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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 4, 2017)
The Blue Mountain BIRDERS BRAVE COLD FOR BIRD COUNT EAGLE PAGE A3 Grant County’s newspaper since 1868 W EDNESDAY , J ANUARY 4, 2017 • N O . 1 • 18 P AGES • $1.00 27 districts receive more than $7 million in property taxes each year in Grant County By Sean Hart Blue Mountain Eagle I n Grant County this year, more than $7 million in property taxes will be collected. The money is distributed to 27 different taxing districts in the county based on individual tax rates for each district. Several of the districts encompass the entire county: the Education Service District, Blue Mountain Hospital, Grant County and Exten- sion and 4-H. Most of the districts, however, cover smaller areas, such as school districts, cities, Rate † Net tax collected Mid-Co. Prairie Monument Long Creek Dayville Fox 0.301 0.1673 0.566 0.2521 0.257 0.7619 $100,699 12,930 23,926 9,823 8,852 5,200 Total $161,429 Rural fire districts Rate † Net tax collected John Day RFD Permanent* Bond* Mt. Vernon RFD Prairie RFD 1.1862 0.5941 0.5921 1.0012 0.4901 $103,712 51,944 51,769 40,915 19,124 Total The Eagle/Sean Hart Tidewater Contractors employees, including Prairie City resident Hal Gilliam, right, finish paving the parking lot for the new John Day fire hall May 10, 2016. Temporary bonds collected with property taxes helped fund the new hall. rural fire districts and cemetery Editor’s note: This overview a property assessed at $100,000 districts. The John Day and kicks off the Eagle’s “Your with a rate of $1 per $1,000 Canyon City areas are also Taxes” series, in which we would pay a tax of $100. covered by a parks and Overall, district tax rates will examine all 27 taxing recreation district. range from $0.1673 for Prairie districts in Grant County so Cemetery District to $6.0017 In addition to the county- you know where your for the city of Seneca. wide districts, most properties property taxes are going. in the county are taxed by one Grant County Assessor school district and one David Thunell said Measure 5, cemetery district, as well as either one city or passed by Oregon voters in 1990, limits the total amount of property taxes that can be levied on a one rural fire district. property. These limits are based on the real Taxes are based on the assessed value of a market value of the property, not the taxable property, and the annual tax rates are often assessed value. He said, for general govern- expressed per $1,000 of the assessed value. So, Cemetery districts Grant County property tax breakdown, FY 2016-17 Grand total: $7.84 million Cemetery districts: $161,429 or 2.1% Rural fire districts: $163,751 or 2.1% Parks & recreation: 194,487 or 2.5% Cities: $832,073 or 10.6% School districts: $906,732 or 11.6% $163,751 Rate † Net tax collected Parks & Recreation 0.7484 $194,487 School districts Rate † Net tax collected Dayville Monument Long Creek Grant Prairie City 2.2213 1.8868 1.6643 1.6468 1.5913 $68,490 81,575 70,281 554,972 131,413 Total $906,732 www.MyEagleNews.com Grant County: $1.58 million or 20.2% Extension and 4-H: $142,829 or 1.8% Grant Co. Education Services District: $2.01 million or 25.7% Blue Mountain Hospital: $1.84 million or 23.5% NOTE: Totals may not equal 100 due to rounding. *Estimate, not accounting for truncation and compression. † Per $1,000 assessed value Source: Grant Count Assessor’s Office Research by Sean Hart, illustration by Alan Kenaga/EO Media Group ment, the limit is $10 per $1,000 of real market value, and for education, the limit is $5 per $1,000 of real market value. Six county taxing districts — Blue Moun- tain Hospital, John Day Rural Fire District and the cities of John Day, Canyon City, Long Creek and Mt. Vernon — have also secured voter approval to levy additional bonds for specific projects. These temporary bonds have separate rates from the permanent tax and do not count toward the maximum limits. With tax and bond rates combined, total rates in Grant County range from $11.841 to $18.1992 per $1,000 of assessed property value. Countywide Rate † Net tax collected Blue Mountain Hospital Permanent* Bond* Grant County Grant Co. E.S.D. Extension and 4-H 3.3523 2.1329 1.2194 2.8819 1.6468 0.2598 $1.84 million 1.17 million 670,403 1.58 million 2.01 million 142,829 Total $5.58 million Cities Rate † Net tax collected Seneca Canyon City Permanent* Bond* Prairie City Long Creek Permanent* Bond* Mt. Vernon Permanent* Bond* John Day Permanent* Bond* Monument Dayville 6.0017 5.1245 3.9998 1.1247 4.0826 4.0755 2.2776 1.7979 3.7824 2.5348 1.2476 3.6396 2.9915 0.6481 2.7052 1.1554 $33,325 164,102 128,705 36,190 156,232 27,472 15,353 12,119 75,769 50,793 25,000 354,389 291,439 63,139 12,915 7,869 Total $832,073 New year brings new laws By Jade McDowell EO Media Group The 2016 legislative session was a short one, but Oregon lawmakers had enough time to approve a hand- ful of new laws that went into effect Jan. 1. Some — like a law authorizing the governing body of Tillamook County to establish wetlands — ap- ply to a very narrow segment of the state’s population. But others will af- fect all Oregonians. As always, not knowing about a new law is not a valid legal de- fense if you get caught breaking it. Criminal impersonation Sending intimidating emails to your neighbor while pretending to be the city planner is now a crime. Senate Bill 1567 makes it illegal to impersonate a public servant, vet- County declines request to cover Sheriff Palmer’s legal fees By Sean Hart Blue Mountain Eagle The Grant Count Court does not intend to cover at- torney fees for Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer relat- ed to a public records law- suit fi led by The Oregonian newspaper. In a unanimous motion Dec. 28, the court members said, after investigation, they will not pay the $78,000 in attorney fees requested by The Oregonian, or fees in- curred in Palmer’s defense, because the lawsuit was not covered under the Oregon Tort Claims Act. They also requested county attor- ney Ron Yock- im to further investigate the matter and said they may Sheriff revisit it. Glenn The Or- Palmer egonian re- quested the attorney fees after suing Palmer, the sheriff’s offi ce and Civil Deputy Sally De- Ford, requesting a judge to declare certain records to be public records and to compel their disclosure, according to documents fi led in Grant County Circuit Court. The Oregonian said in the docu- ments Palmer refused to pro- duce the records before the lawsuit, which entitles them to attorney fees. Palmer, DeFord and their attorney have not responded to questions about the law- suit and did not immediately respond to emailed questions about the county’s recent de- cision. County Judge Scott My- ers said attorney D. Zachary Hostetter, who represented Palmer and DeFord in the lawsuit, told the county it would be responsible for See PALMER, Page A18 eran or member of the Armed Forces with the intent to cause another per- son injury. The new law applies even in cases See LAWS, Page A18 Winegar named new fair manager By Rylan Boggs Blue Mountain Eagle Mindy Winegar offi cially started as Grant County Fair manager Dec. 26. The former fair secretary has been under guidance of former fair manager Mary Weaver for months and had a big hand in putting together last year’s county fair. Winegar worked as the fairgrounds secretary for a year and a half and is waiting until she becomes acclimated to the new job before she hires a replacement secretary. She is excited about the promo- tion and said she is looking forward to the challenge of putting on the fair. “Mary has Mindy really grown Winegar the fair a lot and I just hope to continue to keep it growing,” Winegar said. Winegar said she is not planning any drastic changes but has a few projects planned, such as installing a public ad- dress system Weaver worked See FAIR, Page A18