in Redmond when he started. He built the program from the ground up, which is what he will be doing in Sisters. During his time in Redmond, Smith reported there were 15,000 code violations with a 96-percent voluntary compliance rate. He was attracted to the position in Sisters because he likes small towns and the challenge of establishing a new program. Redmond has grown larger over Smith’s 15 years there, and he is happy to be working in a smaller town now. His supervisor at City Hall will be Community Development Director Scott Woodford, with whom Smith
PHOTO BY SUE STAFFORD
Jacob Smith has been hired as the first code compliance officer for the City of Sisters. shared an office at Redmond City Hall for two years when they both worked there. A graduate of Western Oregon University in Monmouth with a degree in law enforcement/criminal justice, Smith’s first job was briefly at Deer Ridge Correctional Institution in Madras, before any prisoners were there. He quickly realized that wasn’t for him and became the community
service officer in Redmond for two years before the opportunity arose to become the city’s first CCO. Smith has been happy to stay in Central Oregon, having been born in Prineville and raised in Redmond. He and his wife and son live in Crook County. His wife teaches school in Redmond, and his son attends school See SMITH on page 28
Letters/Weather................ 2 Announcements................12 Entertainment..................13 At Your Service............ 15-18 Classifieds.................. 26-28 Meetings........................... 3 Fun & Games.....................12 Sisters Country Birds........14 Crossword . ..................... 23 Real Estate................. 28-32