The Nugget Newspaper // Vol. XLV No. 26 // 2022-06-29 by Nugget Newspaper

The Nugget Vol. XLV No. 26

POSTAL CUSTOMER

News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

www.NuggetNews.com

Wednesday, June 29, 2022

The neighbors in the forest

Explore Sisters documents approved

By Bill Bartlett Correspondent

Brandi Gregor is a veteran, having proudly served in the Oregon National Guard. She moved to Sisters a while back and has taken up residence alongside FS Road 100, more or less behind Ponderosa Lodge, within easy distance, aided by her walker, to Mainline Station and Ray’s Food Place. She sat for a lengthy interview with The Nugget last week just outside her newish tent and star-spangled banner camp chair. She showed a range of emotions from a flash of anger when she misunderstood a question to tears to moments, a few, of joy. But none of fear. She’s been houseless for years, bouncing between Prineville, Salem, and Bend, and currently, Sisters. When asked “why Sisters?” her reply was instant and mirrored that of the three other nontraditional residents interviewed that day: nice people here. “Nobody yells at me or curses at me or harasses me,” she said. “In Salem I’d get kicked out of stores or run out of restaurants, even if I was buying stuff. Here, if

By Sue Stafford Correspondent

Correspondent

Fire Chief Roger Johnson of Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District is vigilant in an effort to catch sparks of what he thinks might be undue concern among Sisters Country property owners as to their potential cost of hardening their dwellings to mitigate fire risk. Oregon Senate Bill 762 is a $220 million sweeping legislation that deals with a wide range of wildfire issues. Some advocates have raised red flags about potential costs. Johnson was particularly uneasy about the testimony of one witness before the

Inside...

so houseless camped off the spur road, and they mostly get along. She scolds those who are poor housekeepers

Sisters will soon have a new organization in charge of tourism. The Sisters City Council voted last week to approve the organizational documents (articles of incorporation and bylaws) for Explore Sisters, a new destination management organization (DMO), that will strive to balance community needs with fostering the evolution of the local tourism economy. Sisters is often referred to as the gateway to Central Oregon. However, Sisters is no longer a place to just stop for gas and food on the way to someplace else. In truth, Sisters has become the destination for many visitors who come for outdoor recreation, special events, shopping and dining, and family vacations. Sisters is also home,

See NEIGHBORS on page 21

See EXPLORE on page 22

PHOTO BY BILL BARTLETT

Brandi Gregor at her campsite near town. I’m a little short at checkout, the stores or other customers make up the difference.” She doesn’t panhandle, living off a small, monthly Medicaid check.

Fire officials weigh in on wildfire bill By Bill Bartlett

PRE-SORTED STANDARD ECRWSS U.S. POSTAGE PAID Sisters, OR Permit No. 15

Senate hearings, upon which The Nugget reported last week, that new construction requirements could add as much as $100,000 to the cost of a new home or the remodeling of an existing structure in high-risk locations. The chief referenced the April 2020 Wildfire Mitigation Advisory Committee (WMAC) Report prepared by Deschutes County Community Development Department, of which he is a committee member: “Comparing costs from a standard single-family residential dwelling to one built to comply with the R327 standards ranged from See BILL on page 27

She has a cell phone, but that day it was off. She didn’t have enough money to cover it until her next check. For the most part, she knows her neighbors, the dozen or

Firefighting from 10,000 feet By Bill Bartlett Correspondent

Wildland firefighting is dangerous and dirty work, with every imaginable hazard beyond the fire — falling limbs, toppling trees, smoke inhalation, fall, and poisonous snake bites, to name a few. While most firefighting is done on the ground at close range, it’s the support of aircraft that is often the deciding factor of controlling the fire. Sisters Country residents are no strangers to wildland fires or the sight of aerial tankers and helicopters dropping retardant or water on the flames. It can be a comforting sign when air support arrives to lend a hand. Fortunately, the support comes from nearby

PHOTO BY BALLEN HESS

Air tankers are a critical asset in battling major wildfires. Redmond Air Center, requiring less than a 10-minute flight time. Established in 1964, the Center is often

assumed to function only as a tanker base. The Air Tanker See WILDFIRES on page 30

Letters/Weather ............... 2 In the Pines....................... 6 Entertainment .................13 Fun & Games ................... 22 Classifieds................. 25-26 Meetings .......................... 3 Announcements...............12 Stars & Stripes ........... 15-18 Crossword ...................... 24 Real Estate .................27-32

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

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Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writerʼs 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.

Thank you

To the Editor: On June 23, I experienced a serious laceration to my hand at the Sisters Recycle Center. Several people stepped up to assist staunch the bleeding until the paramedics arrived; they were all selfless, compassionate, and very helpful. The paramedic team was equally helpful. I ended up driving myself to the Redmond

hospital. Eight stitches later I’m as good as new. Thank you all. Art Samson



Stop watering lawns

To the Editor: I currently reside in the Hayden Homes See LETTERS on page 29

Sisters Weather Forecast Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

June 29 • Mostly Sunny

June 30 • Sunny

July 1 • Mostly Sunny

July 2 • PM Thunderstorms

80/47

84/51

84/52

79/52

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

July 3 • Mostly Cloudy

July 4 • Partly Cloudy

July 5 • Mostly Sunny

71/50

69/47

76/50

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: Janice Hoffman 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 prohibited. 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 will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper’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. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of artwork, photos, or manuscripts.

Summer solstice...

A true pro-life movement By Cliff Brush Guest Columnist

Now that the Supreme Court has, as expected, overturned Roe v. Wade, anti-abortion activists have a choice to take their movement in one of two directions: from pro-birth to forced birth, or to pro-life. Where exceptions for incest and rape are removed, pro-birth will transition to forced-birth. Enforcement could require extreme electronic and other monitoring of individuals, as happens in China. Prosecutions could target not only abortion providers, but also friends, family members, or anyone else who gave aid or comfort to the person seeking the abortion. The forcedbirth movement might then declare its work done and move on. But a fully lived life just begins at birth. A truly pro-life movement will recognize and act on that fact. A true pro-life movement would turn away from persecutions or prosecutions and toward incentives. It would admit the Court’s decision will be hardest on those who can least afford it. It would insist on public policies and funding intended to give each infant child opportunities to thrive and grow into a rewarding and successful life. A true pro-life movement would support its pro-family politics with taxpayer- or employer-funded programs, including these: pre- and post-natal medical care, including ongoing pediatric care; postpartum depression care; pregnancy loss bereavement time; maternity and paternity leave time measured in months, not weeks, so parents can properly nurture and get to know their newborn; child daycare when parents choose to return to work. It would support parental leave to take care of injured or sick children; equally high-quality and well-funded education programs across all zip codes; free public school meal programs, after-school and summer programs, and

waivers of extracurricular fees; access to contraception to reduce or eliminate the need for abortions. But pro-life responsibilities don’t end there. Research based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data indicates that in 2020 firearm injuries became the leading cause of death among American children, passing motor vehicle accidents as the top cause. Legislators should pass or strengthen gun ownership responsibility laws to protect children from accidental or intentional death from firearm injuries, including by suicide. They should also act to ensure asthma and other medications remain available to children who need them. If a critical but lowprofit asthma or other medication or class of medications begins to go out of production, a combination of federal and state regulations and incentives could keep it in supply and affordable for all families. Of course, there will be opposition to doing anything beyond banning abortions. Some will argue paid supports for post-Roe newborn and their families are unjustified and unaffordable welfare payments. Reasonable means tests would help counter that complaint. So would improvements to child support payments and collections. But this is the financial bottom line: A true prolife movement recognizes its cause has a cost, and is willing to pay it. However, others might say their God has a plan for each born child, and that no public benefits should intervene to alter it. But suppose the ultimate plan is to get answers to two questions: Was the pro-life movement committed to supporting a full life for children and their families? Or was the movement’s purpose to force births and then avoid, ignore, or deny responsibility for those children? In that case, on a judgment day, the decider would want to know and weigh the answers to those questions.

Views expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.

Got a great photo of life in Sisters Country?

Participants in the annual solstice walk at the Sisters Labyrinth raised their hands toward the sun on the longest day of the year, June 21. PHOTO BY TL BROWN

Send your high-resolution photo to editor@nuggetnews.com.

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

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Celebration honors community champions By Sue Stafford Correspondent

PHOTO BY KELLI CARTER

“Grease” was featured in the Sisters Dance Academy spring performance.

Sisters dancers hold spring performance The Sisters Dance Academy held their 13th Annual Spring Dance Performance on Saturday, June 18 at Sisters High School. This year the dance studio’s theme was “Movies, Musicals, and Masterpieces” and brought some iconic pieces to the stage, including “Grease,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “Saturday Night Fever,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Willy Wonka,” and “Cars,” to name a few. There were approximately 165 dancers who performed, ranging in ages

three to adult, performing in a variety of dance styles from hip-hop to ballet. “This performance was such a magical show to create,” said Lonnie Liddell, owner and director of the studio. “Each dance number and each performer brought a special magic to the stage that was wonderful to share with those in attendance.” The dance academy had six graduating seniors, many of whom have danced 10 or more years with the studio. These dancers are Vanessa Hale, Rachel Lilley, Hope Beckwith, Emily Huber,

Brooke Liddell, and Kailey Mannhalter. “These six dancers have left a huge impact upon the dance studio and their legacy will be remembered for many years to come,” Liddell said. The dance academy will hold a variety of summer classes and camps and is looking forward to kicking off a new season of dance with fall registrations opening August 1. Visit www. danceinsisters.com for more information on how to participate in the Sisters Dance Academy’s program.

The weather on the first day of summer, June 21, was perfect for the Community Celebration sponsored by Citizens4Community (C4C) and the City of Sisters at Creekside Park. After a very soggy spring, the sun was out, there was no wind, and the temperature was just right. A popular spot in the sun where people gathered offered an assortment of cookies, slices of juicy watermelon, and fresh lemonade. Over in the shade were tables with materials and project information from

the City, the Sisters Vision Project, the Upper Deschutes Wa t e r s h e d Council (UDWC), C4C, and the Public Works Department. The highlight of the afternoon was the announcement of Community Champions who were honored for their contributions to the community. Mayor Michael Preedin began the program by thanking all the City staff for their ongoing quality and quantity of work on behalf of the citizens of Sisters. He then reminded the assembled residents that “the City (and city) runs on volunteers,” including City Council, See CELEBRATION on page 14

Sarver will fill school board spot By Charlie Kanzig Correspondent

The Sisters School Board selected Asa Sarver to fill the vacancy created by Don Hedrick’s resignation, at a special meeting held Thursday, June 23. The result came a week after the Board deadlocked on the initial vote due to board member David Thorsett’s absence. At the initial meeting last week Sarver and Josette Johnson each received two votes. The third applican t , R o d n e y C o o p e r,

received no votes. At the outset of the meeting, Hedrick asked to say a few words for the record, to express his appreciation to the board and the community as a whole. “I would like to thank the rest of the Board; it’s been a privilege to work with all of you. Keep up the good work that we have started. I also want to publicly thank all the people who have sent me cards and emails, and so forth. I have appreciated See SARVER on page 28

SISTERS AREA MEETING CALENDAR Sisters Astronomy Club 3rd Tuesday, 7 p.m., SPRD. 541-549-8846. Al-Anon Mon., noon. / Thurs., 10 a.m., Sisters Bridge Club Thursdays, 12:30 Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church. Heartwarmers (fleece blanketmakers) p.m. at Sisters Community Church. 541-610-7383. 2nd & 4th Tuesdays, 1 p.m., Sisters City Email sistersbridge2021@gmail.com. Alcoholics Anonymous Thurs., 7 p.m., Hall. Materials provided. 541-408-8505. Sisters Caregiver Support Group 3rd Tues., 10:30 a.m., Sisters Episcopal Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration Hero Quilters of Sisters Thursday, Church. 541-771-3258. / Sat., 8 a.m., Episcopal Church of the 1 to 4 p.m. 541-668-1755. Transfiguration / Mon., 5 p.m., Shepherd Sisters Cribbage Club Please call for Citizens4Community, Let’s Talk of the Hills Lutheran Church / Big Book details. 541-923-1632. 3rd Monday, 6 to 7:30 p.m. RSVP at study, Tues., noon, Shepherd of the citizens4community.com Sisters Habitat for Humanity Board Hills Lutheran Church / of Directors 4th Tuesday, 6 p.m. Military Parents of Sisters Meetings Gentlemen’s meeting, Wed., 7 a.m., Location information: 541-549-1193. Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church / are held quarterly; please call for details. Sisters Kiwanis Thursdays, 541-388-9013. Sober Sisters Women’s meeting, Thurs., 7 to 8:30 a.m., Brand 33 Restaurant at noon, Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Oregon Band of Brothers – Sisters Aspen Lakes. 541-410-2870. Church / Step & Tradition meeting, Fri., Chapter Wednesdays, 11:30 a.m., noon, Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Sisters Parent Teacher Community Takoda’s Restaurant. 541-549-6469. Church. 541-548-0440. SAGE (Senior Activities, Gatherings 2nd Tuesday, 6:30 p.m. at Sisters Central Oregon Fly Tyers Guild & Enrichment) Monday-Friday, 11 a.m. Saloon. 541-480-5994. Sisters Parkinson’s Support Group For Saturday meeting dates and to 4 p.m. at Sisters Park & Recreation 2nd Thurs.,1 p.m. Sisters Library. location, email: steelefly@msn.com. District. 541-549-2091. 541-668-6599 Central OR Spinners and Weavers Sisters Aglow Lighthouse Sisters Red Hats 1st Friday. Guild One Saturday per month, Jan. 4th Saturday, 10 a.m., meeting by Location information: 541-848-1970. thru Oct. For schedule: 541-639-3217. Zoom. 503-930-6158. Sisters Rotary 1st and 3rd Tuesdays, Sisters Area Photography Club Council on Aging of Central Oregon Noon, Aspen Lakes. 541-760-5645. 2nd Wednesday, 3:30 p.m., at Senior Lunch Tues., Wed., Thurs Sisters Trails Alliance Board every Sisters Community Church. 12:30-1 p.m. Sisters Community other month, 5 p.m. varies from 541-549-6157. Church. 541-480-1843. in-person to zoom meetings Contact East of the Cascades Quilt Guild 4th Sisters Area Woodworkers info@sisterstrails.org in advance for 1st Tuesday, 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday (September-June), Stitchin’ meeting info. 541-231-1897. Post. All are welcome. 541-549-6061.

BOARDS, GROUPS, CLUBS

Go Fish Fishing Group 3rd Monday, 7 p.m. Sisters Community Church. All ages welcome. 541-771-2211.

Sisters Veterans Thursdays, noon, Takoda’s Restaurant. 541-903-1123. Three Sisters Irrigation District Board of Directors 1st Tuesday, 4 p.m., TSID Office. 541-549-8815. Three Sisters Lions Club 2nd Thursday, 6:30 p.m., Spoons Restaurant. 541-419-1279. VFW Post 8138 and American Legion Post 86 1st Wednesday, 6:30 p.m., Sisters City Hall. 541-903-1123. Weight Watchers Thursdays, 8:30 a.m. weigh-in, Sisters Community Church. 541-602-2654.

SCHOOLS Black Butte School Board of Directors 2nd Tuesday, 3:45 p.m., Black Butte School. 541-595-6203 Sisters School District Board of Directors One Wed. monthly, SSD Admin Bldg. See schedule online at www.ssd6.org. 541-549-8521 x5002.

CITY & PARKS Sisters City Council 2nd & 4th Wednesday, 6:30 p.m., Sisters City Hall. 541-549-6022.

Sisters Park & Recreation District Board of Directors 2nd & 4th Tuesdays, 4:30 p.m., SPRD bldg. 541-549-2091. Sisters Planning Commission 3rd Thursday, 5:30 p.m., Sisters City Hall. 541-549-6022.

FIRE & POLICE Black Butte Ranch Police Dept. Board of Directors Meets monthly. 541-595-2191 for time & date. Black Butte Ranch RFPD Board of Directors 4th Thursday, 9 a.m., Black Butte Ranch Fire Station. 541-595-2288. Cloverdale RFPD Board of Directors 3rd Wed., 5:30 p.m., 67433 Cloverdale Rd. 541-548-4815. cloverdalefire.com. Sisters-Camp Sherman RFPD Board of Directors 3rd Tuesday, 5 p.m., Sisters Fire Hall, 541-549-0771. Sisters-Camp Sherman RFPD Drills Tuesdays, 7 p.m., Sisters Fire Hall, 301 S. Elm St. 541-549-0771.

This listing is for regular Sisters Country meetings; email information to beth@nuggetnews.com

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

Diverse gardens open for quilt tour By Sue Stafford Correspondent

The 25th Annual Quilts in the Garden Tour on Thursday, July 7, opens five very different and lovely gardens and two houses with stunning views, one nestled in the trees, to the public. Ticket holders can take a self-guided tour through the properties and stop for lunch at the Sisters Community Garden. Lee and Jodi Krohn built their house four years ago on a lovely wooded lot on Wapato Loop, with Whychus Creek forming their rear property line. Jodi’s love of gardening is evident from the minute you pull up in front. The large front berm is covered with a wide array of evergreens, shrubs, perennials, and grasses. The lush green lawn is Lee’s domain. The backyard, which visitors will reach by going through the greatroom in the house, is an oasis of green and many brightly colored flowers and foliage. Inviting pathways beckon you to follow where surprise islands of plants await. One path off the back deck leads to a gathering spot on the creek bank; another curves around the side of the house. Jodi received her love of gardening from her parents and grandparents and is passing it on to her two granddaughters, who lend a hand in the yard. She describes her handiwork as “Grandma’s Garden.” While designing the garden, Jodi walked through her Buck Run neighborhood to scout plants in her neighbor’s yards that seemed to grow well in our high desert environment, as her former yards had been in southeast Portland. The main floor of the Krohns’ 2,600 sq. ft. home will be open for the tour, where visitors will be able to see the cedar finishes, rustic hickory table and doors, and an eye-catching juniper mantle over the stone fireplace. Jodi’s grand piano provides a hint of her musicality. The large glass doors provide a view into the backyard. “I love rocks,” explained local glass artist Suzie Zeitner, whose live/work property in Sun Ranch will be part of the tour. Gazing out the large windows from inside the house, the eye is drawn to the mountains in the distance and then settles on the large berm where a recirculating waterfall tumbles over rocks into a fishpond, surrounded by large irises. At the edge of the pond is a birdbath made from an old farm disc, just one of many art pieces created out of scrap metal from Swift and

McCormick in Redmond and Suzie’s handcrafted glass. Everywhere you look, front and back, be prepared to spy colorful glass art. The backyard fence, like the one around the neighboring Grand Peaks neighborhood, is constructed from scrap metal Suzie has found. The dirt for her berms came courtesy of Sisters friends Marcus Peck and Art Blumenkron to create varying topography on the flat one-acre lot. Zeitner admits she has always aspired to be a master gardener, but her creativity and love of beauty more than make up for any lack of formal horticultural training. She also has the help of her partner, Paul Webber, who does a good deal of the yardwork. Her glass studio, where she creates her art, is located on one end of the house. Inside the house are surprising touches, like the concrete floor, the unique front door, and the amazing master bath shower, as well as the impressive fireplace. The gardens created by Monica Tomosy and Jim Green on their Fir Street property are a living classroom on biodiversity, planted with over 70 species of mostly native plants, 20 for which permits were required to take them from their native habitat. They use no fertilizer and no pesticides. Jim’s and Monica’s mutual interests in nature brought them together 15 years ago. A graduate of Oregon State University, Jim studied wildlife science and worked for Oregon Department of Fish

and Wildlife for years. As a child, he had baby hamsters as well as snakes that got loose in the house. Monica earned her undergrad degree in biology and a master’s in natural resources. For 33 years she worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Forest Service. Be sure and look for the Acopia Bird Savers on the house that prevent birds from colliding with the windows. Information on them will be available on the tour. The entire yard, front and back, is planted in ecological zones, with plants in separate communities to target the birds who commonly frequent each zone. In this Garden of Eden, everything has been done for the wildlife – birds, insects, and amphibians (yes, there’s a salamander). The front southeast corner, with the most sun, is an Eastern Oregon desert environment with sagebrush, California poppies, and cacti, complete with a cow skull found in Brothers. The Wetlands collects water off the roof into a shady area near the house where there are reeds and sedges. A stock tank

PHOTO BY SUE STAFFORD

The garden of Lee and Jodi Krohn will be featured on the Quilts in the Garden Tour July 7. water feature provides a place for birds to drink and bathe. The north side is the Western Forest, which is shady, cooler, and moister, with Douglas fir, larch, hemlock, dogwood, bleeding heart, and ferns. This area requires drip irrigation only once a week. A strip along the driveway is called the Darwinian Garden, the site of “survival of the fittest” plants. Jim explained that three species made it into the yard for strictly sentimental reasons — lilacs, peonies, and blueberries. Everything else was planted with intention — fruit and nectar for the birds, pollen for the insects. At the time of the visit by The Nugget, the property was

ORDER ONLINE for takeout:

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home to seven families of birds. The caterpillar larva in the trees help feed the baby birds. The backyard, behind the gate, is planted with what the deer like to eat, so it is safely fenced in. There is also space for badminton and cornhole on a small patch of lawn. There are more zones to see on this property, which was purchased in 2007 because of the trees. Only two had to be removed to build the house in 2017, after 10 years of planning. A limited number of $20 tickets for the tour are still available at www. sistersgardenclub.com and at The Gallimaufry, 111 W. Cascade Ave.

541-588-6245

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AUTO • HOME • LIFE • BUSINESS

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

‘Hawaiian Mike’s’ fight to recovery By Cody Rheault Correspondent

Translucent tubing and medical bands protrude from the wrist as Micheal Ayalon grips the handrail of his hospital bed in the fight of his life. In his fifth-floor room, he sifts through his foggy memory to recount the moments leading up to this. Now seven surgeries deep, they’ve begun to blur together as the days slowly tick by. Better known as “Hawaiian Mike,” he manages to smile through the battle, keeping an ever-positive spin on a tragic turn of circumstances. He uses the Hawaiian term ohana, meaning family, to get through the days. “They need me, and I need them,” he says. And that carries him through the unknown. On Wednesday, June 7, Mike was diagnosed with kidney failure and necrotizing fasciitis, a rare and dangerous bacterial infection that requires surgery and intravenous antibiotics. The night before his health plummeted, he was working his night shift at Fred Meyer restocking shelves. A nagging

pain in his left ankle crept up. He eased it with ibuprofen, and finished the eight-hour shift. The next morning he came home and took his kids to school. The swelling in his foot had intensified, and he had to use scissors to remove his sock. “My foot was a range of colors from blues, purples to reds,” he said. His wife rushed him to urgent care, where the doctor urged him to go to the emergency room instead. At St. Charles Bend, he was quickly diagnosed with a life-threatening infection. Mike was rushed into surgery, where doctors spent hours surgically removing and cleaning the infection that had taken over his entire left leg. In surgery, his blood pressure plummeted. Doctors fought to maintain his vitals and placed him on a ventilator and under ICU care. More surgeries followed — three within 72 hours. It was a rollercoaster of complications, he explains. “I thought I would lose my leg, or my life,”he said. “It was terrifying.” He immediately thought of his family, ohana: his two boys, Kainoa, 12 years old,

PHOTO BY CODY RHEAULT

Micheal Ayalon is battling a severe leg infection that has kept him in the hospital for weeks. A GoFundMe page, “Help ‘Hawaiian Mike’ on his medical journey,” has been established to help with what will be months of recovery. and Brody, 10 years old, and his wife, Kimberly Goe, and their home and life in Sisters. Mike took a deep breath, and knew regardless of the path ahead he had to make it for them. Since his admission on June 7 he’s undergone seven surgeries and spent three weeks in the hospital. His left leg, tightly bound in clear bandaging and packed gauze, resembles a lightning strike scar tracing a gouged path on a tree. Surgical incisions span the length of his leg, and he’s lost most of its function and mobility. Mike isn’t sure how or

when the infection took place. But he recalls getting a cut to his left ankle back in January 2022 that never fully healed. “Whatever started it, it eventually grew like wildfire,” he said. Although far from recovered, Mike says he’s eager to get back to his family and home in Sisters. He moved from Portland in 2009 and quickly become a figure in the Sisters community. He coaches Sisters Little League baseball and softball, and flag football with Sisters Park & Recreation District. Mike says he has a deeprooted love and passion for

the community, although it’s a drastic change from island life in Hawaii where he was born and raised. And that passion remains one of his driving forces toward his recovery. “But this is no game and not a laughing matter,” he said. “This is reality.” And reality has been a challenge. Father’s Day this year looked different for the Ayalon family. After another surgery, Mike awoke from the anesthesia to his family by his side and his two boys greeting their dad. It wasn’t See HAWAIIAN MIKE on page 9

Saturday July 9, 2022 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Celebrating 47 years of quilting • Quilt exhibits • Quilts for sale • Livestream throughout the day

MORE INFO: WWW.SOQS.ORG

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

In the

PINES By T. Lee Brown

Accidentally Grass-fed The first time I tasted grass-fed beef, it came from an animal that I’d raised myself. Back then, “grassfed beef” wasn’t a thing, as far as teenage-me knew. I bought a calf to raise. I worked with my dad to build fences, shovel manure, and castrate the young bull (ah yes, that’s a column for another day). Sure, our cattle ate grass. Ours was a hobby farm, not a large-scale ranch. Dad was a heavy equipment parts salesman by day. We could never earn a living on our couple dozen head of cattle, our bountiful garden, the goats and eggs, and the outdoor shiitake mushroom farm. In large-scale cattle operations, animals are shoved together, knee-deep in their own manure and mud, sucking down genetically modified corn. Maybe you’ve seen (and smelled) the feedlots, driving down I-5 in California. We did feed our cattle grain sometimes, in the colder parts of winter and the last few months of their lives. Grain fattened them up. Grain was just what you did, since about 1950. Most still do. CAFO culture — factory farming — had taken hold of American agriculture, a tight grip that lines the pockets of many a corporate fat cat.

It’s horrific for the animals and, some believe, for the humans who tend to them. Not to mention the humans who eat the beef. For the moment I will spare you my soliloquy on the health virtues of pastured meats. Unlike those poor feedlot creatures, our cattle were free to roam our 80 acres. Sometimes we’d team up with other small producers and run cattle collectively over leased land with neighbors. That was the situation one autumn when my grandma and her boyfriend, Jess, were visiting. Now, Jess might’ve been over 80 years old, but he was not going to let aging interfere with his driving (one word: terrifying). Nor would such a thing interfere with his insistence on helping round up the cattle, a herd that included my steer. Some of us were on horseback, riding around maybe 200 acres, rounding up cattle. For me, this mostly consisted of staring off into space near the pond while my beautiful half-Arabian, half-Welsh pony Robbie tossed his gorgeously overgrown black mane and expertly dodged and weaved among cows and steers, when we could find some. Robbie had been previously owned by someone who knew what the heck they were doing. Me? Not so much. I suppose a current teenager might spend the whole roundup on their phone. I see that on the trails around here. Anyhoo, the hours passed slowly. Eventually the cattle made their way to Stauffers’ stables, where they were herded into the chute. It’s metal siding that a steer is gently herded into; once he’s in, he can’t turn around. Being snug in the close walls usually keeps him calm; he can’t see distracting or frightening things around him. Coming out the other end of the chute, the steer would

be checked by a veterinarian, treated for worms, separated into the right herd. Well, my steer was not calm in the chute. He freaked out. He was a large animal, a Hereford, and in his violence he kicked wranglers and chute walls alike. Jess got hit in the head, a big bloody wound. Concerned that people and nearby animals would be seriously hurt, our neighbor quickly made the decision to put my steer down on the spot. For those in the city, safely distanced from the chickens and cows and pigs whose products wind up on their plates, not knowing how many birds and bugs and gophers are killed to grow many of their vegan foods, this must seem brutal. It was brutal, and sad, too. But here we were, with an unexpected steer to butcher. My dad explained that I might not make much money, because my steer hadn’t been grain-fattened — and, he said, we couldn’t charge the normal price for this range-fed beef. After all, it would taste different. I argued against this cheapo pricing idea. Eventually we agreed on a compromise. We would sell half at a discount, warning buyers about the meat’s nongrain-fed status. The other half my family would eat at home. And that is how I first tasted 100 percent grassfed, grass-finished beef. I was expecting it to taste bad. Instead — even to a kid spoiled by homemade goat’s milk ice cream and homegrown vegetables, even to a kid who had a fondness for the animal she had helped raise — it tasted extraordinary. Absolutely delicious. Jess recovered from his injury. I didn’t buy another calf the following season, though I still helped out around the farm. Years later, I pay double the price for grass-fed, grass-finished, local meat. It’s still delicious.

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Sisters Folk Festival releases 2022 schedule Sisters Folk Festival (SFF) has released the official performance schedule for the 25th annual Sisters Folk Festival taking place September 30 to October 2 and will release a limited number of single-day tickets on Wednesday, June 29. Thirty-one acts representing many strands of roots music including folk, jazz, bluegrass, and blues are slated to perform at multiple venues around downtown Sisters, with performances and workshops from Friday, September 30 through Sunday, October 2. The full schedule can be found at https:// sistersfolkfestival. org/2022-festival-schedule/. Festival venues include The Belfry, Sisters Depot, The Open Door, Sisters Saloon, Oliver Lemon’s, and a new KidZone at Fir Street Park on Saturday, October 1. Featured festival artists The Milk Carton Kids, Doreen’s Jazz New Orleans, Le Vent du Nord, and many others will perform at the largest two venues located at Village Green Park and Sisters Art Works, with capacities ranging from 1,100 to 1,400 attendees. Three-day all events passes are currently available for purchase at https:// tinyurl.com/SFFticketinfo and are priced at $200 for adults and $85 for youth ages 17 and under. All events

passes provide attendees access to performances and workshops at all seven venues on a first-come, firstserve basis. Free public access will be available to the KidZone at Fir Street Park on Saturday, October 1, and the Community Celebration hosted by Beth Wood on Sunday, October 2 at 10 a.m. at Village Green Park. Single-day passes will be available for purchase beginning at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, June 29. Friday passes are $85 for adults and $40 for youth; Saturday passes are $125 for adults and $60 for youth; and Sunday passes are $75 for adults and $30 for youth. Visit https:// tinyurl.com/SFFticketinfo for more information. The Sisters Folk Festival is no longer requiring mandatory mask wearing or proof of COVID-19 vaccination for event entry. Patrons, staff, crew, volunteers, and performers may continue wearing masks at their personal discretion. It is recommended that high-risk individuals continue to wear masks, including unvaccinated or immunocompromised individuals or those 65 and older with underlying health conditions, since social distancing will not be possible. Follow on Instagram @SistersFolkFestival or Facebook for updates and additional information.

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

Interior to launch mental health program for wildland firefighters By Jacob Fischler & Audrey Dutton Oregon Capital Chronicle

BOISE, Idaho — The U.S. Interior Department will create a health and wellbeing program for wildland firefighters and boost spending on firefighting efforts by $103 million in fiscal 2022, Secretary Deb Haaland said Friday. The additional funding, which Haaland announced at the National Interagency Fire Center, comes as part of the$1.5 billionin last year’s $1.2 trillioninfrastructure lawsigned into law by President Joe Biden that’s meant to address wildfires, which also directed the creation of mental health services for wildland firefighters. Most of the funding, $80.9 million, will be used to broaden and hasten work to manage fuels in fireprone areas and will help the department reach 2 million more acres than it did last year, a roughly 30 percent increase, according to Interior. Another $19.4 million will be used to rehabilitate areas after they’ve burned. The programs are critical now, with climate change making fires frequent and

intense, Haaland said. “One thing is perfectly clear: that climate change will continue to make fires in the West larger and that we must continue to invest in conservation of our ecosystems,” she said. “We must and we will continue to stay coordinated because the reality is that these days … it’s ‘fire years,’ no longer ‘fire seasons.’ “Hotter, drier conditions cause more extreme fire behavior, and the increased frequency of fires in urban areas impacts more homes, businesses, and communities each and every year.” The mental health and wellness program was also a product of the infrastructure law, which compelled Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to create programs to address mental health needs,

including treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. The health program will hire people to respond to critical incidents that require stress management. It will also add health care capacity in four Interior bureaus — Indian Affairs, Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service — to establish a new system of trauma support services focused on early intervention. Officials said the program will augment and better coordinate existing approaches to helping firefighters stay resilient and recover from on-the-job trauma. They expect several millions of dollars of funding from the bipartisan infrastructure bill, but were unable to provide an exact funding amount during a press briefing Friday.

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“We have more support to expand on capacity we already have in the agencies, and that’s what we’re super grateful for,” said Grant Beebe, the fire director for the Bureau of Land Management at NIFC. “So (we’re) not standing up a brand-new program but actually bolstering one that we’ve had some experience with, and great success with, with our firefighters.” In a statement ahead of the announcement, Haaland said the aim “to provide trauma-informed mental health care is critical.” “Wildland firefighters work in incredibly stressful environments that can take a significant toll on their overall health and well-being, as well as on those who love them,” she said. T h e U S D A’s F o r e s t Service employs most federal

firefighters, but about 5,000 work for Interior bureaus. Federal wildland firefightersdo not receive some health benefitsthat are common for those in municipal departments. The Interior Department will also announce $3.1 million for the Joint Fire Science Program, a collaboration with USDA. The funding will support research into firefighter mental health, landscape resiliency, and methods of wildfire prevention. Some funding will also go toward creating a wildfire risk mapping and mitigation tool, which Interior is developing with USDA and the Association of State Foresters. Republished under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 courtesy of https://oregoncapital chronicle.com.

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Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

Finding inspiration in art With a summer breeze rustling through the cottonwoods and the song of Whychus Creek singing in the background, a group of Sisters adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities gathered around a table with a local art teacher, twisting white T-shirts and squeezing a rainbow of colors out of bottles onto their tie-dyeing works. The project throughout the afternoon last Thursday with Sisters Middle School art teacher Judy Fuentes, was one of the Days of Inspiration for community groups hosted at Pine Meadow Ranch Center for Arts and Agriculture (PMRCAA), a working ranch in Sisters, Oregon focused on arts, agricultural, and ecological projects. About 20 disabled adults and their caregivers attended through Sisters Opportunities for Unified Living, or S.O.U.L., a nonprofit working to find affordable, longterm, independent living for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Sisters. According to S.O.U.L., young adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities must move to Bend or Redmond to find affordable homes and be near services that allow independent living, which severely limits their ability to stay connected to family and community in Sisters. The group returned to the ranch for their second Day of Inspiration, following one last summer. The Roundhouse Foundation and PMRCAA created the Days of Inspiration program last year. It is designed to bring local groups of artists, scientists, and educators to spend a day on the PMRCAA working ranch. Visitors have the opportunity to develop relationships and nurture potential collaborations with visiting artists from across the country, engage with the traditional and contemporary craft practices of the ranch, and find inspiration from the natural setting. Fuentes said she

facilitated the art experience Thursday, rather than teaching as she would in a classroom. The day offers many benefits to everyone involved, she said. “It builds social relationships as well as artistic expression, and then it’s just really beautiful,” she said. For instance, one young woman participant last summer was timid, but opened up a bit and danced in the ranch’s historic, centuryold round barn where “Light Chimes,” a whimsical, motion-activated lightand-sound art piece by Sticky Co., a Portland- and Amsterdam-based artist team, is installed. Fuentes heard that the young woman asked her older sister about art camp all winter. “She showed up today as if I’d just seen her last week or something,” said Fuentes. “She was really just open and dancing under the lights. It’s just really, a very present activity. It’s such a gift to stand by the creek, the trees, the breeze, and be in the moment with these folks—it just fills me with joy — it’s magical.” Pine Meadow Ranch Center for Arts & Agriculture strives to bring together

It builds social relationships as well as artistic expression, and then it’s just really beautiful. — Judy Fuentes

PHOTO PROVIDED

Pine Meadow Ranch hosted disabled adults and caregivers for a day of arts activities. individuals from diverse backgrounds and cultures to find creative solutions to unique challenges. It hopes to serve as a platform that fosters the exchange of knowledge between creative people from Central Oregon and beyond. The Days of Inspiration program offers a space where local cultural practitioners can immerse themselves in their creative work and/or research through access to studios, open space, and beautiful scenery at PMRCAA. To apply for Days of Inspiration, groups must be based within a 60-minute drive of the ranch and constitute an official or unofficial group (e.g. cooperative, association, guild, etc.). Applications will be reviewed by a selection committee in the applicants’ field of practice. For information, visit https:// roundhousefoundation. org/pine-meadow-ranch/ days-of-inspiration/.

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Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

HAWAIIAN MIKE: Severe leg infection nearly killed Sisters man Continued from page 5

the Father’s Day he or his family had imagined. Mike estimates two to three months in the hospital, with the guarantee of a very long road to recovery ahead. But he remains determined. “My boys need me. My wife needs me,” he said. He points toward the broad wooden door to his room: “So I’m walking out of here someday.” He expresses enormous gratitude to the staff of St. Charles Bend for their unfailing care and love and to the many members of the community who have stepped up to support him and his family during this time. A GoFundMe page, “Help ‘Hawaiian Mike’ on his medical journey” was started, with the hopes of helping with medical and living expenses. It has raised over $18,000 in 10 days, with a goal of reaching $75,000. His wife’s work and massage business, Rustic Moon Massage, is now their sole source of income, and that has him concerned. A mortgage and increased cost of living has tightened the budget more than ever. “I’m not putting out a sob story, this is real life. I’m one of Sisters’ own,” he said. Not one to ask for help — but instead give it — Mike says it hasn’t been easy to share his struggles. But his condition forced his hand. “It’s OK to ask for help sometimes, even when you don’t want to,” he said. And to those who have already stepped up he says, “From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who has given.” Today, Mike is faced with the looming unknown. The journey is a wave of improvement and backsliding, good days quickly followed by bad days. But what he does know is that his long road to recovery is lined with friends, family, and a spirit to see it through. He keeps the spirit of ohana close to his heart, and the image of family in front of him. Shaking his traditional shaka, the pinky-and-thumb hang-loose sign, he smiles wide and says, “I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m going to walk out of here and be with my family again someday.” To access Hawaiian Mike’s GoFundMe page, scan the QR code below or visit this story online at NuggetNews.com.

Beleaguered health care sector getting $500 M services. Payments for intensive children’s services would jump 36% and the outpatient mental health rate would rise by about 40%. As an example, the rate for peer services – given by people who’ve had mental health or addiction problems – would rise from $17.70 to $24.78 an hour, according to Dave Baden, the health authority’s chief financial officer. There’s only one caveat: The state needs approval from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The federal government pays about twothirds of Medicaid, and states pay the rest. Providers welcomed the increases, but they said they want to see how much rates go up and whether that’s enough to put them on secure footing before applauding. Providers of treatment for substance use disorder say they could use a big boost. “The (addiction treatment) programs have historically been paid at significantly lower rates than mental health programs,” said Erica Fuller, executive director of Rimrock Trails, a residential addiction treatment center in Prineville.“Rates easily need to be doubled.” Rimrock Trails will get nearly $600,000 from a separate state program to develop the industry’s work force. Rimrock is among 159 providers approved for funding

By Lynne Terry Oregon Capital Chronicle

The Oregon Health Authority is using more than half a billion dollars to support behavioral health and addiction services in the state. The money will shore up an industry that came close to collapse during the pandemic, with the loss of nearly 150 residential treatment slots for adults and adolescents. “These resources are intended to provide immediate support to behavioral health workers and give programs a sustainable base of funding they can count on to make behavioral health treatment more accessible and equitable in Oregon,” said Steve Allen, behavioral health director at the Oregon Health Authority. One of the biggest problems behavioral health providers have faced for decades is low payments from Medicaid, they say. Providers rely on these payments as part of their income to pay staff and keep the lights on. The health authority raised Medicaid rates in January, and now it plans to spend another $155 million to increase them again, starting in July. Tim Heider, a spokesman for the health authority, said it hopes to adopt an increase of about 30% for some mental health

out of the new $132 million appropriation. The median grant is $334,000. The health authority has allocated more than $1 million to more than 33 providers. The top 10 are: • Cascadia Health $7,220,127. • Trillium Family Services $5,914,703. • Lifeworks NW $5,452,727. • Native American Rehabilitation of the Northwest, Inc. $4,939,240. • Options for Southern Oregon$4,229,628. • Central City Concern $3,784,408. • Yamhill County Health and Human Services $3,530,911. • Deschutes County Health Services $3,466,093. • Rogue Community Health $2,914,402. • Northwest Human Services $2,578,560. Another $100 million will be distributed this summer through counties to expand residential treatment and shelters and other housing. Oregon lacks a robust continuum of care system,everything from intense residential care to

outpatient counseling and peer services. Hundreds of patients at the Oregon State Hospital, for example, have ended up waiting to get discharged because they had nowhere to go in the community to receive outpatient services. The state also award $100 million in grants to build residential treatment facilities for people with serious and persistent mental illness. This infusion of cash coincides with grants by a state oversight committee to providers of substance use treatment. The state is creating a Behavioral Health Resource Network in each county as part of Measure 110, passed by voters in November 2020. It decriminalized personal possession of drugs and allocated $150 million a year from marijuana taxes to bolster prevention, treatment, and recovery for people with addiction problems. Republished under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, courtesy of https://oregoncapital chronicle.com.

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Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

Commentary...

A nation in limbo

By Cody Rheault Correspondent

Walking through the sliding glass door of the onceabandoned mall, I felt guilty. The massive structure, formerly a shopping center in northern Krakow, Poland became a refugee center at the outbreak of the Russia and Ukraine war in late February 2022. A barrier of cardboard and rusted shopping carts directed me down a poorly lit hall. A few flickering bulbs lit the way to a stairwell stinking of cigarettes. I came out on the second floor balcony. Old storefronts were converted into rudimentary dorm rooms.

Plywood walls, eight feet high and 50 feet deep, separated the expanse into corridors. A bed placed every six feet, with no privacy. A few people lay on their beds deep in what appeared their own mental wars of attrition with hope. A woman, hands folded behind her head, stared at the ceiling’s florescent lighting. An elderly man with gray hair and hazy eyes sat alone in a plastic chair, the full length of his left arm bandaged and slung. He gave a wide, warm smile followed by a friendly nod as I walked by. A kind gesture, I thought, for someone who I assume just went through hell. I smiled back, gave

PHOTO BY CODY RHEAULT

Refugee, Natalia, gets emotional sharing the generosity she’s received in Poland. a feeble wave and a nod. Down on the main floor a group of kids kicked a ball to each other on the barren linoleum. Their laughter echoed throughout the space. The setting felt dystopian — not a place to call home. I thought of taking a photo in that moment, but it didn’t feel right. Despite my purpose in Poland, to document the plight of displaced Ukrainians, I imagined my loved ones in their place. Taking an image felt like tapping on the glass of a zoo exhibit — inches away but worlds apart, stealing their dignity with a frame. My heart sank, envisioning my wife and daughter living here. Eventually, a kind

PHOTO BY CODY RHEAULT

receptionist in poor English asked me to leave, and I didn’t argue. The war between Russia and Ukraine reached 100 days when I was in Krakow in early June. I was on assignment for Open Bible Churches to travel with their Ukraine missionary to document aid work with photos and videos. I’d spent months, like many Americans, reading the headlines and watching stories coming out of Ukraine, and I was full of anticipation to see some of it firsthand. Poland acted as the first stop for many fleeing Ukraine. A U.N. database states 4 million have crossed the Ukrainian-Polish border since February 24, 2022.

Of those, 1.1 million reside in Poland, while the rest dispersed throughout the Europe. In Krakow, an estimated 320,000 refugees now live, swelling their population by 140 percent. At the onset of the war, Poland was extravagant with their response. People went out of their way to feed and house millions rushing the border. Many refugees had little; most had nothing. We heard stories of Ukrainians fleeing with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. Lines at the border were miles long and processing often took days to weeks in frigid winter conditions. The people responded. Now three months into the war, I saw a nation

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An interview with a young lady (right) who fled Eastern Ukraine. growing impatient. Andrii, a local pastor in Krakow, told us Poland is growing tired of the struggle. To the Polish people it’s no longer seen as a humanitarian crisis, just another war. Most Ukrainians have found housing and jobs or have moved their way throughout Europe. The old shopping mall in northern Krakow once held 4,500 refugees in constant rotation. There were only 300 at the time of my visit. The influx had visibly abated, but the problem of meeting the needs remains. Those needs: settlement, a sense of purpose, and long-term solutions. The documentary process was complicated as we established connections and a schedule. We built rapport with locals and juggled languages. In true documentary fashion, we spent a fraction of our time filming, the rest finding the story and getting ourselves in front of it. I packed light and we moved quickly throughout Krakow filming food distribution centers and housing. I hit record as volunteers loaded a van with food bound for Kyiv. A Polish man volunteered his time to drive the round trip weekly. We heard stories of narrow escapes — convoys rocketed and emotional goodbyes as women left their men behind to fight the war; homes destroyed. These stories were common and horrific, with the reality reflected in their eyes as they retold their stories. A married couple from a town near Kyiv flinched on camera when airplanes flew overhead, an impulsive reaction to months of living in war. They said not a day goes by without air raid sirens blaring. Through the viewfinder of my camera were ordinary people with eyes that wrote a different story. It sounds trite, but not all refugees are what you see on the cover of

The New York Times. They look like you and I, ordinary families with no place to call home. The crisis looks different than the view painted in the media, too. Beyond the bombs is their crisis for tomorrow. Refugees are finding themselves in limbo in a no-man’s-land, somewhere between living and a sense of purpose. As I composed my frame on the faces of women and children in refuge, pulling my camera’s focus on their eyes, their expressions read not hopelessness, but a resilience

A young girl with the colors of Ukraine’s flag painted on her face. to push on. Everyone told us they must hold on to hope no matter how distant it seems. My last day in-country was a day off, so I booked a tour to the AuschwitzBirkenau museum an hour from Krakow. Our tour guide led us through brick complexes once housing Nazi SS command and the horrors within. We were led through a gas chamber, crematoria, and exhibits that will leave a lasting impression and perspective on my life. In Birkenau, I stood in the open expanse between

two sets of railroad tracks, the spot where an SS officer in 1944 determined the fate of millions offloaded from train cars at the gesture of his right thumb. A flick to the right meant work camps; to the left, death in the gas chamber. What remained of the camp was a harrowing example of evil uncorked and poured onto 1.1 million

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men, women, and children, with extreme prejudice on the Jewish people. On January 27, 1945, the Naziheld Auschwitz was liberated by the allied Russian Red Army on the ground where I stood. Six hundred miles to my east, on the frontlines of a new war, Russia was fighting on the premise of what Putin calls “de-Nazification.”

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Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

A N N O U N C E M E N T S Deschutes Public Library Online Discovery Pass Customers can now use the Discovery Pass system to check out a Wilderness Pass, which is now needed when hiking certain trail systems in the Central Cascades from June 15–September 15. Discovery Pass streamlines the system, making it easy for customers to check out available passes online from anywhere they happen to be with internet access. Passes, much like books and other items in the Library’s collection, are limited in number, but viewing available dates is easy with the online system. For more information visit www. deschuteslibrary.org/books/ beyond-the-books.

Friends of the Metolius Interpretive Walks The first walk in the Friends of the Metolius Interpretive Walks series will be held July 2 from 9 to 11 a.m. from Camp Sherman Bridge to Allingham Bridge and back with leader Scott Blau. Learn about the unique riparian habitat of the Metolius ecosystem, explore early Camp Sherman history, and observe changes to the river to enhance fish habitat. Meet near the Camp Sherman Bridge fish-viewing platform at 9 a.m. Free of charge to all interested persons. Children are more than welcome, but dogs are not appropriate. Wear sturdy footwear and bring water. For information call 503730-8034 or 541-595-6439.

Kids & Community at the Sisters Farmers Market Nonprofit organizations Circle of Friends, Seed to Table, and Citizens4Community feature special kids’ activities & information at Sisters Farmers Market this week. Sunday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Fir Street Park. Info: sistersfarmersmarket.com or (541) 904-0134.

Sisters Quilts in the Garden 25th Anniversary Tour Tickets The tour this year is Thursday, July 7. You can now purchase your tickets locally at The Gallimaufry in addition to the Garden Club website www.sistersgardenclub.com. The number of tickets to be sold is limited so please buy your ticket(s) now. To see what else is happening in our Garden Club, please check out our Facebook and Instagram sites. Contact 971-246-0404 for more information.

Lunch & Quilts at Sisters Community Garden Sisters Community Garden is offering Lunch and Quilts in our garden (15860 Barclay Drive) on Thursday, July 7 starting at 11 a.m. The charge will be $15. Lunch will feature 3 types of salads, french bread, a beverage, and a choice of homemade desserts . Many quilts will be hung in the garden against the spectacular backdrop of the Cascade peaks. This lunch is an annual fundraiser powered by Sisters Community Garden volunteers. For more information call 541-588-2370.

Ham Radio Field Day in Central Oregon A large ham radio training event will be held June 25 & 26 at Creekside Park, 504 S. Locust Street from noon to 9 p.m. Everyone is welcome! Field Day is the single most popular on-the-air event held annually in the U.S. and Canada. Each year, thousands of radio amateurs gather to operate from remote locations. Field Day is a picnic, a campout, practice for emergencies, an informal contest and fun! For more information contact Max Vaughan at 541706-1475, hidarg-sec@hidarg.org.

Fourth of July 5k Run and Walk The Rumble on the Runway is back as part of the Fourth of July celebration at Sisters Eagle Airport. Registration opens at 7 a.m. (day of registration only) and the run/walk starts at 8 a.m. $20 per person/$40 per family. Proceeds this year benefit the Sisters High School cross-country team. Prizes to the winning male and female along with raffle prizes. Lots of activities following the race including: pancake breakfast (Rotary Club of Sisters), the Great Rubber Chicken Drop, skydiving presentation, car show, helicopter rides and more! More information can be found at www.sistersairport.com/ events/.

City Of Sisters Community Grants Program Accepting Applications The City of Sisters is seeks to award grants to nonprofit community groups and other entities that meet the grant criteria for the 2022/23 fiscal year. The City will award up to $20,000 in grants for Sisters community projects. Interested organizations should submit a Community Grant application and letter of interest by July 31, 2022, attention Kerry Prosser, City Recorder. Applications are available www.ci.sisters.or.us. For information contact Kerry Prosser at 541-323-5213.

Changing Futures Fundraiser Circle of Friends will be hosting a “Changing Futures” fundraiser at Pole Creek Ranch on Saturday, July 23. It will feature Kristi & The Whiskey Bandits, live and silent auctions, kids’ cook-off, and whiskey tasting by Cascade Spirits! Food and beverages will be provided. For more information contact Karen@ 808-281-2681 or visit www. circleoff riendsoregon.org. Volunteers Needed Furry Friends is looking for volunteers to help with its bottle and can fundraiser drive once a week (Thursday, Friday, or Saturday). It takes about 45 minutes to put donated bottles and cans in our blue fundraiser bags. The bags are processed at our donation drop-off spot on The Nugget porch. The bags are then delivered to the Bottledrop at Ray’s. To volunteer please call 541797-4023 or email info@ furryfriendsfoundation.org. Sisters Pickleball Courts Pickleball courts are now open at the old elementary school tennis courts. Bring your friends and your own water. Parking is available in the school parking lot in July and August (not at City Hall or the SSD administration lots). Organized play, available to everyone, is coming soon! For more information call 209-743-1937.

SOAR! Activity Day An interactive, all-inclusive day for individuals ages 18+ with physical disabilities and chronic medical conditions such as: stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and Parkinson’s. The event includes adaptive activities such as cycling, pickleball, Pilates, yoga, a guided art project, and wheelchair basketball. The purpose of SOAR! Activity Day is to encourage family and caregiver participation, bring together people with common challenges, and offer a safe and supportive environment where they can try out new activities and learn about available opportunities. Saturday, July 9; check-in starts at 9 a.m. at Bend Pavilion, 1001 SW Bradbury, Bend. For more information go to www.destinationrehab.org/ soar or call 541-241-6708.

Sponsor an Impoverished Child from Uganda Hope Africa International, based in Sisters, has children awaiting sponsorship! For information go to hopeafricakids.org or call Katie at 541-719-8727

Founder’s Day Celebration Join Three Sisters Historical Society on Friday, July 15 to celebrate the 121st anniversary of the July 1901 official platting of Sisters. Noon to 2 p.m. at Fir Street Park. There will be old-time music, historical characters, stories, activities for kids, tours of the museum, and a fried chicken picnic. Reservations for the meal are necessary and can be made at threesistershistoricalsociety@ gmail.com or by calling 541-610-6323. There is no charge for this event and it is open to all. Bring your lawn chairs and join the fun! For info call 541-549-1403. Annual Pancake Breakfast by the Camp Hosted by C Sherman Community tioo on Sunday, July Association 3, 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Camp Sherman Community Hall. Adults, $12; ages 5-12, $6; children under 5 are free. All proceeds go to the upkeep and maintenance of the historic community hall. For info call 541-595-6458. Sisters Garden Club Puzzle Sales Thank you to our Sisters Community for supporting our club in helping us sell our 25th Anniversary Edition “Quilts in the Garden” Puzzle. You can currently purchase the puzzle for $20 at the following locations: Metamorphosis Salon & Spa, Fika Sisters Coffee House, Ray’s Food Place, Common Threads, and The Gallimaufry. We are so thankful to these stores for their support. Contact 971-246-0404 for more information. Quilt Show Day Road Closure During the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show on Saturday, July 9, Cascade Ave. will be open. Hood Ave. between Larch and Pine will be closed to through traffic. All north-south streets will be open.

Weekly Food Pantry The Wellhouse Church will have a weekly food pantry on Thursdays at 4:30 p.m. (222 N. Trinity Way) Both drive-through pick-up and shopping-style distribution. are available. 541-549-4184 for information.

PET OF THE WEEK

Humane Society of Central Oregon 541-382-3537

Ayla: Introducing Ayla! This friendly one-yearold female is looking for a forever home to finally call her own. Ayla came to HSCO after a year of adventures in the wild and has quickly settled into her new role as loving companion animal. She adores attention and pets, and will happily return the affection kindly. If you’re ready to open your heart and home to a charming young feline who is ready to be a sweet soul of a house cat, call or come to HSCO and ask about Ayla today! SPONSORED BY

Black Butte Veterinary Clinic 541-549-1837

Please call the church before attending to verify current status of services as restrictions are adjusted.

SISTERS-AREA CHURCHES

or kprosser@ci.sisters.or.us.

Chapel in the Pines Camp Sherman • 541-549-9971 10 a.m. Sunday Worship Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church (ELCA) 386 N. Fir Street • 541-549-5831 10 a.m. Sunday Worship www.shepherdofthehillslutheranchurch.com St. Edward the Martyr Roman Catholic Church 123 Trinity Way • 541-549-9391 5:30 p.m. Saturday Vigil Mass 9 a.m. Sunday Mass • 8 a.m. Monday-Friday Mass The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints 452 Trinity Way • Branch President, 541-420-5670; 10 a.m. Sunday Sacrament Meeting Calvary Church 484 W. Washington St., Ste. C & D • 541-588-6288 10 a.m. Sunday Worship • www.ccsisters.org Seventh-Day Adventist Church 386 N. Fir St. • 541-595-6770, 541-306-8303 11 a.m. Saturday Worship

Baha’i Faith Currently Zoom meetings: devotions, course trainings, informational firesides. Local contact Shauna Rocha 541647-9826 • www.bahai.org or www.bahai.us Wellhouse Church 442 Trinity Way • 541-549-4184 https://wellhousechurch.churchcenter.com 10 a.m. Sunday Worship The Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration 68825 Brooks Camp Rd. • 541-549-7087 8:30 a.m. Ecumenical Sunday Worship 10:15 a.m. Episcopal Sunday Worship www.episcopalsisters.com Sisters Church of the Nazarene 67130 Harrington Loop Rd. • 541-389-8960 www.sistersnaz.org • info@sistersnaz.org 10 a.m. Sunday Worship Sisters Community Church (Nondenominational) 1300 W. McKenzie Hwy. • 541-549-1201 9:30 a.m. Sunday Worship www.sisterschurch.com • info@sisterschurch.com

POLICY: Nonprofits, schools, churches, birth, engagement, wedding, and anniversary notices may run at no charge. Business items do not run on this page. All submissions are subject to editing and run only as space allows. Email nugget@nuggetnews.com or drop off at 442 E. Main Ave. Text must include a “for more information” contact. Deadline is 5 p.m. on Fridays.

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

Lucky Town will rock Hardtails Saturday night The night’s bustin’ open on Saturday, July 2, and the hemi-powered drones will scream down the boulevard to the promised land of Hardtails Bar & Grill in Sisters to catch the final local performance of Lucky Town, Portlands’s legendary Bruce Springsteen tribute band. Tickets are still available at https://www.bendticket. c o m / e v e n t s / 11 9 6 0 4 8 3 4 / lucky-town-incredible-brucespringsteen-tribute. The show starts at 8 p.m., giving patrons plenty of time to ride down to the river and still make it back by showtime. Those who don’t get tickets in advance might just have to let the broken hearts stand as the price you gotta pay. Bruce Springsteen (The Boss) has sold more than 135 million records worldwide and more than 64 million records in the United States, making him one of the world’s best-selling artist of all time. He has earned numerous awards for his See LUCKY TOWN on page 29

TRIBU2... A tribute to

Bono & U2 Sat., July 9, 8 p.m. Online tickets only at Bendticket.com

Open 10 a.m. to midnight Open weekends until 1 a.m.

175 N. Larch St. 541-549-6114 4

hardtailsoregon.com Facebook darcymacey

COME & GET IT!

FOOD TRUCK

Breakfast, lunch, and munchies made from scratch! Wed-Sun 8-2 353 W. Hood Ave. @brunchiesfoodtruck brunchiesfoodtruck @gmail.com

THURSDAY • JUNE 30

The Suttle Lodge Live Music: Brent/Funky Friends Thursday House Band, 6 to 8 p.m., free, all ages. More information at www.TheSuttleLodge.com/Happenings. The Barn in Sisters Live Music: Maita 6 to 8 p.m. Weather permitting. For more information find The Barn in Sisters on Facebook. Food Cart Garden at Eurosports Trivia Night 5:45 to 6:30 p.m. Family-friendly trivia. Free. For additional information call Eurosports at 541-549-2471.

MONDAY • JULY 11

The Suttle Lodge Live Music: Alex Dunn Big Lawn Series, 6 to 8 p.m., free, all ages. More information at www.TheSuttleLodge.com/Happenings.

THURSDAY • JULY 14

FRIDAY • JULY 1

Eurosports Food Cart Garden Car Show 5-7 p.m. bring your cool or vintage car for the free Friday car show. For more information call Eurosports at 541-549-2471. Hardtails Karaoke with KJ Mindy 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. For more information call 541-549-6114. Sisters Depot Live Music: Bill Keale 6-8 p.m. $10 cover. Advance tickets available at www.sistersdepot.com. Hardtails Lucky Town a tribute to Bruce Springsteen, 8 p.m. Summer Tribute Series. Tickets at www.BendTicket.com. Sisters Depot Live Music: Dylan Santiago 6-8:30 p.m. $5 cover. More info at www.sistersdepot.com. The Barn in Sisters Live Music: Brent Alan 6 to 8 p.m. Weather permitting. For more information find The Barn in Sisters on Facebook.

SUNDAY • JULY 3

Fir Street Park Sisters Farmers Market 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Featuring live music, community booth, vendors, kids activities, and more. For info visit www.sistersfarmersmarket.com.

MONDAY • JULY 4

Eurosports Food Cart Garden Car Show & Live Music: Toothpick Shaker 5-7 p.m. Free. Family- and dog-friendly. Bring your cool or vintage car for the car show — or come to see them! For more info call 541-549-2471. Hardtails Karaoke with KJ Mindy 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. For more information call 541-549-6114.

SATURDAY • JULY 16

Hardtails Erotic City a tribute to Prince & The Revolution, 8 p.m. Summer Tribute Series. Tickets at www.BendTicket.com. Sisters Depot Live Music: Jazz Folks Quartet 6-8:30 p.m. $5 cover. More info at www.sistersdepot.com. The Barn in Sisters Live Music: The Lowest Pair 6 to 8 p.m. Weather permitting. For more information find The Barn in Sisters on Facebook.

SUNDAY • JULY 17

Sisters Eagle Airport Rumble on the Runway 7 a.m.-2 p.m. Fly-in and car show, pancake breakfast and more. Full details at www.sistersairport.com. The Suttle Lodge Live Music: Machado Mijiga Big Lawn Series, 6 to 8 p.m., free, all ages. More information at www.TheSuttleLodge.com/Happenings.

Sisters Saloon Live Music: Boomer Country 6 to 8 p.m. All ages. Free. For more information see facebook.com/SistersSaloonAndRanchGrill. Fir Street Park Sisters Farmers Market 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Featuring live music, community booth, vendors, kids activities, and more. For info visit www.sistersfarmersmarket.com.

WEDNESDAY • JULY 6

MONDAY • JULY 18

Black Butte Ranch Live Music: Anvil Blasters 6-8 p.m. Free. On the lawn beside old rec center; bring chairs or a blanket. More info at www.anvilblasters.com.

The Suttle Lodge Live Music: Miguel Hernandez Big Lawn Series, 6 to 8 p.m., free, all ages. More information at www.TheSuttleLodge.com/Happenings.

THURSDAY • JULY 7

TUESDAY • JULY 19

The Suttle Lodge Live Music: Zach Person Big Lawn Series, 6 to 8 p.m., free, all ages. More information at www.TheSuttleLodge.com/Happenings.

WEDNESDAY • JULY 20

FRIDAY • JULY 8

SATURDAY • JULY 9

Downtown Sisters Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show 9 a.m.-4 p.m. 47th annual outdoor quilt showcase. Hundreds of quilts hanging all over town. More information at www.soqs.org. Hardtails TRIBU2 a tribute to Bono and U2, 8 p.m. Summer Tribute Series. Tickets at www.BendTicket.com. The Barn in Sisters Live Music: Laney Jones 6 to 8 p.m. Weather permitting. For more information find The Barn in Sisters on Facebook.

SUNDAY • JULY 10

The Barn in Sisters Live Music: Sun Threaders 6 to 8 p.m. Weather permitting. For more information find The Barn in Sisters on Facebook. The Suttle Lodge Live Music: Skillethead Thursday House Band, 6 to 8 p.m., free, all ages. More information at www.TheSuttleLodge.com/Happenings. Food Cart Garden at Eurosports Trivia Night 5:45 to 6:30 p.m. Family-friendly trivia. Free. For additional information call Eurosports at 541-549-2471.

FRIDAY • JULY 15

SATURDAY • JULY 2

Sisters Home & Garden Tour Quilts in the Garden 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Self-guided tour. Tickets are $20. More information at www.SistersGardenClub.com. The Suttle Lodge Live Music: Silvertone Devils Thursday House Band, 6 to 8 p.m., free, all ages. More information at www.TheSuttleLodge.com/Happenings. The Barn in Sisters Live Music: Quattlebaum Quintet 6 to 8 p.m. Weather permitting. For more information find The Barn in Sisters on Facebook. Food Cart Garden at Eurosports Trivia Night 5:45 to 6:30 p.m. Family-friendly trivia. Free. For additional information call Eurosports at 541-549-2471.

Fir Street Park Sisters Farmers Market 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Featuring live music, community booth, vendors, kids activities, and more. For info visit www.sistersfarmersmarket.com. Sisters Community Church Live Music: Casey & Co. Summer Concert Series on the lawn. 6 p.m. Free (donation to featured nonprofit, Pregnancy Resource Centers, is appreciated). Bring chairs/blanket. Food trucks open at 5 p.m. SistersChurch.com.

Black Butte Ranch Live Music: Anvil Blasters 6-8 p.m. Free. On the lawn beside old rec center; bring chairs or a blanket. More info at www.anvilblasters.com.

THURSDAY • JULY 21

Paulina Springs Books Author reading with Marina Richie 6:30 p.m. More information at www.PaulinaSpringsBooks.com. The Suttle Lodge Live Music: Honey Don’t Thursday House Band, 6 to 8 p.m., free, all ages. More information at www.TheSuttleLodge.com/Happenings. The Barn in Sisters Live Music: Evergrow 6 to 8 p.m. Weather permitting. For more information find The Barn in Sisters on Facebook. Food Cart Garden at Eurosports Trivia Night 5:45 to 6:30 p.m. Family-friendly trivia. Free. For additional information call Eurosports at 541-549-2471. Sisters Art Works Live Music: Rising Appalachia Presented by Sisters Folk Festival. 7 to 9 p.m., doors open at 6 p.m. All ages welcome. More info, 541-549-4979. Tickets at https://aftontickets.com/SFFRisingAppalachia.

FRIDAY • JULY 22

Sisters Depot Live Music: Bob Baker & Brian Odell 6-8:30 p.m. $5 cover. More info at www.sistersdepot.com. Eurosports Food Cart Garden Car Show 5-7 p.m. bring your cool or vintage car for the free Friday car show. For more information call Eurosports at 541-549-2471. Hardtails Karaoke with KJ Mindy 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. For more information call 541-549-6114.

Entertainment & Events Calendar listings are free to Nugget advertisers. Non-advertisers can purchase an event listing for $35/week. Submit items by 5 p.m. Fridays to nugget@nuggetnews.com.

— EVENTS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. —

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

CELEBRATION: Event recognized citizens who elevate Sisters Continued from page 3

Planning Commission, all the various City boards and commissions, as well as all the service organizations, nonprofits, and the schools all of which rely on volunteers for their programs. Former Sisters School District superintendent Steve Swisher, a Sisters resident for 26 years, has made multiple contributions to both Sisters and Deschutes County. He was heavily involved in the Sisters Vision Project and a member of the Vision Implementation Team. He has served on the Deschutes County Planning Commission and has been involved with trails organizations. Sisters District Ranger Ian Reid acknowledged the work being done by some of his U.S. Forest Service staff working with houseless neighbors living in the forest (see related story, page 1). He introduced Chase Kleint and Jeremy Fields, as well as John Soules, who was out working, for their efforts above and beyond their normal duties. They work with the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, Deschutes County Public Health, and City of Sisters to get help and services for those in the forest. “They work to gain compliance with Forest Service regulations with dignity and empathy,” Reid said. Reid himself was honored

for being “a beacon of light” in dealing with the City’s efforts to purchase the East Portal property from the Forest Service, according to City Council President Nancy Connolly. “Ian took a very complex issue (purchasing land from the Forest Service) and facilitated a smooth purchase and sale in a timely fashion. We did the deed transfer last week!” Connolly told the crowd. The portal property will become the site of a mobility hub for the city. Kansas native Elizabeth Kirby is a relative newcomer to Sisters but has jumped in with both feet with her community involvement. She was recognized by C4C for being their key communicator, setting up and maintaining the Community Connections calendar website and the C4C Facebook page. She ran for City Council when she first arrived and has been involved in the Peace Project. Kirby’s family was all in attendance to see her receive the honor, as they were visiting from Lawrence, Kansas. “We love Sisters. We come to visit every year,” they told The Nugget. The UDWC had information on the changes/improvements planned for Whychus Creek in August. They will be doing bank restoration and instream improvements between Creekside Park and the Creekside Campground. The goal of the project is to improve another section of the Whychus to facilitate fish passage in a healthy creek.

Nothing says quality like true hand-forged ironwork

“Your Local Welding Shop” 541-549-9280 | 207 W. Sisters Park Dr. PonderosaForge.com CCB# 87640

THREE PEAKS COMPUTERS

Home of the 15-Minute Free Diagnostic

Laptops •Desktops •PC & Mac •Tablets •Phones •Gaming Systems Repairs •Sales •Custom Builds •Recycle

541-904-4353

625 N. Arrowleaf Trail, Ste. 106, Sisters Hours: Monday-Friday 11-7, Saturday 11-6

Ian took a very complex issue (purchasing land from the Forest Service) and facilitated a smooth purchase and sale in a timely fashion. We did the deed transfer last week! — Nancy Connolly Public Works was handing out devices to encourage water conservation, including an inflatable to place in the toilet tank to reduce the amount of water used with each flush. A dye tablet to go in the toilet bank will show if the water is leaking into the toilet bowl. There was also a low-flow shower head and three faucet aerators. Moisture meters were also available to test the amount of moisture in garden soil, lawns, and potted plants to see if watering is necessary. All items were free of charge. C4C had board members and staff available to explain their programs, provide information on the Sisters Transportation and Ride Share Service (STARS), and ways to volunteer or get involved in activities they sponsor. City staff had information and handouts on wildfire preparedness, the Sisters Vision Project, a summary of new City projects, a brochure on City tree regulations, and a map for people to use to tour all the improvements recently made in the campground.

Folk Festival disperses $9,000 to schools Sisters Folk Festival (SFF) delivered checks totalling $9,000 to Sisters School District as part of their efforts to support music and arts programming in the community. A check for $4,000 was given to the Sisters GRO scholarship fund to be disbursed among seven students; $3,000 went toward the Sisters High

School (SHS) Americana Luthier program; and $1,000 was given to the SHS visual arts program and Sisters Middle School band and choir program, respectively. The SFF continues to work within the District to create opportunities for guest artists, artist residencies, and fund creative clubs to allow free student participation.

PHOTO PROVIDED

Woods teacher Tony Cosby, Sisters High School Principal Steve Stancliff, Sisters Folk Festival Executive Director Crista Munro, and woods teacher Jason Chinchen in the wood shop at Sisters High School after SFF delivered a check for $3,000 in support of the Americana Luthier program.

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

STARS STRIPES

The Nugget Newspaper thanks the businesses who partnered with us to present the Stars & Stripes to our readers. We invite you to proudly display the flag printed on the next page on a wall, window, or door.

Happy Independence Day! THANK YOU, VETERANS! SSpecializing pecializing in in Sisters Properties

541 977 6711 Vernon Stubbs

Veterans, Thank You For Your Service

DAVIS TIRE Serving Sisters Since 1962

Saluting Our Veterans For Their Service!

Central Bark & Groomingdales

188 W. Sisters Park Dr. In Sisters Industrial Park 351 W. HOOD AVE. Open Tues.-Sat., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. | Sun., 1-4 p.m. Closed Monday

541-549-BARK (2275)

Thank you to our forefathers who suffered to ensure our freedom.

WE APPRECIATE YOUR SERVICE, VETERANS!

541-549-1026

541-549-8424 | 290 W. Cascade Ave., Sisters info@mackenziecreekmercantile.com

WELCOME TO ALL VETERANS! SISTERS OUTDOOR QUILT SHOW Saturday, July 9 soqs.org

We Come to You!

541-549-5555 in Sisters, 377 W. Sisters Park Dr. 541-595-3838 Black Butte Ranch

Mobile Techology Service 541-719-8329

Office & Art Supplies • Stationery & Cards Computer Usage & Wi-Fi Print & Copy Services • Scan & Fax Services Packing Services & Supplies • Passport Photos

Luxury Senior Assisted Living 411 E. Carpenter Ln., Sisters | 541-549-5634 www.TheLodgeInSisters.com

541-549-1538 | Fax: 541-549-1811 160 S. Oak St. | sisterspony@gmail.com

SISTERS REPUBLICANS FOR FREEDOM

NWHL WAIVES $1,620 OF LENDER FEES FOR VETERANS!

SISTERSREPUBLICANS@ PROTONMAIL.COM

JENALEE PIERCEY

541-591-5405 • teamjenalee@nwhomeloans.com

Existing System Evaluation Report Major & Minor Septic Repair Annual Inspections & Reports Annual System Cleaning Emergency Visits • Start Up & Report DEQ Reports for Real Estate New or Existing ATT-AX • Low Pressure Sand Filter Contracts

CALL 541-549-1472

NMLS #227765

Celebrating All Veterans Protecting Our Freedoms!

July 4th…A Day to Honor our Veterans!

CCB#76888

5411 904 44 541-904-4422 4422 161 E. Cascade Ave., Ste. C

367 W. Sisters Park Dr.

541-549-3574 www.therapeuticassociates.com/Sisters

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

The flag of the United States is the emblem of our identity as a sovereign nation.

The flag is a symbol of respect, honor, and patriotism. It may be displayed on any day of the year. As a symbol of the country and its people, the flag should be treated with respect and be honored when on display.

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

The flag of the United States is the emblem of our identity as a sovereign nation.

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The T Th he un unanimous nan anim imou o s Decl D De Declaration ecl cla lar arat a io ion off tthe he tthirhe h rhi r teen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing

them with his measures. tth hem iinto nto nt o co ccompliance mp pli lian lian a cee w ith hi ith h is me m asur as urres ures es. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

Sisters Country birds By Douglas Beall Correspondent

When the Spotted Towhee [Piplio Maculatus] is seen, often on low branches or on the ground, its colors are a stunning contrast to all the surroundings. It is a common bird of the thickets and blackberry brambles, seen under bird feeders eating seeds off the ground but never far from cover. They feed mostly on insects, berries, and seeds scratched from leaf litter. In April the female builds the nest using soft grasses, twigs, and animal hair. While she finishes the nest, the male Spotted Towhee spends up to 90 percent of his mornings

singing territorial songs. Three to six pale, creamy grey eggs are laid and incubated for 12-14 days. Both parents feed the nestlings, which fledge in nine to 11 days. In 30 days the young leave the area and begin their adult life. The Spotted Towhee, known in the South as a “chewink,” is a richly colored bird displaying burnt orange sides with a black and white back and stomach. When flocking, usually in fall, they are called a “teapot” or a “tangle” of Towhees. The name “Towhee” is an imitation of its call, circa 1729. For more Spotted Towhee photos, visit http:// abirdsingsbecauseithasasong.com/recent-journeys.

PHOTO BY DOUGLAS BEALL

Spotted Towhee.

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Groups sue feds to protect forests By Andrew Selsky Associated Press

SALEM (AP) — Six environmental groups sued officials of the Biden administration June 14, saying a Trumpera rule change that allowed logging of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest violates federal laws and was politically motivated. “Large and old trees have outsized ecological and social importance. They provide critical ecosystem functions such as storing carbon, providing wildlife habitat, and maintaining water quality,” the groups said in their lawsuit. The Trump administration amended a protection that had been in place since 1994 that prohibited the harvesting of trees 21 inches or greater in diameter and instead emphasized maintaining a combination of trees, with trees at least 150 years old prioritized for protection and favoring firetolerant species. The area the rule covers is at least 7 million acres, roughly the size of the state of Maryland, on six national forests in eastern Oregon and southeast Washington state, east of the Cascade Range. In announcing the decision to amend the old-growth protection, which took effect on Jan. 15, 2021, the Trump administration said it would make forests “more resistant and resilient to disturbances like wildfire.” Ochoco National Forest supervisor Shane Jeffries said the 21-inch rule made it difficult to remove fire-prone

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species without a lengthy regulatory process. “We’re looking to create landscapes that withstand and recover more quickly from wildfire, drought and other disturbances,” Jeffries told Oregon Public Broadcasting at the time. But the lawsuit said the government’s environmental assessment did not adequately address scientific uncertainty surrounding the effectiveness of thinning, especially thinning large trees, for fire risk reduction. The groups said the thinning and logging of large trees “can actually increase fire severity.” The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Pendleton, said there’s overwhelming evidence that large trees play a critical role in maintaining biodiversity and mitigating climate change and that there is a lack of those trees in Eastern Oregon after “more than a century

of high-grade logging.” The U.S. Forest Service said it doesn’t comment on pending or active lawsuits. The complaint alleges that the government’s decision violated the National Environmental Protection Act and National Forest Management Act. Plaintiffs are the Greater Hells Canyon Council, Oregon Wild, Central Oregon LandWatch, Sierra Club, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, and WildEarth Guardians. The groups also notified the defendants of their intent to sue over alleged violations of Endangered Species Act protections for fish and wildlife that depend on older forests. They said the amended policy “opens up the potential for large tree logging across the landscape, including in riparian areas designated as Riparian Habitat Conservation Areas.”

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Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

N U G G E T F L AS H BAC K – 2 0 Y E A R S AG O

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

NEIGHBORS: Forest dwellers feel more welcome here Continued from page 1

and trash their areas. Being military at core, she polices her area — keeps it squared away, in Army lingo. Brandi said that she’s had some troubles with alcohol — “but no drugs,” she emphasized. It is obvious that she is not a ready candidate for employment. She talks bitterly, yet not seeking pity, about her circumstances. She has scorn for “the system,” and landlords are dead center in her circle of disdain. Her neighbor “River” was working that day. He knew we were doing a neighborhood drop-in and wanted to be on record. His handwritten letter, via Brandi, appears below. Our excursion had been arranged by Jeremy Fields, whose duties for the Sisters District Ranger Station include wearing the title of forest protection officer, and David Fox, a Deschutes County employee who spends two days a week in Sisters working with the houseless population. Together they know nearly all the forest dwellers on a first-name basis, with frequent contact. Fox is a specialist in mental health. Next we met Andrea and Josh Snavely, who have

taken up residence alongside Trout Creek, in an idyllic setting. They have a camper shell, so they’re mobile and move frequently when they may be overstaying the 14-day camping limit on public lands. The former occupant of their picturesque and shady site left it a mess, with human fecal matter among other waste. Fields had moved him along and asked for the Snavelys’ help in cleaning up what was an eyesore and sanitation nightmare. Fields had also recruited the young couple, who have lived in the Sisters woods for four years, to dismantle an abandoned RV near a popular Peterson Ridge trail. The RV was a constant complaint of hikers. It was hard work, especially as Josh, from East Texas, is permanently injured from a mountain climbing fall and needs a cane to ambulate. Andrea, from Canada, and Josh live on an $841 monthly disability payment. Josh is eligible for opiate pain killers but refuses them. Fox hopes to get him some much-needed treatment or nonaddictive pain relief. With their 10-month-old dog, Beanie, the Snavelys say how friendly and accepting they find their traditionally housed neighbors. There are exceptions with one Crossroads neighbor not wanting to “mix it up,” meaning converse

with the couple, who are also unabashed about their Christian faith. Asked what they would do if they won the lottery, Josh said: “Buy a piece of land by a stream like this, and build a house.” Andrea was quick to add, “But we’d still live in the woods. This keeps us close to nature and grounded.” Our third stop was off Highway 20, where we met Al and Carol Nickle, who settled in Sisters in 2009 and rented until 2017, when rental prices drove them to nontraditional housing in the forest. From their 30-foot travel trailer, they don’t see many hikers. A few equestrians and an owl, “a big one” that lives close by and who visits daily. It’s a quiet, albeit lonely existence. Carol sports a sequined Sisters souvenir T-shirt as she looks out at some garden art she has erected. Al tells stories. They have many friends in Sisters. Both are resigned to the insufferable Sisters housing costs that suggest they will be living in the woods for years to come. Our last stop — we could have a dozen more, Fields noted — was near the rodeo grounds on Forest Service land, where we visited with a woman who calls herself

PHOTO BY BILL BARTLETT

Andrea and Josh Snavely are camped along Trout Creek. Deborah Nun. It’s not her real name. She is hiding from her husband, who she claims is a physical danger to her and her adult son, with whom she shares a 39-foot Class A motor home. We were able to verify her claims of having grown up in privileged wealth, attending Stanford and owning large farm acreage in Hawaii. Chronic back problems resulted in spinal fusion and a 24-year regimen of heavydosage painkillers. Nun says that she has weened herself off the drugs, to the amazement of her doctors. With Bible in hand, she is philosophical about her circumstances, not expressing

any bitterness. To the contrary, she presented an unusual display of grit and optimism. For some months she could afford to park at Sisters Garden RV Resort, until price increases forced her onto public lands. Now her only complaint seems to be the cost and availability of water, which she and her son have to obtain 20 gallons at a time. These are just a few of the 100-plus residents of Sisters Country forests. The next time you’re out, you might introduce yourself as you might a traditional neighbor. The return greeting may not be what you assumed.

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A letter from “River” describing why he has chosen to live in the forest near Sisters.

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Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

EXPLORE: City council approves documents for new organization Continued from page 1

and a very special one, for the residents who live here. Tourism is a big driver in Sisters, requiring coordination, planning, and collective action that could determine the course of the community’s future for decades to come. A great deal of time has gone into researching DMOs, talking and meeting with representatives from cities like Bend and McMinnville that have established successful DMOs. A consultant, Crosscurrents, was hired to conduct resident and visitor surveys last summer to assess Sisters tourism. The City Council identified as one of their goals for 2022-23, the creation of a destination management organization, whose purpose would be to manage sustainable tourism in Sisters while maintaining livability for the residents. That is a complex task requiring a road map to get stockholder buy-in and alignment. Beginning in March 2022, the City started the process to form an independent 501(c)(6) nonprofit that

would become Explore Sisters. The legal documents were drawn up, the name was selected by an ad hoc committee, and organizational meetings with the ad hoc committee and the consultant were held throughout the spring. At the June 22 City Council meeting, the formation documents were approved, and the initial board of directors was appointed (see “Board members announced for DMO,” page 23). Between now and the end of the year, the board, with the assistance of the consultant, will hold regular meetings during which they will create a job description for the executive director, recruit and interview candidates, and hire an executive director by October. Stakeholders will have opportunities to weigh in on the executive director choice. The board will then work with the executive director to form a 90-day action plan. The contract between the City and the Sisters Chamber of Commerce, which has served as the Visitors Bureau, expires as of June 30, 2022. Council approved an agreement between the City and the Chamber to provide tourism-related services through October 31, 2022. Greg Willitts, who drew the straw for a three-year term

on the initial Explore Sisters board, has previously served on the statewide Oregon Tourism Commission. He told the Council, “I think Sisters is appropriately timed in establishing Explore Sisters.” He believes the focus on livability for the residents is important, pointing to the state’s “Seven Wonders” campaign to encourage tourism in Oregon, which he said negatively impacted areas like Smith Rock and Crater Lake, which were over-marketed, creating “over and wrong consumption with parking issues and trampling of the areas.” Willitts foresees that the DMO will be able to nimbly adjust marketing strategies to avoid such possibilities. Managed like a private-sector business, the DMO can respond rapidly to changes in the marketplace. If budgetary resources are available, a stand-alone DMO board can approve shifts in a destination marketing plan rapidly if an opportunity presents itself (total solar eclipse) or a threat appears on the horizon (wildfire). He hopes to put across the message to Sisters tourists: “This is our living room. Please treat it that way.” Tourism used to focus on the number of “heads in the

I think Sisters is appropriately timed in establishing Explore Sisters. — Greg Willitts beds.” Destination management is a growing trend that emphasizes connections, whether that be with the local people, businesses, culture, or food, and to leave places in a condition that maintains the locals’ quality of life and that future visitors can explore as well. According to the articles of incorporation, the DMO’s primary purpose “is to increase livability and economic vitality through the development of intelligent management and stewardship of local (Sisters area) community natural and cultural resources, tourism, and outdoor recreation. The corporation will work to positively impact the City of Sisters community and surrounding areas through the advancement of tourism, and outdoor recreation, sustainability, and focusing on balanced fourseason visitation and overnight stays.” The board of directors will consist of no fewer than five

and no more than nine voting members, including the chairman, vice-chairman, secretary, and treasurer. All the directors, except the initial directors, will be elected by the board of directors for two-year terms, not to exceed a total of six years. The initial board has staggered terms of one, two, and three years to provide for continuity. A City Council member will be appointed by the mayor and a City staff member will be appointed by the city manager. Both of those positions will serve annual terms until replacement. The board of directors will employ an executive director who is charged with the general supervision and management of the office and business affairs of the DMO. The executive director will be a nonvoting member of the board and will report directly to them. The DMO will be financed by the transient lodging tax (TLT), which is added on to the cost of every room that is rented out to visitors. Lodging providers recognized the importance of a coherent community-wide marketing effort to attract visitors and fill their rooms. The TLT provides a way to equip the DMO with the revenue needed to promote visitation to the region.

Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down, and each small nine-box square contains all of the numbers from 1 to 9.

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Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

Board members announced for DMO Sue Stafford Correspondent

The initial six board members for the Explore Sisters destination management organization were announced at last week’s June 22 Sisters City Council meeting. All voting members of the board must either live in the City of Sisters or be affiliated with a business or organization located within Sisters. The board will be made up of the executive director, two members-at-large, who may be, but need not be, tourism industry representatives, a minimum of three tourist industry-related representatives, one City staff representative, and one Sisters City Council representative. No single tourism industry may constitute a majority of the board and no more than one representative of any given business or organization may serve as a voting member at one time. The executive director and the City staff member will be nonvoting members. The board members appointed by Mayor Michael Preedin and their terms are: Crista Munro – Sisters Folk Festival – two years Munro was named the executive director of the Sisters Folk Festival in 2019. Prior to that, she lived in Pagosa Springs, Colorado

where she cofounded and ran the Four Corners Folk Festival and Pagosa Folk ’N Bluegrass from 1996 until 2019 with her late husband, Dan. While in Pagosa Springs, she also published summer and winter adventure guides for visitors as well as the Pagosa Springs Dining Guide, and was a member of the Town Tourism Committee, which was appointed by the town council to oversee distribution of the town’s lodging tax. She is thrilled to return to small-town living in Sisters after spending eight years in Eugene while running the Colorado festivals remotely. Jesse Durham – Sisters Coffee Company – one year Durham’s family moved to Sisters in 1988 to start Sisters Coffee Company. She grew up attending school in the Sisters School District K-12. She then lived in Costa Rica, Argentina, France, Portland, and New York City before returning to Sisters to help with the family business. As chief strategy officer at Sisters Coffee, Durham oversees the company’s supply chain and wholesale distribution channels. She has a BA in French from Portland State University and is fluent in Spanish. Durham loves to hike and explore the Three Sisters Wilderness while spending time with her

5-month-old baby boy. Greg Willitts – FivePine Lodge – three years Willitts is president and partner at FivePine Lodge and Spa in Sisters. FivePine was a family effort, planned, designed, and constructed by Greg and his parents. Willitts has served as a board member and president of the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce and an advisor, sponsor, and volunteer for some of Central Oregon’s most renowned events: the state’s largest mountain trail bike race – the Sisters Stampede, the Fresh Hop Festival, and host of the Happy Girls Run in FivePine’s backyard, the Deschutes National Forest. Casey Meudt – Blazin Saddles – two years Meudt was raised in Sisters, where he attended Sisters High School. After graduating, he went to UBI (United Bicycle Institute) and then worked in several bike shops from Florida to Oregon. With a mission of serving the Sisters community and beyond, Blazin Saddles was founded in 2010. In the years since, the shop has grown exponentially. Meudt has also been active with the Sisters Trails Alliance. Nancy Connolly – City Council President – one year Connolly was elected to City Council in 2014 and has

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been Council president for a majority of that time. She is a native Central Oregonian who earned her bachelor’s degree from Oregon State University. She recently retired from Sisters School District after 15 years of working in the schools. Prior careers included: YMCA Community Director, Downtown Retail C o u n c i l D i r e c t o r, a n d Service Coordinator for the American Heart Association. Besides volunteering on City Council, Connolly likes to travel, read, garden, and walk the community and Peterson Ridge Trail system. Cory Misley – City Manager (nonvoting) – one year Misley has been the city manager of Sisters for almost four years and has lived in Central Oregon for the past seven years. He holds a bachelor’s degree of science in political science and psychology from Portland State University. He earned a master’s degree of in public policy and management from Carnegie Mellon University. He was previously the city manager in La Pine, where he served from 2015-2018. When he’s not working, he can be found snowboarding in the winter and biking in all seasons. A nonvoting executive director will be appointed at a later date.

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From age 7, knew aviation was his destiny. A child of the World War II era, he was regaled with aviator stories. He entered college and the Platoon Leaders program through the Marine Corps, where he learned to lead fellow Marines as an officer. Accepted into the F4 Phantom aviation program, the most sophisticated fighter jet at the time, Hartnack arduously trained as the back seater in navigator and bombadier roles. In 1969 he was deployed to Vietnam with the VMFA-115 fighter squadron. Throughout the duration of his deployment, Hartnack would fly over 200 combat missions in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. He flew many bombing runs in close air support roles. “I never saw the enemy on the ground,” he said. “But we were just trying to protect our guys.” In July 1970, Hartnack came home and started a new life in business management, and his time in Vietnam was largely forgotten. In the fall of 2016, he and 11 other former fighter pilots returned to Vietnam. Former MiG pilots and American pilots gathered in a solemn reunion of former enemies. The once adversaries were now grandpas and retired airline pilots. The reunion was healing and an opportunity for closure on both sides. Of the momentous occasion, the Vietnamese proclaimed, “Remember the past, but move forward.” Rick now resides in Black Butte Ranch with his wife and a hearty respect for his fellow veterans.

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

Senator raises concerns over firefighter shortage By Alex Baumhardt Oregon Capital Chronicle

Oregon faces a shortage of wildland firefighters that could be “a recipe for trouble,” according to U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden. Wyden wrote to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack recently with concerns that their agencies weren’t prepared to handle another catastrophic fire season such as that of 2020 and 2021. He said one out of five wildland firefighter jobs in Oregon and Washington stand empty, depleting the ranks of those tasked with containing and quelling wildfires. The wildland firefighting program for the region is currently staffed at 1,840 firefighters, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The agency considers 2,281 to be fully staffed. “Oregon is still struggling to build after two back-toback horrific fire seasons,” Wyden wrote. He said the federal agencies have access to more money for wildfire prevention and fighting than ever before with the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in November, which included $600 million to boost firefighter wages nationwide and $8 billion for states to mitigate wildfire risk. “ Yo u r d e p a r t m e n t s received this much-needed support. Now, more than six months after being given this new flexibility, we are past time for action,” Wyden said. He asked for an update on how funds had been distributed so far, how funding amounts to each region of the country were determined, and how many acres the U.S. Forest Service would treat in Oregon, such as getting rid of dead and dying debris in federal forests. Representatives from Wyden’s office said he has not had a response from either Haaland or Vilsack to his June 7 letter. At a June 9 meeting with the U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore, Wyden further pressed for information on where federal money was going, and when Oregon would be receiving greater federal help with wildfire prevention, management, and firefighter shortages. About half of Oregon belongs to the federal government, which has so far allocated $39 million to the state to spend over five years for wildfire prevention under the infrastructure bill. For wildfire prevention, Moore said the Forest Service will treat vegetation on 20 million acres of national forests over the next 10 years,

The Nugget Newspaper Crossword

By Jacqueline E. Mathews, Tribune News Service

and collaborate with other local and state agencies and tribes to treat 30 million more. “Our plan is to look at 50 million acres within this time frame in order to make a difference on how that fire is behaving across, particularly, the West,” he told Wyden. On workforce shortages, Wyden laid out the extent of the need.

Western states are actually trying to borrow firefighters from each other. — Ron Wyden “Western states are actually trying to borrow firefighters from each other, chief,” Wyden said to Moore. Wyden said that firefighters he spoke with in Oregon universally wanted better pay. “We already see these ‘help wanted’ signs offering much better pay in various other positions,” Wyden said. “Given the billions of dollars Congress provided in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, particularly for forestry, the question from Oregonians is obvious – how is the department going to use that money to fix this shortage of permanent wildland fire positions?” Since the federal infrastructure bill was passed, firefighters have not seen promised wage increases, Wyden said. Jaelith Hall-Rivera, deputy Forest Service chief of state and private forestry, said in a June 7 note updating federal firefighters that increased pay is coming in the next few weeks. The firefighters will receive retroactive payments for pay raises dating to last October. Last summer, President Biden raised entry-level wages for federal firefighters from $13 to $15 an hour. “They do deserve better pay, they deserve better benefits, they deserve better care in terms of mental and physical health conditions out there,” Moore said. Republished under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, courtesy https://oregoncapital chronicle.com.

They do deserve better pay, they deserve better benefits, they deserve better care in terms of mental and physical health conditions out there. — Randy Moore

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Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

C L A S S I F I E D S

• DERI’s HAIR SALON • Tree Services: Tree Removal, ALL advertising in this newspaper is 102 Commercial Rentals 204 Arts & Antiques Call 541-419-1279 Tree Pruning, Stump Grinding, subject to the Fair Housing Act JEWELRY REPAIR & which makes it illegal to advertise Prime Downtown Retail Space Emergency Tree Services. “any preference, limitation or Call Lori at 541-549-7132 CUSTOM DESIGN 501 Computers & ISA Certified Arborist discrimination based on race, color, Cold Springs Commercial Graduate gemologist. Over 45 Communications Owner / Operator: Erin Carpenter religion, sex, handicap, familial years experience. Cash for gold. MINI STORAGE lolotreeworks.com SISTERS SATELLITE status or national origin, or an • Metals Jewelry Studio • Sisters Rental intention to make any such Call / Text: 503-367-5638 TV • PHONE • INTERNET Wed-Sun., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. preference, limitation or discrim331 W. Barclay Drive Email: erin@lolotreeworks.com Your authorized local dealer for ination.” Familial status includes 220 S. Ash St. Suite 1 541-549-9631 CCB #240912 DirecTV, ViaSat HS Internet children under the age of 18 living 541-904-0410 Sizes 5x5 to 15x30 and outdoor and more! CCB # 191099 4 Brothers Tree Service with parents or legal custodians, RV parking. 7-day access. pregnant women and people securing 541-318-7000 • 541-306-0729 Sisters' Premier Tree Experts! 205 Garage & Estate Sales custody of children under 18. Computerized security gate. – TREE REMOVAL & Technology Problems? Mary & Trudy's Annual Craft This newspaper will not knowingly Moving boxes & supplies. CLEANUP – I can fix them for you. accept any advertising for real estate & Garage Sale. Fri. & Sat. Native / Non-Native Tree Solving for Business & Home which is in violation of the law. Our STORAGE WITH BENEFITS June 24 & 25, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. • 8 x 20 dry box readers are hereby informed that all Computers, Tablets, Networking Assessments, Pruning, High-Risk 66500 Ponderosa Lp., Bend, dwellings advertised in this • Fenced yard, RV & trailers Removals, 24 Hr. Emergency Internet (Starlink), and more! Highway 20 & Gist Road newspaper are available on an equal • In-town, gated, 24-7 Storm Damage Cleanup, Jason Williams opportunity basis. To complain of Priced to sell! Kris@earthwoodhomes.com Craning & Stump Grinding, Sisters local • 25 yrs. experience discrimination call HUD toll-free at Happy Trails Estate Sales Debris Removal. 1-800-669-9777. The toll-free Office space available in Sisters 541-719-8329 and online auctions! telephone number for the hearing – FOREST MANAGEMENT – Oregontechpro.com Sublet M, T, W, and some F. Selling, Downsizing, or Deaths? impaired is 1-800-927-9275. Fire Fuels Reduction - Brush Great for those who work from Locally owned & operated by... CLASSIFIED RATES 502 Carpet & Upholstery Mowing, Mastication, Tree home, but need a larger, more COST: $2 per line for first insertion, Daiya 541-480-2806 Thinning, Large & Small Scale Cleaning isolated space. Internet included. $1.50 per line for each additional Sharie 541-771-1150 Projects! Must be clean and punctual. insertion to 9th week, $1 per line M & J CARPET CLEANING 10th week and beyond (identical Call 541-904-0160 for more info. Serving Black Butte Ranch, Area rugs, upholstery, tile & 301 Vehicles ad/consecutive weeks). Also included Camp Sherman & Sisters Area dryer-vent cleaning. Established We Buy, Sell, Consign Quality in The Nugget online classifieds at no 103 Residential Rentals since 2003 & family-owned since 1986. additional charge. There is a Cars, Trucks, SUVs & RVs ~ ** Free Estimates ** Mountain Top 541-549-9090 minimum $5 charge for any Call Jeff at 541-815-7397 Owner James Hatley & Sons Short-Term Recreational classified. First line = approx. 20-25 GORDON’S Sisters Car Connection da#3919 characters, each additional line = 541-815-2342 Properties LAST TOUCH SistersCarConnection.com approx. 25-30 characters. Letters, 4brostrees.com Property Management Cleaning Specialists for spaces, numbers and punctuation = 1 Licensed, Bonded and Insured Save 10-50% on Mgmt. Fees character. Any ad copy changes will CARPETS, WINDOWS 500 Services CCB-215057 www.MountainTopSTRP.com be charged at the first-time insertion & UPHOLSTERY MOVING TRUCK FOR HIRE rate of $2 per line. Standard 541-588-2151 Member Better Business Bureau –COMPLETE MOVING, LLC– 601 Construction abbreviations allowed with the CASCADE HOME & • Bonded & Insured • Sisters' Only Local Moving Co.! approval of The Nugget classified – Sisters Oregon Guide – PROPERTY RENTALS Serving Central Oregon department. NOTE: Legal notices Two exp. men with 25+ years Pick one up throughout town! Monthly Rentals throughout placed in the Public Notice section Since 1980 comm. moving. Refs! ODOT Lic. are charged at the display advertising McCARTHY & SONS Sisters Country. Call 541-549-3008 Class 1-B • Call 541-678-3332 rate. CONSTRUCTION 541-549-0792 DEADLINE: MONDAY, noon We’ve got your cats covered! New Construction, Remodels, 504 Handyman Property management preceding WED. publication. Sisters-Tumalo-PetSitting.com Fine Finish Carpentry for second homes. SISTERS HONEYDO PLACEMENT & PAYMENT: 541-306-7551 • Julie 541-420-0487 • CCB #130561 Office, 442 E. Main Ave. Phone, CascadeHomeRentals.com Small project specialist. ~ WEDDINGS BY KARLY ~ 541-549-9941 or place online at Repairs, painting/staining, NuggetNews.com. Payment is due PONDEROSA PROPERTIES Happy to perform virtual or carpentry, drywall, lighting, –Monthly Rentals Available– upon placement. VISA & in-person weddings. grab bars, screen repairs. MasterCard accepted. Billing Call Debbie at 541-549-2002 Custom Wedding Ceremonies available for continuously run Full details, 24 hrs./day, go to: 25+ yrs. Maint. exp./local refs. 20+ years • 541-410-4412 classified ads, after prepayment of Scott Dady 541-728-4266. PonderosaProperties.com first four (4) weeks and upon revkarly@gmail.com Pat Burke Printed list at 221 S. Ash, Sisters JONES UPGRADES LLC approval of account application. GEORGE’S SEPTIC LOCALLY OWNED Ponderosa Properties LLC Home Repairs & Remodeling CATEGORIES: TANK SERVICE CRAFTSMAN BUILT Drywall, Decks, Pole Barns, 101 Real Estate “A Well Maintained 104 Vacation Rentals CCB: 288388 • 541-588-2062 102 Commercial Rentals Fences, Sheds & more. Septic System Protects 103 Residential Rentals www.sistersfencecompany.com Vacationing in Maui? Mike Jones, 503-428-1281 104 Vacation Rentals the Environment” Vacation Condos in Maui…Call Local resident • CCB #201650 106 Real Estate Wanted 541-549-2871 Donna Butterfield, Realtor, (S), 107 Rentals Wanted 600 Tree Service & SMALL Engine REPAIR RSPS, ILHM, RS-74883 200 Business Opportunities 201 For Sale Lawn Mowers, Coldwell Banker Island Forestry 202 Firewood Chainsaws & Trimmers Properties, The Shops at Wailea Custom Homes • Additions TIMBER STAND 203 Recreation Equipment Sisters Rental Phone: (808)866-6005 Residential Building Projects IMPROVEMENT 204 Arts & Antiques 331 W. Barclay Drive E-mail: 205 Garage & Estate Sales TREE SERVICES: tree removal, Serving Sisters area since 1976 541-549-9631 donna@donnabutterfield.com 206 Lost & Found Strictly Quality trimming, stump grinding, brush 207 The Holidays Authorized service center for CCB #16891 • CCB #159020 ~ Sisters Vacation Rentals ~ mowing, Firewise compliance. 301 Vehicles Stihl, Honda, Ariens/Gravely, 541-549-9764 Private Central OR vac. rentals, — Certified Arborist — 302 Recreational Vehicles Cub Cadet, Briggs & Stratton, John Pierce Property Management Services Nate Goodwin 541-771-4825 401 Horses • 402 Livestock Kohler, Kawasaki Engines 403 Pets • 500 Services jpierce@bendbroadband.com 541-977-9898 Online at: www.tsi.services 501 Computer Services BOOKKEEPING SERVICE www.SistersVacation.com CCB#190496 • ISA #PN7987A Earthwood Timberframes 502 Carpet Upholstery Cleaning ~ Olivia Spencer ~ • Design & shop fabrication Downtown Vacation Rental Top Knot Tree Care 503 Appliance Repair & Refinish Expert Local Bookkeeping! • Recycled fir and pine beams 504 Handyman Five star. 1 and 2 bedroom. can handle all of your tree needs, Phone: 541-241-4907 505 Auto Repair • Mantles and accent timbers SistersVacationRentals.net from trims to removals. 600 Tree Service & Forestry www.spencerbookkeeping.com • Sawmill/woodshop services Great pricing. 503-730-0150 Specializing in tree assessment, 601 Construction Andersen’s Almost Anything www.earthwoodhomes.com hazard tree removal, crown 602 Plumbing & Electric 107 Rentals Wanted Handyman services. Small home reduction, ladder fuel reduction, 603 Excavations & Trucking CENIGA'S MASONRY, INC. 604 Heating & Cooling Looking for an affordable repairs, RV repairs, hauling, lot clearing, ornamental and fruit Brick • Block • Stone • Pavers 605 Painting shared rental or attached cleaning, etc. No plumbing or tree trimming and care. CCB #181448 – 541-350-6068 606 Landscaping & Yard Maint. studio close in to Sisters. electric, sorry. CCB#235396 • Locally owned and operated • www.CenigasMasonry.com 701 Domestic Services Mature female, quiet, clean, 541-728-7253 call or text • Senior and military discounts • CASCADE GARAGE DOORS 702 Sewing • 703 Child Care non-smoker, no pets. 704 Events & Event Services • Free assessments • Factory Trained Technicians 801 Classes & Training Currently staying in Tollgate. • Great cleanups • Since 1983 • CCB #44054 802 Help Wanted Please call 503-274-0214. • Licensed, Insured and Bonded • 541-548-2215 • 541-382-4553 803 Work Wanted Contact Bello Winter @ 901 Wanted • 902 Personals 202 Firewood 541-419-9655, Find us on Google 999 Public Notice

101 Real Estate

Real Estate Lending Private real estate lender. Can look at your unique lending situation. NMLS # 273179 All properties considered. patrick@blue-inc.com 1-503-559-7007

SISTERS FOREST PRODUCTS DAVE ELPI – FIREWOOD • SINCE 1976 • Doug Fir – Lodgepole – Juniper DRIVE-IN WOOD SALES – 18155 Hwy. 126 East – SistersForestProducts.com Order Online! 541-410-4509

Junk removal, new home, garage & storage clean-out, construction, yard debris. You Call – We Haul! 541-719-8475.

CCB#238380 THE NUGGET NEWSPAPER SISTERS | OREGON • • • • • Keep up-to-date! Check us out for breaking news at www.nuggetnews.com

Custom Homes Residential Building Projects Concrete Foundations Becke William Pierce CCB# 190689 • 541-647-0384 Beckewpcontracting@gmail.com

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

C L A S S CI LF AI SE DS SI F I E D S

Beaver BANR Creek Enterprises, Log Homes LLC LLC BANR Enterprises, LLC Earthwork,541-390-1206 Utilities, Grading, Earthwork, Utilities, Grading, m beavercreeklog@yahoo.com Hardscape, Rock Walls Hardscape, Rock Walls Residential Log repairs, & Commercial log railing, Residential & Commercial CCBlog #165122 accent,• log 541-549-6977 siding, etc. Complete CCB #165122 landscape• 541-549-6977 construction, Complete landscape construction, ond CCB #235303 www.BANR.net Insurance & Bond fencing, irrigation www.BANR.net installation & fencing, irrigation installation & design, pavers/outdoor kitchens, design, pavers/outdoor kitchens, Full Service Excavation Full Service Excavation debris cleanups, fertility & water debris cleanups, fertility & water conservation management, conservation management, excavation. excavation. CCB #188594 • LCB #9264 CCB #188594 • LCB #9264 www.vohslandscaping.com www.vohslandscaping.com 541-515-8462 541-515-8462 Free On-site Visit & Estimate Free On-site Visit & Estimate All Landscaping Services All Landscaping Services Tewaltandsonsexcavation@gmail Tewaltandsonsexcavation@gmail Mowing, Thatching, Hauling and .com .comHauling and Lara’s Construction LLC. Mowing, Thatching, SNOW REMOVAL SNOW REMOVAL 541-549-1472 • CCB #76888 541-549-1472 • CCB #76888 CCB#223701 Call Abel Ortega, 541-815-6740. Call Abel Ortega, 541-815-6740. Drainfield Drainfield Offering masonry work, r • Minor fireplaces, & Major interior Septic&Repair exterior • Minor & Major Septic Repair Services 701 Domestic Services • All Septic stone/brick-work, Needs/Designbuild •701 AllDomestic Septic Needs/Design "CLEANING QUEEN" "CLEANING QUEEN" & Install barbecues, and all types of & Install ServingExcavation the Sisters area! Serving the Sisters area! Generalmasonry. Excavation Give us a call General Call at 541-213-0775 Call Maria at 541-213-0775 • Site Preparation for a free estimate. • SiteMaria Preparation 541-350-3218 • Rock & Stump Removal & Stump Removal I •&Rock I Crystal Cleaning, LLC I & I Crystal Cleaning, LLC • Pond & Driveway Construction • Pond & Driveway Construction Specializing in Commercial, Specializing in Commercial, Preparation Preparation Residential & Vacation Rentals. Residential & Vacation Rentals. • Building Demolition • BuildingBonded Demolition Licensed, & Insured. Licensed, Bonded & Insured. Trucking Trucking 541-977-1051 541-977-1051 • Deliver Top Soil, Sand, Gravel, BLAKE • Deliver Top Soil, Sand, Gravel, BLAKE & SON – Commercial, & SON – Commercial, Boulders, Water & Renovation Boulders, Water Cleaning n Construction Home & Rentals Home & Rentals Cleaning • Dump Trucks, TransferProjects Trucks, • Dump Trucks, Transfer Trucks, Custom Residential WINDOW CLEANING! WINDOW CLEANING! Belly All Phases • CCB #148365 Lic.Belly & Bonded • 541-549-0897 Lic. & Bonded • 541-549-0897 • The Whole541-420-8448 9 Yards or 24 • The Whole 9 Yards or 24 Whatever You Want! Whatever YouWanted Want! 802 Help 802 Help Wanted

l d

p el. 59

602 Plumbing & Electric 604 HeatingR&R & Cooling

Help Wanted at Sno Cap Help Wanted at Sno Cap 604 Heating & Cooling Servers + line cooks (or can be Servers + line cooks (or can be ACTION AIRLLC PLUMBING, crossedACTION trained inAIR both) crossed trained in both) Heating & Cooling, Heating & Cooling, • • • LLC 380 W. Cascade Ave LLC 380 W. Cascade Ave Retrofit • New Const IN • Remodel • New Const • Remodel SPECIALIZING WATER TheRetrofit Garden Angel is now filling The Garden Angel is now filling Consulting, Service & Installs Consulting, Service & Installs HEATERS & SERVICE landscape supervisor and landscape supervisor and actionairheatingandcooling.com actionairheatingandcooling.com Lic. Bond. Ins. • CCB #184660 maintenance crew member maintenance crew member CCB #195556 CCB #195556 Servicing Central Oregon positions. LCB #9583. Inquire at positions. LCB #9583. Inquire at 541-549-6464 541-549-6464 ––– 541-771-7000 ––– 541-549-2882 or 541-549-2882 or SWEENEY thegardenangel@gmail.com thegardenangel@gmail.com 605 Painting 605 Painting PLUMBING, INC. Bigfoot Stain & Seal Bigfoot Stain & Seal “Quality and Reliability” Painting • Staining • Sealing Painting • Staining • Sealing Repairs • Remodeling CCB#240852 CCB#240852 • New Construction 541-904-0077 • Geoff Houk 541-904-0077 • Geoff Houk • Water Heaters METOLIUS PAINTING LLC METOLIUS PAINTING LLC 541-549-4349 Meticulous, Affordable Meticulous, Affordable Residential and Commercial Interior & Exterior Interior & Exterior Licensed • Bonded • Insured 541-280-7040 • CCB# 238067 541-280-7040 • CCB# 238067 CCB #87587 IS NOW HIRING! IS NOW HIRING! ~ FRONTIER PAINTING ~ FRONTIER PAINTING Northern Lights ~ 110 W. CASCADE AVE. ~ 110 W. CASCADE AVE. Quality Painting, Ext. & Int. Quality Painting, Ext. & Int. Electrical Installations LLC AQUA CLEAR SPA AQUA CLEAR SPA Refurbishing Decks Refurbishing Decks Residential & Light SERVICES INC. SERVICES INC. CCB #131560 • 541-771-5620 CCB #131560 • 541-771-5620 Commercial • Service ENJOY WORKING ENJOY WORKING www.frontier-painting.com www.frontier-painting.com No job too small. OUTDOORS? OUTDOORS? 503-509-9353 Hot tub servicing & Yard Hot tub servicing 606 Landscaping & Yard 606 Landscaping CCB# 235868 technician needed. technician needed. Maintenance Maintenance CENTRAL OREGON PAID TRAINING PAID TRAINING Your Local OnlineSERVICE Source! Your Local Online Source! PLUMBING PROVIDED PROVIDED NuggetNews.com NuggetNews.com Full Service Plumbing Shop with opportunity for with opportunity for J&E Landscaping Maintenance Landscaping Maintenance New construction and remodel. J&E advancement. Starting rate advancement. Starting rate LLC Clean-ups, raking, mowing, LLC Clean-ups, raking, Service and repair. CCB#214259 DOE - $18-$20/hr. mowing, DOE - $18-$20/hr. hauling541-390-4797 debris, gutters. hauling debris, gutters. FULLor PART-TIME FULL- or PART-TIME Edgar Cortez 541-610-8982 Edgar Cortez 541-610-8982 VALID drivers license required. VALID drivers license required. Ridgeline Electric, LLC jandelspcing15@gmail.com jandelspcing15@gmail.com Call 541-410-1023 or email Call 541-410-1023 or email Serving all of Central Oregon – All •You Need Maintenance – All You Need Maintenance – aquaclearoregon@gmail.com aquaclearoregon@gmail.com Residential • Commercial– Pine needle removal, hauling, Pine needle removal, hauling, • Industrial • Service THE GALLIMAUFRY THE GALLIMAUFRY mowing, moss removal, mowing, moss edging, 541-588-3088 • CCB edging, #234821 gift shop at 111removal, W. Cascade gift shop at 111 W. Cascade raking, weeding, pruning, roofs, raking, weeding, pruning, roofs, Ave. has retail positions Ave. has retail positions 603 Excavation & Trucking gutters, pressure washing... gutters,available. pressure washing... available. Lic/Bonded/Ins. CCB# 218169 Lic/Bonded/Ins. CCB# 218169 ROBINSON & OWEN Austin 541-419-5122. Inc. Austin • 541-419-5122. 803 Work Wanted 803 Work Wanted Heavy• Construction, All TREE your excavation needs ASPEN LANDSCAPES ASPEN TREE LANDSCAPES LIVE-IN CAREGIVER LIVE-IN CAREGIVER *General excavation (Fire Suppression) property (Fire30 Suppression) property Over years experience, Over 30 years experience, Preparation cleanups.*Site We trim trees. Take cleanups. We trim trees. Take excellent references, nonsmoker, excellent references, nonsmoker, *Sub-Divisions out an old yard and put in a new out an old yard in a new nondrinker, Calland Patput Evans, nondrinker, Call Pat Evans, Building one. *Road 541-419-5643. one. 541-419-5643. 541-699-9647. 541-699-9647. *Sewer and Water Systems LOOKING FOR A LOOKING FOR A *Underground Utilities COMPANION CAREGIVER COMPANION CAREGIVER *Grading POSITION IN SISTERS. POSITION IN SISTERS. *Sand-Gravel-Rock Available 12-6 p.m. Duties can Available 12-6 p.m. Duties can LicensedSisters • Bonded • Insured Keeping Country Keeping Country include: meal Sisters prep., shopping, include: meal prep., shopping, CCB #124327 Beautiful Since 2006 Beautiful Since 2006 light cleaning and compassionate light cleaning and compassionate 541-549-1848 candcnursery@gmail.com care!candcnursery@gmail.com Please call or text Lynn care! Please call or text Lynn 541-549-2345 541-549-2345 503-274-0214. 503-274-0214.

Museum fundraiser makes comeback For the first time since 2019, the High Desert Museum’s signature fund r a i s e r, H i g h D e s e r t Rendezvous, will take place in person at the Museum on Saturday, August 27, from 5 to 9 p.m. This marks the 33rd year of the High Desert Rendezvous, making it one of the longest-running fundraisers in Central Oregon. “Returning in person after two years makes this a very special High Desert Rendezvous,” said Museum Executive Director Dana Whitelaw, Ph.D. “We will gather together again, celebrate the Museum’s 40th anniversary and the accomplishments of the past year, and raise a glass to our generous community.” In addition to dinner, a raffle and entertainment, Rendezvous is also a chance to bid on art by traditional and contemporary artists in the juried exhibition and silent auction Art in the West, which opens at the Museum on Saturday, July 23. A gallery guide of the artwork in the exhibition will be available on the Museum’s website on July 18 at www.highdesert museum.org/aiw. An individual ticket for Rendezvous is $150 for members and $200 for nonmembers, and for a couple the event costs $300 for members and $350 for nonmembers. Sponsorship tables are available for parties of eight or 10. A list of sponsor benefits including VIP perks and community recognition can be viewed at highdesertmuseum.org/hdr. The 2022 Rendezvous Honoree is Cameron Kerr. The wife of Museum founder Don Kerr and a self-described “lifetime volunteer,” she has been an active and stalwart

supporter since the institution opened in 1982. Today, she is a Museum Trustee and Collections Committee Chair, and she can be seen regularly in the Museum’s collections department helping volunteers and supporting staff. “Cameron is a treasured friend of the Museum and a meaningful Honoree for our 40th year,” Whitelaw said. “She has supported the staff, volunteers and visitors since the very beginning and through four decades of growth.” This year’s High Desert Rendezvous silent auction will take place online. It’s packed with luxurious items and one-of-a-kind experiences, from wine tastings in California to stays at your favorite Central Oregon resorts. Online bidding opens Friday, August 19 and ends on Monday, August 29. The Museum is grateful to all the generous businesses and organizations that donate items and experiences to the silent auction. Those interested in donating items to be featured in the High Desert Rendezvous silent auction may contact Senior Donor Relations Manager Megan Kantrim at mkantrim@ highdesertmuseum.org or call 541-382-4754 ext. 332. The High Desert Rendezvous helps support the Museum’s educational programs, ensuring the Museum continues to be a place where people and the landscape thrive together. The 33rd annual High Desert Rendezvous is presented by First Interstate Bank. Learn more about and register for the High Desert Rendezvous at www.high desertmuseum.org/hdr.

SUDOKU Level: Easy

Answer: Page 30

Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down, and each small nine-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

BILL: Residents urged to ‘harden’ against wildfire Continued from page 1

$0 to $15,000. The WMAC recognized that building a single-family residence to R327 standards would likely increase construction costs, but did not agree on how much it would cost.” Johnson wants to make sure that the picture isn’t painted with too broad a brush. The Nugget’s initial story in the June 22 edition cited estimates from Oregon Department of Forestry that about 900,000 Oregon tax lots may be within the wildlandurban interface (WUI), and about 230,000 of those tax lots may be classified as being at extreme or high risk. Chief Johnson sought to clarify: “In order for the requirements of SB 762 to apply to your property, it must be classified as high or extreme risk and be identified as being within the WUI. Homes outside of these classifications should not be subject to the requirements of SB 762. “Insurance companies make independent risk decisions based on their proprietary risk processes.Some use Verisk’s Fire Line tool and they may also use satellite data or on-site inspections. Insurance companies are not required to consider the risk classifications of SB 762. “It’s important to know that residents may be required by their insurance company to perform defensible space work separate from the requirements of SB 762. Oregon has an option for people who are struggling to find fire insurance. The Oregon Fair Plan Association can be accessed at https://orfairplan. com/.” Farmers and ranchers have raised concerns about the impact of SB 762 on their operations. According to Johnson, those impacts — if any — have yet to be determined. “The process doesn’t have to be completed until December of 2022,” he said. “ Agricultural lands are not expected to be widely impacted by the defensible space code for a variety of reasons. First, the density requirements for WUI mapping require that there be at least one structure greater than 400 square feet per 40 acres to be considered in the WUI. Most commercial agricultural properties will not meet this requirement.There will also likely be exemptions for irrigated lands and croplands. Lastly, most land that is used for commercial agricultural purposes is flat to rolling ground that will not rate as a high or extreme wildfire risk.” As for impact on Sisters communities in the forest, like

...there are several exceptions to the R327 requirements including subdivisions that are more than 50 percent developed. — Roger Johnson Tollgate, Black Butte Ranch, and Sage Meadows, Johnson said: “It should be noted that there are several exceptions to the R327 requirements including subdivisions that are more than 50 percent developed. So, most existing subdivisions (Tollgate, Crossroads, Cascade Meadow Ranch, Squaw Creek Canyon Estates, ClearPine, Pine Meadow, etc.) likely won’t be required to harden homes. We would strongly recommend that homeowners consider the benefits of home hardening and still build to the R327 standard.” Assistant Chief Deputy State Fire Marshal Chad E. Hawkins was in full

agreement with Johnson’s concerns. “Chief Johnson is spot on and provided great clarification,” he wrote. “Chief Johnson has been an integral participant in numerous committees and stakeholder groups representing the Oregon Fire Chiefs Association.” Recognizing that there may be concerns over and opposition to SB 762 requirements, Johnson concluded: “Lastly, I think it is important to recognize that the status quo is not a good option for Oregon. The Labor Day Fires of 2020 highlighted the deficiencies in wildfire response and preparedness. While some stakeholder and special interest groups may have different perspectives on the best approach to deal with the challenges the state faces, most would agree that some change was needed.” Under provisions of SB 762, the Sisters-Camp Sherman Rural Fire Protection District is the beneficiary of a $35,000 grant for increased wildfire response in 2022.

Grounded in your community

• Superior closing experiences • Strong relationships that last • Services and online resources that are second to none

Cycling in Sisters…

PHOTO BY BILL BARTLETT

Three of hundreds of riders cross the finish line at Village Green Park Sunday after a five-day, 362-mile, 33,650-foot-elevation-gain ride that started in Sisters last Wednesday.

Planning a Home Construction or

Renovation Project?

Our team believes quality, creativity, and sustainability matter. We want your home to be a work of art worthy of containing your life. — Mike & Jill Dyer, Owners

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Kristin Turnquist, Broker 541-449-7275 • kristin@krisequity.com

Broker

thomas.arends@cascadesir.com

arendsrealtygroup.com cascadesothebysrealty.com | 290 E. Cascade Ave. | PO Box 609 | Sisters, OR 97759

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EACH OFFICE IS INDEPENDENTLY OWNED AND OPERATED. LICENSED IN THE STATE OF OREGON.

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Don Bowler President and Broker 971-244-3012 Gary Yoder Managing Principal Broker 541-420-6708

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2 bedroom, 2 bath, 852 sq. ft. Totally remodeled with highest quality materials, mountain and golf course views. $749,000. l MLS#220146504

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Ross Kennedy Principal Broker 541-408-1343 Corrie Lake Principal Broker 541-521-2392 Tiffany Hubbard Broker 541-620-2072

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

SARVER: New board member has kids in Sisters schools Continued from page 3

all of that, but there are too many for me to respond to personally.” The focus then turned to Thorsett for the deciding vote. Since he had been unable to listen to a recording of the previous week’s meeting, he referred to the meeting transcript, but ultimately suggested the Board allow him to ask the two applicants, who were present, questions about themselves and why they were interested in being appointed to the board. The Board approved the request, allowing Thorsett to address the pair. Thorsett ultimately cast his vote for Sarver, but made it clear he felt the two were both well qualified. “The only real difference,” he said, “was that Asa had more experience on other boards. Following the meeting, Sarver took some time to answer questions for The Nugget. When asked about his move to Sisters, his educational background, and his work experience, he said, “I moved to Sisters with my wife and two sons in March of 2020, at the start of the COVID pandemic. We’ve

been coming to Sisters for many years, and decided to move here for the quality of life and slower pace. We’d always heard good things about the Sisters School District and were looking for a place where our kids could get a great education. I grew up in Evergreen, Colorado and got my bachelor’s degree in resort management at Colorado State University. After graduating, I moved to Vail, Colorado, to manage fine dining restaurants. In 1999, I moved to Big Sky, Montana, where I was the hospitality director for the Yellowstone Club, a private ski area. In 2004, I moved to Carlton, Oregon, to work for Ken Wright Cellars as their national/international sales manager. In 2019, my family and I spent seven months living in Costa Rica, and since then I’ve started my own small business offering private consulting for Oregon wineries.” Sarver elaborated on his decision to apply for appointment. “I volunteered for the school board position because I want what is best for my children and children in the Sisters community,” he said. “In my view, the best way to advocate for all kids in Sisters is by being proactive and involved in the community.” When asked about his understanding of the role of the School Board, Sarver stated, “The role of a School

Board member is “As the parto ensure policies ent of a child in are in place for Sisters Elementary strong educational School, I’ve been access for all, as impressed with the well as awareness quality of education of an ever-changand communicaing job market. I tion my wife and I also believe safety have experienced,” in schools is a top he said. “Our son concern, and makhas had excellent ing sure policies teachers who have reflect what can been supportive of best keep our kids what he needs, and and teachers safe. I we love the small don’t view the role class sizes at the as political, and elementary school. my goal is to creI truly feel that my ate conversation son’s teachers have and compromise as cared about him Sisters continues to and his success, and grow.” my son is thriving. In addition, What more could a school boards are parent want?” responsible for hirSarver describes ing and evaluating himself as a “peothe superintenple person” who dent, and the board loves to ski, play works closely with ice hockey, and the superintendent mountain bike. in budget develop“I’m looking ment and budget forward to serving PHOTO BY CHARLIE KANZIG approval. Asa Sarver has been appointed to the Sisters School Board. the Sisters commuSarver expressnity,” he said. “This ed his commitment to helping “This will be a core project is a powerful community, and ensure that all students get the for the School Board for the when we work together we support they need to succeed. next several years,” he said. “I can create positive change for “School is a formative also look forward to learning our students.” experience for all kids, and I more about the needs and proThe Board will elect a want the students in Sisters to grams at the middle and high new chair at the next monthly know they are supported,” he schools.” meeting on Wednesday, July 6. said. Jeff Smith’s position In his short time in He views the building of Sisters, Sarver has found the expires in 2023, which will the new elementary school as school district to be serv- be the next opportunity for the big focus in the next two ing students and families citizens to run for the School years. Board. well.

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

field in the middle of summer, and maybe it might remind people that we are in fact in a severe drought. Patrick Tougas

LETTERS

Continued from page 2

PHOTO PROVIDED

Lucky Town will play Hardtails on Saturday night.

LUCKY TOWN: Band pays tribute to ‘The Boss’ Continued from page 13

work, including 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award, a Tony Award (for “Springsteen on Broadway”) as well as being inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 1999. In 2009, Springsteen was a Kennedy Center Honors recipient, in 2013 was named MusiCares Person of the Year, and in 2016 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “The Boss” is known for his high-energy shows, and

Lucky Town delivers, with hits from every decade of Bruce’s distinguished career. Each musician in the band has a minimum of 25 years of professional experience in the music industry locally and throughout the United States. The “original Bruce” with Lucky Town has moved to Arkansas, and Hardtails owner Steve Macey noted that he’s flying back for this special show. Those in attendance will have something special to look back on when they recall their glory days. Hardtails has an extensive summer slate of tribute band concerts. If you still haven’t found what you’re looking for, TRIBU2 will serve up the music of U2 on Saturday, July 9.

project off of [McKinney] Butte Road, across from the back field of the middle school. Myself and my family have noticed an excessive amount of watering goes on to make the neighborhood appear green and lush. When I say excessive, I mean that the lawn where the bike path is on the north side of the street is watered with sprinklers four times a day to the point of flooding the bike path. As a Central Oregon resident I find this appalling when we all know about the water shortages and drought that we are currently in, (that) will continue to grossly affect us all. I find it interesting that in this time of drought that Hayden Homes is allowed by the City to water those lawns at all! We have farmers and livestock purveyors that struggle to water their crops and herds, yet here’s Hayden Homes watering their lawns and for the most part the bike path. Personally, I feel the City should issue an ordinance to stop watering lawns from June through September. Central Oregon is in a severe drought yet people feel the need to water their lawn? In my opinion there’s nothing wrong with a little brown grass lawn or

NuggetNews.com

Choice To the Editor: Women, are you sure that’s the power you want, to be able to destroy someone that is half you? Someone whose first word would probably be Mommy. If they were able they would probably reach out with their tiny hands and try helplessly to stop you but no they would only fail and do you really want to live the rest of your life with the pain and loss of that decision? Women’s rights are one thing but being able to choose pain and death are another thing. Is it not possible there are other options available? How would you feel if you knew your mother wanted to end your life? But someone with a reason intervened and stopped her, would you carry hate in your heart for them? When it comes to this decision you are their only hope! Please! You do have a choice. Byron Blake

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Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

WILDFIRES: Redmond center coordinates firefighting efforts Continued from page 1

Base is one of five components of the Center. “Support is what we do,” said Maurice Evans, Air Center Manager for the U.S. Forest Service, under whose auspices the Center runs. Evans has been in the firefighting business since 1992 — 30 years. At this time of the year he has responsibility for 200-plus personnel, currently dispersed all over the country. “Keeping track of everybody and knowing they are safe” is how he describes the most challenging part of his job. “It’s all about getting them home safely, making sure their training paid off and their commitment to look after each other.” Hotshots. His team provides support to local, state, and federal agencies as they battle wildfire. Redmond is home to the Redmond Hotshot crew, some of the earliest ground responders to fire, especially those ignited by lightning. They are one of four developmental crews nationwide. The Redmond Smokejumpers are part of the storied band of firefighters who parachute into hard-to-reach areas to gain leverage over fire otherwise inaccessible by vehicle support. Redmond is one of nine smokejumper bases in the country, with a fulltime crew of 50. The specially designed planes that ferry them are called Sherpas, an apt description. Fire Cache. It’s difficult to imagine all the gear needed to fight fire, the hundreds of saws, miles of hose, thousands of helmets, and protective clothing. Redmond Fire Cache, one of 15 in the country, is a Type 1 depot that delivers equipment to the fire lines. Training. Then there’s the Interagency Training Center that teaches wildland firefighting tactics to more than a thousand firefighters each year from across the spectrum. There are 38 to 42 courses taught. Students reside on the “campus”

SUDOKU SOLUTION for puzzle on page 26

during their qualification training. The goal is for standardized techniques, so that a firefighter on a Colorado fire today and an Oregon fire next week is on the exact same page and an instant benefit to the crew, all of whom could be total strangers to one another. Aerial support. The tanker base is the most visible part of the Air Center with their fleet of planes — some as large as the biggest airliners — that drop an average of 1 million gallons of retardant each summer. The bright red chemical is made of water, fertilizer, salt, clay, and a coloring agent so it can be easily seen by ground crews. Often a spotter plane will lead the giant tankers, ejecting a small smoke signal enabling the tanker to drop its load with more precision and efficacy. Retardant will not be used if a ground-based resource officer determines the potential for detrimental environmental impact. Some of the planes can carry 3,000 gallons, land for refueling, and get back in the air in 12 minutes. The Nugget caught up with Evans as he and his staff are nervously awaiting the peak of the fire season. In answer to our

question of the most rewarding part of his job, Evans said: “Relationships and developing young men and women into leadership positions.” He expressed immense gratitude for the support the Air Center gets from the communities and agencies they serve. Dispatch. Redmond Air Center is also home to Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center to make sure the right equipment and crews are assigned to a fire. Serving the Oregon Department of Forestry, Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service, the dispatchers are crucial in getting ahead offire or keeping one from exploding. It is not uncommon for them to be co-ordinating the movements and positioning of 1,000 governmental personnel and as many as 500 contractor employees. There are never enough hands to fight all the fires that in some cases can burn for months and consume hundreds of thousands of acres. The Redmond dispatchers are part of the National Interagency Fire Center based in Boise, where firefighting efforts from every state are coordinated. It’s a delicate balancing act often requiring gut-wrenching

PHOTO BY BILL BARTLETT

Maurice Evans, Air Center manager for the U.S. Forest Service, operating out of Redmond. decisions about where to deploy. Firefighting is physically demanding. While everybody from hotshots to smoke jumpers get regular physical training, it is the science of wildfire fighting that is even more important. Climatology is critical to thejob, being able to forecast winds, heat, and moisture. Weather can be a firefighter’s best friend or

worst enemy. Web and Joyce Cosby, who live near Squaw Creek Canyon Estates, have seen their share of tankers fly over their property in recent years. “It’s always a good feeling,” Web said. “It’s very reassuring,” Joyce added. Both are grateful for Sisters’ proximity to the Redmond Air Center.

17031 Wilt Road, Sisters

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Solitude, adventure, and recreation out your back door, on 38.47 acres adjoining U.S. Forest Service land. 6 bedrooms, 2 full baths, 4 half baths in a 3,372 sq. ft. hand-scribed log home. Additional 2,160 sq. ft. hobby barn with 1,200 sq. ft. caretaker quarters with 2 bedrooms, 1.5 baths not included in sq. footage. Fenced backyard, RV hookup and parking. $1,200,000. MLS#220147822

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541-420-4347 • jenmccrystal@cbbain.com 291 W. Cascade Ave., Sisters 541-549-6000 | www.cbbain/sisters.com

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Wednesday, June 29, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon

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MLS#220141480 $770,000 SMALL RANCH IN MCKENZIE CANYON 1+ bed / 1.5 bath / 2,010 sq. ft. / 20 Acres Rural Acreage Ranch property with 10.2 acres of 3-Sisters Irrigation. Part forested slope w/home; part level sandy loam basin w/water rights by buried pressurized irrigation line & meter. Cedar chalet with woodstove, greatroom, loft, 1 bedroom plus more rooms that could be flexibly utilized. Covered entry porch, rear patio. Located between Sisters, Redmond, & Terrebonne. Sisters or Redmond School District.

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