A10
News
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Local McDonald’s restaurant closes Oct. 31
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY – The Golden
Arches in John Day will be com-
ing down, and 18 people will lose
their jobs.
Oct. 31 will be McDonald’s
of John Day restaurant’s last day
open.
“I’ve spent two months going
back and forth with McDonald’s
corporate of¿ce trying to talk
them out of their decision,” said
owner Jorge Ribeiro of Burns.
Hundreds of McDonald’s
restaurants have been up for clo-
sure nationwide, and Ribeiro said
the decision to close was based on
the “low economics of the situa-
tion,” and because they are reach-
ing the end of a 20-year lease on the
property owned by the DR Johnson
family.
He said the building will be torn
down in November.
“It was 100 percent a corporate
decision,” Ribeiro said.
“Emotionally, I’ve gone through
a lot of feelings,” he added.
Q&A
Continued from Page A1
projects in the forest.
The collaborative says that
since its start there has been no
litigation involving the forest,
while timber harvest and resto-
ration projects on the Malheur
have increased dramatically.
The group was behind an accel-
erated restoration program in-
cluding the 10-year stewardship
contract granted by the Forest
Service, securing a sustainable
supply of logs to keep the local
infrastructure operating into the
future.
The Blue Mountain Eagle
asked Mark Webb, its execu-
tive director, to shed light on the
group and the work it’s doing.
Q. BMFP has emerged as
a key player in getting some
timber harvest going again on
Mark Webb
the Malheur National Forest.
Give us a little history as to
how the BMFP got started.
BMFP formed in 2006 to
help address natural resource
challenges in Grant County.
Active management on the Mal-
heur was virtually non-existent
at the time. Mills were running
short of timber, loggers were
going out of business, forest
health was declining, and area
communities were suffering.
He said he’s been in business
for 30 years, with 15 years own-
ing McDonald’s in John Day.
“Over the years, I’ve had to
¿re people, but usually people ¿re
themselves,” he said. “Here are
18 people I care about – it was
the hardest day of my life. I will
miss all my people and working
in John Day.”
John Day’s McDonald’s has
been open since 1996, and Ri-
beiro bought it in July of 2000.
Ribeiro also owned a McDonald’s
restaurant in Burns which he sold
Loggers and environmentalists,
along with elected of¿cials and
community members, decided
something had to change. We
decided to try working togeth-
er rather than ¿ghting in court.
Surprisingly, we found we
shared a lot of common ground.
We agreed we wanted healthy
forests and strong communities.
So we focused on these things
and started working together
with the Forest Service to make
good things happen.
Q. Who’s involved today?
Our partners include local
loggers, ranchers, Grant County
government, the State of Ore-
gon, local saw mills, environ-
mental groups, private citizens,
contractors, the Forest Service,
and others.
Q. How do the partners
and the Malheur National
Forest interact?
We work with the Malheur to
identify and prioritize areas that
need treatment. This involves
developing treatments that re-
duce the chance of destructive
wild¿re, increase forest health,
and provide timber and wood
products for the mills and local
communities. We don’t always
agree among ourselves or with
the Malheur about what treat-
ments should look like, so we
rely heavily on science to inform
our work. We also monitor proj-
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of domestic violence, the Heart of
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one year ago.
He said that of the 18 employ-
ees he has in John Day, four of
them have worked for him for at
least 10 years.
“I appreciate all they’ve done
and their hard work and great ser-
vice to the community of John
Day the last 15 years,” he said of
all his employees. “I want to per-
sonally thank the community of
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
John Day for their patronage and
their support of my family and McDonald’s of John Day restaurant
is set to close at the end of October
myself over the past 15 years.”
and will be torn down in November.
ects over time to learn how to do
things better in the future. The
Forest Service has been very re-
ceptive to this kind of help as it
develops its projects.
Q. Recently some folks
have criticized the group as
sort of a front for either the FS
or the environmental move-
ment. Has that come as a
surprise to the members, and
how do you respond to that?
It has come as a surprise. We
do work closely with the Mal-
heur and some members of the
environmental community. We
also work closely with mill own-
ers, loggers, ranchers, and others
from the local community. We
are all about improving forest
and community health, not do-
ing business as normal for any
particular group. Our approach
has required members and
partners to change in important
ways. That’s one reason timber
harvest and restoration work on
the Malheur has increased three-
fold since we began in 2006.
Q. What are the goals of
the group as a whole, and with
such diverse membership,
how do you reach agreement
on them?
We want to reduce the risk
of destructive wild¿res, create
healthier forests, and help build
stronger communities. We ac-
knowledge and respect differ-
A MAN
WAKES
UP in the
morning
after sleeping on...
an advertised bed, in advertised
pajamas.
He will bathe in an ADVERTISED TUB, shave with an ADVERTISED RAZOR,
have a breakfast of ADVERTISED JUICE, cereal and toast, toasted in an
ADVERTISED TOASTER, put on ADVERTISED CLOTHES and glance at his
ADVERTISED WATCH. He’ll ride to work in his ADVERTISED CAR, sit at an
ADVERTISED DESK and write with an ADVERTISED PEN. Yet this person
hesitates to advertise, saying that advertising doesn’t pay. Finally, when his
non-advertised business is going under, HE’LL ADVERTISE IT FOR SALE.
Then it’s too late.
AND THEY SAY ADVERTISING DOESN’T WORK?
DON’T MAKE THIS SAME MISTAKE
Advertising is an investment, not an expense. Think about it!
Jeff Meyerholz with MewWow Photography will be
present taking pictures that will be available for purchase.
JDCC Parks & Rec
This is an alcohol, drug and tobacco free event!!
Blue Mountain Eagle
MyEagleNews.com
Don’t get left behind, call today! Kim Kell 541-575-0710
ences among our members. But
we focus on the shared goals
and accommodate our person-
al interests and preferences to
meeting them. This can be chal-
lenging. We rely heavily on
science and outside experts to
provide BMFP with a common
understanding of what makes
forests and landscapes healthy.
Respecting differences, focus-
ing on our goals, utilizing sci-
ence—these things have helped
BMFP develop trust among
members and with the Malheur,
move past our differences, and
make signi¿cant progress in
treating the landscape.
Q. Give us an example of an
accomplishment to date that’s
a source of pride, and why.
Timber harvest and resto-
ration projects on the Malheur
have increased three fold since
we began in 2006. No other
National Forest has experienced
anything like that. Our role in
this is two fold. First, we suc-
cessfully collaborated with Har-
ney County Restoration Collab-
orative and the Forest Service to
secure the millions of additional
dollars needed to increase the
pace and scale of work on the
Malheur. Second, we’ve devel-
oped a collaborative approach
to public land management that
helps ensure work on this scale
gets implemented. This has
resulted in more jobs for our
communities, sustained manu-
facturing capacity, and healthier
forests.
Q. What are the challeng-
es - issues or projects - on your
plate right now?
We are focused on deal-
ing with the aftermath of the
Canyon Creek Complex. The
Forest Service is aggressively
pursuing a roadside salvage
that will address safety issues
and harvest substantial vol-
umes of burned timber. BMFP
plans to compliment this ef-
fort with another salvage ef-
fort that treats burned areas
outside road corridors. This is
a contentious issue for some
of our members. But we plan
to develop an approach that is
informed by science, easy on
the land, provides timber har-
vest and economic recovery,
and most importantly, puts
the treated areas that were
destroyed by wild¿re back on
the path to becoming healthy
productive forests.
Q. What can the public ex-
pect to see as the result of the
Partners’ work?
The public can expect to see
more of a working National For-
est. One where informed timber
harvest and restoration treatments
continue, the Malheur becomes
healthier and more resilient, and
local communities bene¿t.
Q. Why should people get
involved, and how can they?
I would encourage people
to get involved because BMFP
is the most effective way to en-
sure our local voice gets heard in
the public process of managing
the Malheur National Forest.
People can watch the paper for
our meeting times or contact
me, 541-620-2546 or bmfp06@
gmail.com.
Michael B. DesJardin
Dentistry, PC
Preventive, Restorative & Endodontics
New Patients
Welcome!
208 NW Canton
John Day
541-575-2725
mbddental@live.com
michaelbdesjardindmd.com