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Sisters, Oregon
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School board to seek water rights
By Jim Cornelius

The Sisters School Board will seek a price to purchase some 36 acres of water rights for irrigation of fields at the new high school and at the current school.

While the district has budgeted $125,000 for a well and a pump, no money was budgeted for water rights. At current rates, those rights could cost the district as much as $175,000.

The district has made numerous cuts to the new high school project to stay under budget and there is no indication of where the $175,000 for water rights would come from.

The district could use city water, but school officials found out only days ago that they would have to purchase a booster pump at a cost of $50,000 to $100,000 to use the city water system.

The district does not want to pay city water rates to water fields over the long term because that would be much more expensive than creating a pond for irrigation.

A delay in obtaining water would push field seeding back to next spring.

In other business, the board approved a new design for playing fields that eliminates a practice football field and provides dedicated soccer fields.

The board rejected a plan for an additional parking lot to serve the fields. Some grading work -- unauthorized, according to Steve Swisher and construction project manger Bob Martin -- had already been done on the parking lot site.

However, that work was undone by Monday, July 1.

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