IT’S A WRAP
Blue Mountain
in
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The
Youth rodeo series comes to a
close for the season.
PAGE B1
Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
W EDNESDAY , S EPTEMBER 30, 2015
• N O . 39
• 20 P AGES
• $1.00
www.MyEagleNews.com
Salvage operations set to high priority
Ochoco Lumber President
Bruce Daucsavage said the
Malheur Lumber Company,
JOHN DAY — Timber mill in John Day will add ex-
salvage activity is surging in WHQGHG KRXUV DURXQG WKH ¿UVW
the aftermath of the Canyon RI1RYHPEHU
He said timber affected by
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About 100 landowners, WKH¿UHQHHGVWREHSURFHVVHG
loggers and other timber in- quickly, before it loses its
dustry representatives attend- value, and the mill is going
HG D PHHWLQJ LQ 0W 9HUQRQ to work hard to get the tim-
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to provide information about SRVVLEOH
Daucsavage said at the
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By Sean Ellis
Blue Mountain Eagle
meeting his company “lost a
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going to kick this thing into
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Almost 17,000 acres of
private land were burned
by the 110,000 acre Canyon
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About 91,000 acres of
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About 100 loggers,
landowners and
timber industry
representatives
attended a meeting
in Mt. Vernon
Wednesday, Sept.
23, centered around
the issue of timber
salvage activities,
which are surging
following the Canyon
Creek Complex fire.
See FIRE, Page A3
Sean Ellis/Blue Mountain Eagle
THE STATE OF
NEW
IDAHO
La Grande man pushing for eastern secession
By Jade McDowell
R
esidents in eastern Oregon and Washing-
ton have discussed breaking away from
their more liberal neighbors to form a new
state for years, but a new twist has been
added to the conversation: Why form a
new state when the rural counties could
just j join Idaho instead?
Ken
K Parsons, a 72-year-old farmer from La
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one e else in a letter to the editor in the La Grande Ob-
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serve
and
an discussing it with friends, Parsons said he
has
ha decided to try to get input from residents of
neighboring
counties, including Umatilla and
ne
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0
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As Parsons sees it, rural Oregon and Wash-
ington
residents who are tired of being outvoted
in
by the population centers in Portland and Seattle
would be better understood by politicians from
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born and raised in the most urban parts of their
VWDWH³GRQ¶WKDYHDQ\LGHD´KHVDLGRIKRZHQYL-
ronmental lobbyists often hurt farmers, hunters and
RWKHUVLQPRUHUXUDOSDUWVRIWKHVWDWH
See IDAHO, Page A5
ia Group
use/EO Med
dy Wrightho
by Ran
Illustration
EO Media Group
WHAT DO YOU THINK? We value your opinion and want to hear what you think on this issue. Write a letter to the editor.
9$:$DZDUGNHHSVKHOSÀRZLQJWRYLFWLPV
Blue Mountain Eagle
CANYON CITY – Local
victims of sexual assault and
domestic violence won’t have
to face a daunting legal system
alone, thanks to a major grant
awarded to the Grant County
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The DA’s Victim Assistant
Program obtained the grant
– $606,000 over three years –
through the federal Violence
Against Women Act’s rural pro-
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According to Ashley McClay,
Victim Assistance Program di-
rector, the grant will keep sever-
al staff members, including the
full-time deputy district attorney,
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and education related to domes-
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The county’s previous federal
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McClay noted that while her
The need
By the numbers
The Eagle/Kristina Kreger
From left, victim intervention specialist Andrea Officer,
Grant County Deputy District Attorney Matt Ipson and
victim assistance program director Ashley McClay.
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applications in the past, “contin-
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She said the VAWA Rural
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2014, 34 programs nationwide –
including just four in Oregon –
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The county’s new grant will
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“This grant is crucial to pro-
viding services to victims of sex-
ual assault, domestic violence,
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In addition to funding the
See VAWA, Page A10
Here’s a count of incidents reported to the Grant County
DA’s office in 2014 related to sexual assault and domestic
violence.
• 13 sexual assaults reported
• 27 domestic violence incidents
• 10 reports of restraining order violations
• 5 stalking incidents
• 19 individuals assisted with restraining orders by Victim
Assistance staff and Heart of Grant County
Nationally
The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence puts
domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking into
perspective with these sobering statistics. In the United
States:
• 1 in 5 women and 1 in 7 men have been victims of
severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their
lifetime.
• 1 in 15 children are exposed to intimate partner
violence each year, and 90 percent of these children are
eyewitnesses to this violence.
• 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men in the United States has
been raped in their lifetime.
• 19.3 million women and 5.1 million men in the U.S. have
been stalked in their lifetime.
Submitted by Ashley McClay, Grant County DA’s Victim
Assistance Program