Downtown Sisters is gaining a second street. The City of Sisters lists the lighting on Adams Avenue for mid-October and expects the project to be substantially complete this month. That would wrap up a summer of rebuilding the 80-foot-wide corridor between Cedar and Pine streets. Adams has carried traffic for years. What changes now is that it can carry people on foot or on a bike, and the timing matters because the downtown calendar is about to get busy.
In 2018, planners named Adams as an east-west route across town so that all traffic would not have to use Cascade Avenue, which is also Highway 20. Eight years later, the street is close to working that way, and the next few weeks of Halloween, the end of the farm-stand season and the holiday parade will be its first real test.
What the Crews Actually Built
The Nugget's August report lists the work as a full rebuild of the corridor:
- New concrete sidewalks and wider asphalt paths that walkers and cyclists share
- Fresh pavement and more on-street parking
- Stormwater upgrades and underground electrical work
- New street lighting
- About 200 new trees
- Seven decorative intersection circles
The shared paths were the choice people debated most. The city skipped standard bike lanes and widened the sidewalks so pedestrians and cyclists use the same path. Officials say this cuts the distance a person has to cross the road by close to a third and slows traffic. At least one letter to The Nugget asked whether a mixed path could cause problems for kids, older residents and people using wheelchairs or walkers. The first real answer will come when the street is full of people instead of crews.
Mayor Jennifer Letz described the goal this way:
"New sidewalks and paths will increase bike and pedestrian safety and make the street more accessible for those with mobility challenges. There will be more parking, and dozens of new trees and plants will provide shade and gussy up the street."
Why It Took Since 2018
The street needed eight years to get to this point. A state transportation grant paid for the first streetscape plan in 2018. At the open house that year, residents and business owners were shown two design concepts, and 20 of the 21 people present picked the same one. The city council approved that design in 2019. After that, the project sat on the shelf for most of five years because of the pandemic, other city priorities and the search for funding. The Sisters Urban Renewal Agency voted to move it forward in July 2025. The city put the job out to bid in January 2026, and in March the council gave Deschutes Construction Corp. the contract for just under $3.55 million.
Most of the money comes through the Urban Renewal Agency. The agency is funded by the extra property tax revenue that comes in as downtown assessed values rise, and the same source has paid for earlier work on Cascade and Hood avenues and Fir Street Park. The city's own estimate in 2021 put the cost at $4 million.
The schedule has slipped a few weeks. In August, Capital Projects Manager Paul Bertagna said lighting would go in last, "as we aim for our September completion date." The city's project page now gives mid-October for lighting and October for substantial completion. City Manager Jordan Wheeler has promised a dedication and ribbon-cutting this fall once the work is fully done. No date has been announced yet.
The Summer It Cost
Building on a downtown street during peak season had a cost. Some local businesses told The Nugget that access problems during construction hurt their summer. At The Stand, the seasonal farm stand on Adams run by Carys Wilkins and Benji Nagel, Wilkins said sales had dropped since the project started. "You have to drive around a few laps to figure out how to get in," she said. She also said customers kept making the effort and the crew worked to keep space open in front of the stand. "It'll be good at some point. It's just hard timing for a big project."
The Stand's own site says its season runs from the beginning of May through the end of October. That means the farm stand that stayed open through the construction gets only a few weeks with a finished street before it closes for the winter.
Who's on the Street
A finished street matters most to the places along it. Three addresses on Adams are worth knowing as the corridor reopens:
| Place | Address | What it is | Fall and winter status |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Stand | 254 E. Adams Ave. | Seasonal produce and goods from local producers | Season closes at the end of October |
| Sisters Habitat for Humanity ReStore | 254 W. Adams Ave. | Thrift and home goods | Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; outdoor-item donations limited Oct. 1 to April 1 |
| Sisters Art Works | 204 W. Adams Ave. | Arts and music venue | Hosted summer creativity camps in 2026 |
The city expects Adams to fill in further over time. The corridor has businesses at its west end and homes to the east. Letz told The Nugget that the lack of sidewalks and parking had "stymied any building or development," and that Urban Renewal dollars went into the corridor "to spur construction of businesses and homes in this prime location." No specific new building on Adams has been announced.
The First Real Test Is a Busy Six Weeks
The Sisters Harvest Faire is held on the second weekend of October every year, and this year it falls on Oct. 10 and 11. It runs along Main Avenue, with Saturday hours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. A September preview from That Oregon Life puts the fair between Larch and Fir streets, with Sunday hours from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Weekends like this one are why the 2018 plan called for a second east-west route.
After that, these dates are on the downtown calendar:
- Halloween Candy Crawl, Oct. 31, 3:30 to 5 p.m. Kids visit participating downtown businesses for candy, according to the Explore Sisters listing.
- Trunk-or-Treat, Oct. 31, 2 to 4 p.m. Sisters Park & Recreation District hosts it at Village Green Park, 305 S. Fir St., and the district's event page asks for a canned-food donation. The Candy Crawl listing sends families on to Village Green afterward, but the two posted schedules overlap. Under the district's times, Trunk-or-Treat ends at 4 p.m., half an hour after the Candy Crawl starts.
- Holiday Palooza, Nov. 28, 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. A parade runs on E. Main from 3:30 to 4:15 p.m., followed by activities at Fir Street Park. The tree lighting starts between 5 and 5:15 p.m., according to Sisters Park & Recreation District.
Each of these closes or crowds Main Avenue or draws a crowd to a park a few blocks off it. The Adams Avenue project also covered sections of the side streets between Main and Adams. That gives people a block-by-block option to walk or ride that did not exist last fall.
Where the Walk Goes Next
Adams is one part of a longer route the city is building. Village Green Park, home to Trunk-or-Treat, already serves as a staging area for Peterson Ridge, with parking, restrooms and water. Getting from there to the trails currently means using a narrow road crossing over Whychus Creek that walkers and cyclists share with cars.
A new multi-use path and a pedestrian and bike bridge will replace that crossing. The bridge will be about 8 feet wide and 70 feet long, with pressure-treated wood decking on a prefabricated metal span. The city chose that design partly because it is easier to clear of snow. The city awarded the contract to DJ Miller Construction in June for $265,935, below the roughly $300,000 budget. Work on the path is underway, but because the bridge takes a long time to fabricate, The Nugget reports that completion is estimated for early May 2027.
By spring, there should be a connected route from the downtown core along a rebuilt Adams Avenue to Village Green and across a dedicated bridge onto the Peterson Ridge Trail system, with a separate path for people on foot and on bikes most of the way.
A street project like Adams changes how a property near downtown Sisters works day to day, from parking to the route you take to the trailhead. If you'd like to talk through how the Adams Avenue work or the Peterson Ridge connection affects a specific property in town, Heather Osgood knows these blocks well and is glad to help. Let's Connect.
