The Nugget Vol. XLVII No. 21
POSTAL CUSTOMER
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
www.NuggetNews.com
Wednesday, May 22, 2024
Sisters set to mark Memorial Day
Outlaws take on track & field...
PHOTO BY JACK TURPEN
Katie Buller competed for the Outlaws in pole vault and other events at the state meet at Hayward Field in Eugene. The girls team placed fourth in the competition.
Girls tennis crowned District champions By Rongi Yost Correspondent
The Lady Outlaws have retained the tennis crown. The girls tennis team turned in fabulous performances in the final twoday Special District 4 Tournament event held at Prineville High School on Friday and Saturday, May 17-18, and were crowned the District Champs for the second consecutive year. Sisters
finished first with 20 points, and Crook County was runner up with 17. Juhree Kizziar and Katie Ryan (singles) and Leah O’Hern and Sophie Rush (doubles) all earned a berth to the state tournament, which will be held at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, Thursday through Saturday, May 23-25. Kizziar breezed through See CHAMPS on page 15
Planning commission gives nod to code change By Jim Cornelius Editor in Chief
After considerable discussion and some dissent, the Sisters Planning commission voted 4-2 to recommend acceptance of code changes that would allow an RV park as a use in the Sun Ranch Tourist Commercial Zone.
Inside...
The final decision will go before the Sisters City Council, which is scheduled to have a work session on the matter on June 26, and a public hearing on July 10. The property developers suggested the code changes. They propose a “boutique, See CODE CHANGE on page 7
Letters/Weather ............... 2 Meetings .......................... 3
PRE-SORTED STANDARD ECRWSS U.S. POSTAGE PAID Sisters, OR Permit No. 15
In what has become a beloved tradition over more than two decades, Sisters veterans and citizens will gather at 11 a.m. on Monday, May 27, in the Village Green for a community day of honor and remembrance in recognition of Memorial Day. Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8138, American Legion Post 86, and the Sisters chapter of Band of Brothers host the observances, which mark the day in which the United States honors those who have fallen in the nation’s wars. Pat Bowe, a U.S. Army Vietnam War Veteran and Post Commander of VFW See MEMORIAL DAY on page 19
DCSO showcases deputies, drones, dogs By Matt Van Slyke Correspondent
One of the best search and rescue teams in the nation is ready to respond within minutes — unless you’re a climber stuck between a rock and a hard place in the middle of winter on the South Sister. The rock, in this case, was a band of rock amid a wall of ice — the hard place, nearly 10,000 feet up the north side of South Sister — preventing an ice climber from reaching relative safety. “He called from that spot, and I remember telling him, ‘Get comfortable. You need to be there for several hours before we can get to you,’” recalled Deputy Shane Zook, assistant search and rescue coordinator. “He said, ‘I have one toe on ice, one toe on rock, my ice axe is hanging onto a ledge on a piece of rock, and I can’t move.’ I said, ‘You need to stay calm because you may have to hold this position for three to four hours.’” While Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office has a stellar Search and Rescue Team (SAR), depending on the location of a person in need, Building Blocks ................. 3 Announcements...............10
PHOTO BY MATT VAN SLYKE
A demonstration of canine unit capabilities was a highlight of last week’s Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Citizens Academy. it may take a while for SAR to reach that person. “Airlink (Critical Care Transport helicopter) flew three of our people to the top of the mountain and dropped them off. One of the folks down-climbed the rock that he couldn’t climb up, hooked into him, harnessed into him, and helped him climb up. Once they got him up through the rock band, onto that snow, a Black Hawk (helicopter) from Salem came out of Army National Guard Headquarters, plucked him off there, and then flew him here to the
Sisters Airport, and dropped him off,” Deputy Zook said last Thursday in Sisters. What happened next during that 2021 rescue may explain why so many volunteer for SAR. “How’d you get the volunteers down?” asked one of the dozens of attendees at the Sheriff’s Office Community Academy in the SistersCamp Sherman Fire District Community Hall. “They skied off the top … in the dark,” Zook said.
Entertainment ................. 11 Sudoku ........................... 20
Crossword .......................21 Classifieds................. 22-23
See DCSO on page 19