A4
Opinion
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Court strayed
off the path with
cycle route vote
T
he Grant County Court
should revisit its rejection
of a proposed bike route
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made in December, was based
on misinformation that the
Court swallowed hook, line and
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The issue is not whether
the Court likes bike routes, or
cyclists, or even the proponent
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The issue is whether residents
can expect the Court to make
its decisions on facts, rather
than the unsubstantiated fears
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This situation unfolded over
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members on hand decided to
support the bike route presented
by Cosgrove, who needed a
support letter to advance the
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action on the letter until the
next meeting, when a missing
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But in the second meeting,
the full Court was swayed
against the bike route when
detractors protested it, claiming
it would cross two private
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That detail ran counter to
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week earlier, when he clearly
stated the route would be on
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No one on the Court bothered
to check out the contradiction,
despite the fact that Cosgrove
had left his contact numbers
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Burned once before by
a hubbub over a bike path
proposed for private land,
the Court members scattered
for cover like chickens from
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vote was unanimous: The
Court would not write a letter
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assumed – again wrongly –
that the project could go ahead
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Contacted later by the
Eagle, Cosgrove was clear
that without positive response
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would be eliminated from
the list of projects under
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he was thunderstruck to learn
that his path had been scuttled
by an unquestioned, erroneous
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get into a secondary objection
based on the idea that cyclists
relieve themselves in the great
outdoors and thus should be
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Court wants to adopt that
particular logic for resisting
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see them take a similar, tough
stand against other tourist
sectors that roam our back
roads and frequently stray onto
private land – hunters, horn
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guises – has a place in our
future, not to replace traditional
resource industries but to
supplement our struggling
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Court to clarify its decision,
even if it is too late for this
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cycling, they should be honest
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rejection on false speculation
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it casts doubt about the
trustworthiness of their
deliberations in other matters,
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C OMMENTARY
To achieve forest goals,
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By Nicky A. Sprauve
To the Blue Mountain Eagle
In 1995, Grant County residents
voted to “refuse to recognize Federal
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In 2002, we voted to establish the
Grant County Public Forest Commis-
sion and to petition Congress to trans-
fer the title of public lands to Grant
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sion of the Public Forest Commission
was to take over the management of
public lands and to use a percentage
of the income to fund public schools
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see that not one of these measures has
been fully realized!
These measures were a response to
an increasingly desperate situation in
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ceived a percentage of all timber sales
from the federal government to help
cover our expenses, we now receive
no income, and have become one
of the most economically depressed
counties in Oregon with the highest
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Last year, we requested the County
Court to pass Ordinance 2013-01, to
prevent the Forest Service from clos-
ing roads without County Court and
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limited success at getting anyone to
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say when we have gone from the big
dream of taking over the forests to just
trying to keep our access? Where did
we go wrong?
Recently, members of the Public
Forest Commission attended a Grant
County Public Access Advisory Board
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admonished us by saying, “We are the
ones at fault – each one of us … We
are the stakeholders … And, it got this
bad because weOHWLW´
The Public Access Advisory Board
practically had their hands touching
the ceiling, when it came to a deci-
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As community volunteers, they were
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only wish there was that kind of unity
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were in favor, barely enough to move
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When we bring our varying opinions
together to create a better environment,
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I believe some commissioners are
divided because they belong to spe-
cial interest groups and collaborative
groups, or because they or family
members are employed by companies
that have a big stake in keeping things
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They cannot adequately represent
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Now, if you think the only place a
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lic Forest Commission, you would be
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Then, compare that with the kinds of
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stand out very quickly!
So, what can you do? Elected of-
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RI WKH SHRSOH ,I ZH GRQ¶W WKHQ \RX
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calling us, writing us, and showing
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that a thousand phone calls or a thou-
sand people in County Court WILL
get our attention! IfWKDWGRHVQ¶WZRUN
HOHFWQHZOHDGHUV7KDW¶V\RXUSRZHU
Remember what Jim Sproul said: “We
are the stakeholders … And, it got this
bad because weOHWLW´
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GUHDPV IRU D EHWWHU IXWXUH /HW¶V all
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Nicky A. Sprauve lives in Canyon
City and is a Grant County Public For-
est Commissioner. He can be reached
at NickyASprauve@gmail.com.
L ETTERS TO THE E DITOR
Letter: Diversify
with tourism
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
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is a major agenda item for many Third
World Countries, only recently has it
To the Editor:
achieved the same degree of attention
I have a profound respect for our LQWKH8QLWHG6WDWHV´
seasoned Grant County Commission-
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er Boyd Britton, who was not present recreation, geologic-ecologic and cul-
GXULQJ WKH ¿UVW PHHWLQJ RQ WKH ELNH tural history tourism is a legitimate,
route debacle mentioned in the newspa- beautiful, and rural palomino horse to
SHU'HFRXUDPDWHXU*UDQW&RXQW\ ride out of the Grant County economic
Commissioners fumbled the football in GLVDVWHUGDWLQJWRWKHV
WKHIRXUWKTXDUWHU
I appreciate Mike Cosgrove for try-
Grant County has been the poster LQJWRKHOSRXW*UDQW&RXQW\FKLOGUHQ¶V
child for Oregon unemployment for IXWXUH
decades and Mike Cosgrove has been
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Canyon City
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Roads are critical
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sonable, low-cost investment to create a To the Editor:
Sheriff Glenn Palmer of Grant
bike tourism route, using existing roads
and abandoned railway rights-of-way County submitted a letter to Malheur
LQ/RJDQ9DOOH\)XUWKHUKHZRUNHGWR National Forest Supervisor stating that
sell the state Tourism Department on they violated Grant County Ordinance
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Sadly, he was at the critical stage ways are open in the county, unless
when he asked the commissioners to VSHFL¿FDOO\ JUDQWHG FORVXUH WKURXJK
support his hard work on this tourism both the County Court and Sheriff
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ORFDOVXSSRUWEHIRUHIXQGLQJQHZLGHDV place if both the County Court and
Someone is quoted in this article, 6KHULII¶V2I¿FHDJUHH
This is exactly the sort of thing coun-
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they naively threw the baby out with ty governments should be doing: trying
to keep our overreaching and over-reg-
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We need to diversify and strengthen ulating federal government from taking
our rural economies or remain another DOOWKHSHRSOH¶VOLEHUWLHV5RDGFORVXUHV
will have big, irreversible consequences
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Forest Service friends have attend- IRUWKHIXWXUHRI*UDQW&RXQW\8UJHWKH
HG WRXULVP FRQIHUHQFHV DW 0LVVRXOD¶V County Court to stand strong against this
8QLYHUVLW\RI0RQWDQD7KH¿UVWLQ'H- DQGLIWKH\GRQ¶WWKHSHRSOHVKRXOGKROG
cember 1995, had a federal publication WKHPDFFRXQWDEOHDQGYRWHWKHPRXW
The forests of Grant County are
created titled “Linking Tourism, the En-
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The back cover notes: “Tourism is coming diseased, overgrown, ravaged
DQ LQGXVWU\ RI JOREDO VLJQL¿FDQFH ,W E\ZLOG¿UHVDQGWKH)RUHVW6HUYLFHLV
LVRQHRIWKHZRUOG¶VODUJHVWLQGXVWULHV spending their days trying to manage
and has become more attractive as a XVRXWRIWKHP
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relatively quick generator of foreign ex-
Mt. Vernon
change or income to local remote nat-
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To the Editor:
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Read on his appointment as Speaker
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assumes this new responsibility, he will
lead his Democrat colleagues in a direc-
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ELOLW\DQGRSHQPLQGHGQHVV
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lative agenda ahead is fraught with
status–quo tax and spending, leftist
progressive thinking and misguided
faux-crisis reactions which this state
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The proposed bills tied to Energy and
Climate Change / Global Warming
have to be considered within the frame-
work of all the science that is out there
and not just that science which has been
cherry-picked by those who generate
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destabilizing our economy and infor-
mation pools through outcome-oriented
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academia and environmental activists
and their attorneys)
Further, and extremely importantly,
I hope he sees the necessity to move
against the overreach of the federal
government into the everyday issues
that should be the responsibility of the
states and the individuals within those
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He needs to look at what the rest
of the nation has recognized and man-
dated at the November 2014 elections
and move Oregon out of the doldrums
created by the Democrat-run politics of
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worked and responsible, forward think-
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I am a product of the once top-of-
the-line education system in Oregon
and know it can be that again if we
look, not forward, but back at and em-
ulate what made it great in the 1950s,
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Tim K. Smith
Harney County