A8
Blue Mountain Eagle
ROADS
failure to take the order to the
&RXUWDQGVKHULII¿UVWPDGHWKH
closures illegal.
Sproul questioned what sup-
Continued from Page A1
port the Court has found for the
that National Environmental closures, noting the opponents
Policy Act reviews either were were evident, right there in the
QRWGRQHGLGQRWVSHFL¿FDOO\FLWH room.
the roads to be closed, or lacked
Commissioner Boyd Britton,
the required public notice.
while lauding the committee for
Geiger and others in the doing a great job, said he be-
group pressed the Court to send lieves Beverlin will review the
a letter – a draft was submitted road orders and report back to
to the Court earlier – to declare the Court.
the Forest Service in violation.
The meeting included some
They want the agency to rescind verbal sparring over who was in
the order for all Grant County charge, the Court or the board,
roads.
and the Court cautioned one
The Court resisted that member who interrupted Bever-
move, with County Judge Scott lin with a loud aside about get-
Myers calling it “premature.”
ting a shovel.
“I’m not willing to sign a let-
Commissioner Chris Labhart
ter at this point,” Myers said.
said he’d like to have a separate
He said the Court is await- meeting to focus on the issues,
ing a report from Beverlin on and review maps of the area.
the order, how the agency will
“This isn’t working,” he
proceed with the closures, and said of including the issue on
whether the roads were legally the regular agenda. “We’re
closed.
trying to work together on
Board members said the this, and keep it civil.”
News
BROWN
Continued from Page A1
The governor’s fall
After a tumultuous
week, Kitzhaber, 67, an-
nounced his resignation in
a news release.
In his statement, he was
critical of the news media
and legislative leaders who
had called publicly for his
resignation.
“I must also say that
it is deeply troubling to
me to realize that we have
come to a place in the his-
tory of this great state of
ours where a person can be
charged, tried, convicted
and sentenced by the media
with no due process and no
independent verification of
the allegations involved,”
he said. “But even more
troubling – and on a very
personal level as someone
who has given 35 years of
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
public service to Oregon –
is that so many of my for-
mer allies in common cause
have been willing to simply
accept this judgment at its
face value.
“It is something that is
hard for me to comprehend
– something we might ex-
pect in Washington, D.C.,
but surely not in Oregon.”
Since Oct. 8, when
Willamette Week first re-
ported Hayes’ efforts to
use her position as hon-
orary first lady on behalf
of her private consulting
business, there has been
a steady stream of new
disclosures.
They were not enough to
deter Kitzhaber’s re-elec-
tion Nov. 4, although his
once-commanding
lead
over Republican Dennis
Richardson, a conserva-
tive state representative
from Southern Oregon, had
dropped sharply.
The course of events
changed with a Jan. 27 sto-
ry by the EO Media Group/
Pamplin Media Group Cap-
ital Bureau about $118,000
that Hayes received for
consulting work that she
would not discuss. Other
MILL
Continued from Page A1
47
The Dodge family owns
Blue
Mountain
Lum-
ber Products at Reith and
Boardman Chip Co., as
well as logging and cattle
operations in Northeastern
Oregon.
Porter said the company
seems to be moving right
along with permits and oth-
er preliminary work. Even
with the opening date un-
certain, the company has
The investigations
Kitzhaber and Hayes
face an investigation by
Oregon Attorney Gener-
al Ellen Rosenblum and a
possible probe by the Ore-
gon Ethics Commission.
In his statement Fri-
day, Kitzhaber said they
would cooperate with those
probes.
Rosenblum issued her
own statement, saying the
resignation would not af-
fect the ongoing criminal
investigation.
“Oregonians
deserve
nothing less than a full and
fair investigation of all the
facts, as well as the oppor-
tunity to reach a resolution
that will truly allow our
state to move forward,” she
said.
The pressure intensified
further last week as offi-
cials confirmed that the U.S
attorney for Oregon has
subpoenaed emails and oth-
er documents of Kitzhaber,
Hayes and several organi-
zations that paid Hayes for
consulting services. The
subpoena also covers re-
cords relating to 15 other
state employees, across 11
state agencies.
The Oregon Department
of Administrative Services
received a subpoena for
the records just hours af-
ter Kitzhaber announced
his plan to resign, agency
spokesman Matt Shelby
wrote in an email.
The subpoena is a pre-
liminary step toward a
meeting of a federal grand
jury, which wants the mate-
rials by March 10.
The list of subpoenaed
records is lengthy, but
they focus on dealings that
Hayes and her consulting
firm had with the state go-
ing back to Jan. 1, 2009,
more than two years before
Kitzhaber took office for a
third term in 2011.
put two local people to
work on the set-up, he said.
Just seeing activity
at the industrial site is a
boost for the town, Porter
said.
“If you had asked me
back at Thanksgiving about
the prospects for the in-
dustry returning to Long
Creek, I would have said
not good,” he said.
Porter said when he be-
came mayor about nine
years ago, Long Creek’s
business future looked dire.
“No
restaurant,
no
store, no gas, nothing,”
he said. “We didn’t even
have a vending machine in
town – you couldn’t buy a
Coke.”
Today, the town – popu-
lation 190 – has two stores,
a restaurant, and a gas sta-
tion, in addition to the mo-
tel, a longtime landmark.
Leslie Barnett, owner
of the Long Creek Lodge,
said people are feeling re-
ally positive about the mill
plan. Even a few jobs can
have a big impact in Long
Creek, she noted.
Barnett said the motel
already has seen a bene-
fit as workers have stayed
there this winter.
“They’ve been great
– they seem like real-
ly good neighbors,” she
said.
The new mill opportu-
nity comes on top of other
jobs gained when the Grant
County Road Department
reopened its shop in Long
Creek, and the North Fork
John Day Watershed Coun-
cil established its head-
quarters there.
The development of the
plant coincides with in-
creasing activity on the
Malheur National Forest,
which launched a 10-year
stewardship plan and ac-
celerated restoration work
last year. The forest staff
is rolling out new land-
scape-scale projects that
are expected to produce
abundant small-wood ma-
terials.
news organizations then
reported that Hayes ap-
parently did not report
that income on tax returns
that had been released to
them.
Kitzhaber then declared
at a Jan. 30 news confer-
ence that Hayes would no
longer have a policy or po-
litical role in his adminis-
tration. But his appearance
and responses raised more
questions.
FACEBOOKERS:
Become an Eagle fan today!
Go to:
facebook.com/MyEagleNews
)DPLO\SKDUPDFLHVVHUYLQJ(DVWHUQ2UHJRQRYHU\HDUV
Heppner and Condon, Oregon
/HWRXUIDPLO\RISKDUPDFLVWVVHUYH\RX
:HDUHKDSS\WRWUDQVIHUDQGPDLOSUHVFULSWLRQVDQGZRXOG
ZHOFRPHWKHRSSRUWXQLW\WRYLVLWZLWK\RXDERXWRXUVHUYLFHV
541-676-9158
We Gladly Accept Visa or MasterCard
CRAB FEED
March 14, 2015 • 6PM
Fresh Crab in the Shell,
Prime Rib,
all the sides and fixings
$30 /PLATE
$50 /COUPLE
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
6pm • JD Golf Course
Limited to 75 plates.
CALL 541-575-0170
FOR TICKETS.
7