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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (March 25, 2015)
A4 Opinion Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, March 25, 2015 Reinstate public in District 3’s hiring processes T he Grant School District 3 School Board has made its decision, promoting Grant Union principal Curt Shelley to be the new district VXSHULQWHQGHQW:HZLVKKLP well in his new post, and anticipate that he will do a good job for the district, given KLVWUDFNUHFRUGKHUH At the same time, we’re chagrined by the hasty process the District 3 School Board used to reach this important GHFLVLRQ We understand the appeal of hiring a known quantity – a proven administrator who is familiar with the community and the challenges of living on the frontier – but the board snubbed the patrons by jumping into the decision without adequate notice of its intent or full public H[DPLQDWLRQRILWVRSWLRQV Members undoubtedly felt pressured by the knowledge that Shelley was a finalist for a superintendent job elsewhere, and would be facing a decision point within GD\V,WZDVDWRXJKFDOOWR be sure, but perhaps one that could have been left to the job-seeker, not the hiring DJHQF\ By skipping the search process, the interviews with candidates, and public introduction of the finalists, the board rushed the process and seemed to exclude the WD[SD\LQJSXEOLF This is not intended as a criticism of Shelley – it’s entirely possible that the board might have gone through that process and UHDFKHGWKHVDPHVHOHFWLRQ But without a more extensive hiring process, that remains only an assumption, one that lingers like an asterisk on this NH\GLVWULFWGHFLVLRQ Chalk it up as a lesson: The means to the end are important, especially when doing the SXEOLF¶VEXVLQHVV'LVWULFW RI¿FLDOVDUHEHJLQQLQJWKH search for Shelley’s successor at Grant Union, and we hope that effort will put the district SDWURQVDQGWD[SD\HUV¿UPO\ EDFNLQWKHORRS±6& W HERE TO WRITE Washington, D.C. The White House, 1600 Pennsyl- YDQLD $YH 1: :DVKLQJWRQ '& 20500; Phone-comments: 202-456- 6ZLWFKERDUG 86 6HQ 5RQ :\GHQ ' ² +DUW6HQDWH2I¿FH%XLOGLQJ:DVKLQJ- WRQ'&3KRQH (PDLO ZD\QHBNLQQH\#Z\GHQVHQDWH JRY :HEVLWH KWWSZ\GHQVHQDWHJRY )D[ 86 6HQ -HII 0HUNOH\ ' ² +DUW 6HQDWH 2I¿FH %XLOGLQJ :DVK- LQJWRQ '& " 3KRQH (PDLOVHQDWRU#PHUNOH\VHQDWH JRY )D[ 2UHJRQ RI- ¿FHVLQFOXGH2QH:RUOG7UDGH&HQWHU 6:6DOPRQ6W6XLWH3RUW- ODQG25DQG6(6HFRQG 6W 6XLWH 3HQGOHWRQ 25 3KRQH )D[ 865HS*UHJ:DOGHQ5²6HF- ond District) 1404 Longworth Build- LQJ :DVKLQJWRQ '& 3KRQH 1R GLUHFW HPDLO EH- FDXVHRIVSDP:HEVLWHZZZZDOGHQ KRXVHJRY)D[ :LOO*RY%URZQIROORZ .LW]KDEHU¶VIRRWVWHSVLQIRUHVWV" By Tom Partin To EO Media Group 6LQFH *RY .DWH %URZQ ZDV sworn in as Oregon’s 38th gov- ernor last month, many in the forest products industry have wondered whether the new chief executive would continue her predecessor’s proactive efforts RQ IRUHVWU\ LVVXHV $VLGH IURP the circumstances surrounding his departure, we appreciated the WLPH -RKQ .LW]KDEHU WRRN WR XQ- derstand the connection of sus- tainable forest management to maintaining healthy forests and KHDOWK\FRPPXQLWLHV This attention was evident in .LW]KDEHU¶V VSHHFK DW -DQXDU\¶V Oregon Leadership Summit in Portland, where he correctly de- scribed how Oregon’s urban areas have recovered from the great re- cession of 2008-10 but our rural FRPPXQLWLHV DUH VWLOO VXIIHULQJ He highlighted one of the three goals of the 2015 Business Plan which was to “put our natural re- sources to work” to help combat high unemployment and poverty UDWHVLQUXUDO2UHJRQ In his three terms as governor, .LW]KDEHU KHOSHG SXW D IRFXV RQ the management needs of the fed- eral forests including Forest Ser- vice lands in eastern and south- west Oregon and the BLM lands LQ ZHVWHUQ 2UHJRQ 'XULQJ KLV second term as governor in the 1990s he worked with the For- est Service to establish the Blue Mountain Demonstration area on parts of the Malheur, Umatilla and Wallowa-Whitman Nation- DO )RUHVWV 7KLV PLOOLRQDFUH area was to highlight new man- agement strategies for treating forests under new federal “east- VLGHVFUHHQV´UHVWULFWLRQV+HZDV determined to address a situation It ain’t broke EAGLE To the Editor: I about fell out of my chair ZKHQ , UHDG -XG\ .HUU¶V OHWWHU regarding our Veteran Services 2IILFHU 1R RIIHQVH EXW , GRQ¶W know who she’s talking about or HYHQ ZKDW VKH¶V WDONLQJ DERXW ,V KHOHDYLQJ"$OO,NQRZLVµ0XQFK¶ has been doing a wonderful job and has helped me in many ways, even helping me track down med- LFDO UHSRUWV IRU P\ 3XUSOH +HDUW If she’s looking for someone with degrees and alphabet soup behind his name, I say if it ain’t broke GRQ¶WIL[LW%RE¶VWKHEHVW Richie Colbeth John Day Editor’s Note: Grant County is in the process of hiring a new veterans officer due to the retire- ment of the current officer, Bob Muenchausen. 541-575-0710 • Fax 541-575-1244 Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper USPS 226-340 John Day, Oregon MEMBER OREGON NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION Marissa Williams, marissa@bmeagle.com Scotta Callister, editor@bmeagle.com Kristina Kreger, kristina@bmeagle.com Cheryl Hoefler, cheryl@bmeagle.com Angel Carpenter, angel@bmeagle.com Angel Carpenter, angel@bmeagle.com Kim Kell, ads@bmeagle.com Lindsay Bullock office@bmeagle.com PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY BY: EO Media Group 3HULRGLFDOV3RVWDJH3DLGDW-RKQ'D\DQGDGGLWLRQDOPDLOLQJRI¿FHV SUBSCRIPTION RATES (including online access) Grant County Elsewhere in Oregon Continental U.S., Outside Oregon Outside Continental U.S. 1 year $40.00 $48.00 $55.00 $60.00 Subscriptions must be paid prior to delivery See the Blue Mountain Eagle on the Internet www.MyEagleNews.com POSTMASTER — send address changes to Blue Mountain Eagle 195 N. Canyon Blvd. John Day, OR 97845-1187 Copyright © 2015 Blue Mountain Eagle All rights reserved. No part of this publication covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means — graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping or information storage and retrieval systems — without written permission of the publisher. where harvest lev- els had plummet- ed, many sawmills had shut down, and many Orego- nians lost their MREV Tom In many ways, Partin .LW]KDEHU KHOSHG lay the ground- work for the collaborative forest- U\HIIRUWVZHVHHWRGD\ Our industry also bought into the ideas found in the governor’s salmon plan which was a delicate balance of managing our forest- ed lands while at the same time enhancing salmon and steelhead KDELWDW0DQ\SULYDWHIRUHVWODQG- owners voluntarily put millions of dollars into enhancing riparian habitat and the end result was to create ecosystems which have al- lowed Coho salmon run numbers to increase to over 400,000 wild fish returning to Oregon streams LQ /DVW \HDU .LW]KDEHU FUHDWHG a task force to review poten- tial management strategies for Western Oregon’s O&C timber- lands and to better understand the implications of competing proposals that members of our Oregon congressional delega- WLRQKDGFUDIWHG:KLOHDQDJUHH- ment was not reached by the task force, the report included an extensive outline of the chal- lenges and extensive modeling to better understand the impli- cations of different management DSSURDFKHV )LQDOO\ .LW]KDEHU ZDV WR EH- come chair of the Western Gov- ernors Association in June, and he had a desire to bring a biparti- san group of governors together to focus on improved manage- PHQW RI RXU IHGHUDO IRUHVWV 7KH governor’s draft concepts “A do we stop to think about the val- ue that is added to our daily life by the hard working people at 3DWWHUVRQ %ULGJH 5RDG" , ZRXOG like to share the many ways in which our forest service neigh- bors contribute to community life, but there is not room in a few column inches, so I will share a couple of the contributions they have made to our work at the North Fork John Day Watershed &RXQFLO First, let’s consider youth de- YHORSPHQW 'R \RX NQRZ D WHHQ who has had a summer job with the Watershed Councils, Summer <RXWK 3URJUDPV" (DFK VXPPHU 20 or more young people in Grant County are employed through our program, and many of those projects take place on the Mal- KHXU 1DWLRQDO )RUHVW 7KHUH would be no forestland youth crews without the dedicated SODQQLQJ RI 86 )RUHVW 6HUYLFH VWDII )6EHQH¿WVXVDOO Joe Rausch, Shannon Wine- To the Editor: gar, Roy Walker, Whitney Rapp, The Malheur National Forest Ernie Gipson, Colleen Malaney is providing incredible benefits and many others are contributing WR *UDQW &RXQW\ 7KH VHUYLFHV time above and beyond their dai- and amenities extend well beyond ly workloads to help provide rel- what we view as the standard task evant projects for teens of Grant RI WKH )RUHVW 6HUYLFH +RZ RIWHQ &RXQW\,ZLVK,KDGURRPWRQDPH L Case for Forest Service Renew- al” were presented to the Board of Forestry in January and the subcommittee on federal forests UHYLHZHG WKHP RQ )HE 3UH- GLFWDEO\ IDUOHIW RUJDQL]DWLRQV that oppose federal timber man- DJHPHQW FULWLFL]HG WKLV HIIRUW but we hope the new adminis- tration continues this effort to work with Western governors in promoting federal forest reform LQ&RQJUHVV Our membership hopes that *RY %URZQ ZLOO FDUU\ IRUZDUG many of the important forest- ry efforts that were started un- GHU WKH .LW]KDEHU DGPLQLVWUDWLRQ and build on those concepts in WKH FRPLQJ PRQWKV DQG \HDUV We have some very important issues facing Oregon on our pri- vate, state and federal forested ODQGV :H QHHG D JRYHUQRU ZLOO- ing to look closely and weigh in wisely on critical issues such as potential changes to the Oregon Forest Practices Act, manage- ment plans for the Tillamook and Clatsop state forests, the use of herbicides and pesticides on our forests and restoring balance to the management of our federal IRUHVWV AFRC, our members and part- ners in the industry stand ready WR ZRUN ZLWK *RY %URZQ DV VKH forms her new team and works on these critical issues to rural 2UHJRQ 3URPRWLQJ DFWLYH PDQ- DJHPHQW LV NH\ WR IXOILOOLQJ *RY Brown’s pledge, as stated in her inauguration, to “create more living-wage jobs in every single FRUQHURIWKHVWDWH´ Tom Partin is president of American Forest Resource Coun- cil, an organization of manufac- turers and companies that work directly in or represent the forest products industry. L ETTERS TO THE E DITOR Blue Mountain 195 N. Canyon Blvd. • John Day, OR 97845 P UBLISHER E DITOR A DMINISTRATIVE A SSISTANT E DITORIAL A SSISTANT C OMMUNITY N EWS S PORTS M ARKETING R EP C USTOMER S ERVICE R EP C OMMENTARY everyone, but I imagine that most Forest employees have helped to PDNHWKH\RXWKSURJUDPIO\,WLV DSSUHFLDWHG The staff of the Malheur Na- tional Forest is central to success ZLWK PDQ\ :DWHUVKHG SURMHFWV Bob Hassmiller and Allen Tay- lor heartily share their extensive NQRZOHGJH 6XVDQ *DUQHU HQ- courages partnerships and reach- HV RXW ZLWK QHZ RSSRUWXQLWLHV Shawna Clark and Joan Trosclair never fail to smile when we walk through the glass, front entry GRRUV Betty Wilt keeps contracts FRPLQJ WR WKH FRPPXQLW\ 6R very many Malheur employ- ees volunteer, contribute, and simply help to make John Day and the Forest a cheery and sustainable place to live and SOD\ Let’s all extend our apprecia- tion – life in Grant County goes well beyond the daily headlines, FRQWURYHUVLHV DQG KDUYHVWV ,W¶V the steady, good work being ac- complished by our neighbors that SXWVWKHSXOVHLQRXUFRXQW\.X- dos to everyone at the Malheur National Forest! Elaine Eisenbraun Long Creek etters policy: Letters to the Editor is a forum for Blue Mountain Eagle readers to express themselves on local, state, national or world issues. Brevity is good, but longer letters will be asked to be contained to 350 words. No personal attacks; challenge the opinion, not the person. No thank-you letters. Submissions to this page become property of the Eagle. The Eagle reserves the right to edit letters for length and for content. Letters must be original and signed by the writer. Anonymous letters will not be printed. Writers should include a telephone number so they can be reached for questions. Deadline is 5 p.m. Friday. Send letters to editor@bmeagle.com, or Blue Mountain Eagle, 195 N. Canyon Blvd., John Day, OR 97845; or fax to 541-575-1244.