Editorial and News
Blue Mountain Eagle
LETTERS
Continued from Page A4
100+ employees of Iron Trian-
gle working;
• kept the numerous
sub-contractors and their
employees working;
• provided opportunities
for other primary contrac-
tors working on forest relat-
ed projects; and
• all this increasing sup-
port employment in Grant
County.
We will continue to de-
fend ourselves and the
many families who will be
affected by job loss if these
people continue to tear apart
our communities and the
good work being accom-
plished.
They have nothing to lose
while the working families
in this county do. I only ask
that each of you check the
facts before believing these
lies and accusations leveled
against those who are trying
to make our county a better
place to live.
King Williams
Canyon City
‘Vicious attack’
requires
explanation
To the Editor:
I’m alarmed for what has
happened to the Blue Moun-
tain Eagle, its staff and pub-
lisher as reported April 27
under “We stand firmly be-
hind the Eagle.” Steve For-
rester and Kathryn Brown,
principal owners of EO Me-
dia Group, stated a “vicious
attack” has occurred to the
aforementioned people.
Vicious is defined, “bru-
tal, ferocious, savage, vi-
olent, dangerous, ruthless,
cruel, cold blooded, inhu-
man, barbaric, blood thirsty,
fiendish, monstrous, mur-
derous, homicidal” (there’s
more, but one can grasp the
idea that it’s all really, real-
ly bad).
What happened? Was
anyone assaulted? Injured?
The Eagle office vandal-
ized? Are customers in dan-
ger? Is it safe to read the pa-
per? Has law enforcement
been involved? A vicious at-
tack cannot go unreported.
At the end of two long
columns about “True jour-
nalism” is the statement,
“Opinions are one things.
Facts are another.” So obvi-
ously the “vicious attack” is
a fact or the owners would
not have said so.
For the Blue Mountain
Eagle to have the status of
a bastion of truth that it is
purported to be, then full
disclosure about this “vi-
cious attack” must be made.
Ron Ballard
Mt. Vernon
Editor’s note: Accord-
ing to Merriam-Webster’s
Collegiate Dictionary,
C OPS & C OURTS
Arrests and citations in the
Blue Mountain Eagle are taken
from the logs of law enforcement
agencies. Every effort is made to
report the court disposition of ar-
rest cases.
Circuit Court
CANYON CITY — The
Grant County Circuit Court re-
ported the following ines and
judgments:
• Susan Lynn Porter, 57,
pleaded guilty to menacing,
offense date March 26, 2016.
She was sentenced to jail for
three days, bench probation
for 18 months and 80 hours
community service, ordered to
have no contact with the vic-
tims and ined $450. The court
dismissed two counts for ha-
rassment.
• Matthew Brian Cafagno,
29, pleaded guilty to harass-
ment, offense date March 15,
2016. He was sentenced to
bench probation for 12 months
and 40 hours community ser-
vice, ordered to have no con-
tact with the victim and ined
$600. The court dismissed one
count of fourth-degree assault.
Grant County Sheriff
CANYON CITY — The
Grant County Sheriff’s Ofice
reported the following for the
week of April 22-28:
• Concealed handgun li-
censes: 10
• Average inmates: 13
• Bookings: 5
• Releases: 5
• Arrests: 1
• Citations: 2
• Fingerprints: 10
• Civil papers: 3
• Warrants processed: 1
• Asst./welfare check: 3
• Arden Eby, 81, Camby,
was cited on April 25 for
having a dog as a public nui-
sance.
• Cody DeMeritt, 22, Spray,
was cited on April 26 for driv-
ing uninsured and failure to
carry an operator’s license.
Justice Court
CANYON CITY — The
Grant County Justice Court re-
ported the following ines and
judgments:
• Brad Hartwick was charged
with violating the terms of his
sentence order by not making
monthly payments. He was or-
dered to pay $200 by May 5, at
which time the remaining $260
will be forgiven.
• An arrest warrant was issued
for Gabriel Lee Kyriss, 35, of
Lebanon, for failure to appear on
a charge of second-degree crimi-
nal mischief.
Dispatch
John Day dispatch worked
138 calls during the week of
April 25-May 1. Along with the
various trafic warnings, tres-
passing, injured animals, noise
complaints and juvenile com-
plaints, these calls included:
• John Day Police:
April 25: Theft reported at
Riverside Mobile Home Park in
John Day.
April 26: Burglary reported at
Riverside Mobile Home Park.
April 27: Arrested a Baker
City man on suspicion of burglary
and a Umatilla County warrant.
April 28: Fight reported at
Prairie City School; responded
to a report of shots ired and in-
jured victims at Riverside Mobile
Home Park.
May 1: Arrested a Prairie City
woman for fourth-degree assault.
• Grant County Sheriff:
April 27: Arrested a Roseburg
man on a Grant County warrant.
• John Day ambulance:
April 25: Responded for a
50-year-old woman with chest
pains.
April 28: Responded for a
64-year-old man with dificulty
swallowing.
April 29: Responded for a
woman with an infection.
• Prairie City ambulance:
April 30: Paged for a
four-wheeler accident on Forest
Road 2645.
02131
Pro Saw
Shop and
a Whole
Lot More
VOTE NO
• Save our children
• Save our communities
• Vote NO on drug issues!
Paid for by Dan Morrow
“vicious” is defined as “1:
having the nature or quality
of vice or immorality; 2:
defective, faulty; 3: impure,
noxious; 4a: dangerously
aggressive; 4b: marked by
violence or ferocity; 5: mali-
cious, spiteful ...” The letter
from Forrester and Brown
explains what it describes
as such: The Eagle and staff
“have come under vicious
attack by some members of
the Grant County community.
... The comments — appear-
ing mostly in social media
platforms such as Facebook
— contain false accusations
about our actions and mo-
tives.” Describing something
as “vicious,” as well as most
other adjectives, however, is
usually a statement of opinion.
The fact of the matter is that
false accusations have been
made.
‘Just Say No’ on
Measure 12-58
To the Editor:
During Ronald Reagan’s
presidency,
1981-1989,
First Lady Nancy Reagan’s
campaign, “Just Say No” to
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
drugs brought the issue of
drug abuse in our country to
national attention.
My own daughter’s
school adopted the program
in the ’90s, with law en-
forcement coming to speak
at her school in Gresham
in their snappy Mustang
bearing Mrs. Reagan’s slo-
gan on the sides. Statistics
show drug use, particularly
among the young, dropped
nationwide during that
era.
Perhaps those were most
simplistic times. I’m not
sure.
A5
But the “Just Say No”
campaign discouraging the
use of drugs makes more
sense than trying to promote
drug production, distribu-
tion and ultimately use by
young people in our com-
munities!
One way to honor Mrs.
Reagan’s noble efforts
during her time is to vote
no on Measure 12-58! I
encourage those who care
about Grant County and our
local communities to do so
May 17.
Leslie Barnett
Long Creek
To the Editor,
“Crony Capitalists” and “Boot Lickers” are just two of my favorite names that have been thrown
around to describe myself, my company Iron Triangle LLC, and its employees over the past year
or so.
Discussions about truth, facts and simple differences of opinions are healthy but when desperation
turned this into personal attacks, lies, and slander towards my company, our contractors, myself
and those who support us against my nature, I have decided that enough is enough and I would
like to offer some background perspective about what my company does and what we support.
This isn’t about politics, it’s not about the sheriff, county commissioners, or recalls, although it
seems there is an attempt to pool all these issues together to villainize Iron Triangle. It shouldn’t
be too hard to remember the news that Malheur Lumber Company was going to close the doors
in 2012 and layoff its 100+ employees if something drastic didn’t happen.
Without question that would have made it very hard for our logging company along with all the
others to stay in business. The loss of our natural resource industry infrastructure would have been
devastating to all facets of Grant County’s economy. Our congressional delegation in Washington
DC, along with several local folks came together with the US Forest Service (USFS) to come up
with a plan. It was out of desperation to save this community that the Washington office and
Regional office of the USFS came up with the plan for the Malheur 10 Year Stewardship
Contract. The contract came with a commitment from the Regional office to increase the timber
target on the Malheur National Forest to 75 Million Board Feet (enough to operate the last
remaining mill and then some). Iron Triangle along with many others locally weren’t sure that this
was the best way to go forward, as it would create the perception of winners and losers. One
company was going to get the contract and that sounded scary. In the end this was the option that
was put forward. For the sake of my employees and the future of my company, we couldn’t
afford not to put in a proposal. Looking back at the five (5) years prior to the stewardship contract,
Iron Triangle bought and operated 80-85% of the timber sales on the Malheur National Forest.
In the end, we received the contract. I have invested millions of dollars in equipment, increased
employment, and overall payroll increases to meet the obligations of the contract and have
contracted out to several local businesses to complete portions of the contract.
I have also seen comments made by an individual running for the Grant County Public Forest
Commission that he has concerns about companies like Iron Triangle, Grayback Forestry, and
King Inc making money on large forest fires. I would challenge that person to look the
employees in the face that worked on those fires for those companies and tell them that they
wanted their communities to burn to get a paycheck. In reality, any firefighting opportunities pale
in comparison to the loss of long term opportunity that is lost when these fires burn and eliminate
the ability for long term forest management. Our employees love this community and are good at
what they do. They don’t even like going on fires, but they like having a job and in this part of the
state we can log until fire season and then we either lay people off or we keep them working.
I take considerable offense to the implication that these companies could have done anything
more than what they did to help this community not suffer any more losses. Walking into briefing
every single morning on the Canyon Creek Complex, I saw the faces of almost all the locals with
equipment in Grant County doing their part, and yes, we all get paid for what we do. I would ask,
are you opposed to all those loggers and contractors that worked on fires, or just us?
We DO NOT trade timber for
decommissioning roads; in fact, we
are constantly looking closely at the
documents used by the USFS to
analyze the projects and
decommissioning of roads is not what
we want. We DO work within the
process of federal regulations to
comment and/or object to these
projects on a regular basis. We also
have spent considerable time and
money to fight for a more beneficial
Forest Plan Revision that will allow
for the forest to be managed in a way
that will work for the people of Grant
County.
PROJECTS WE COMMENTED ON AND/OR
OBJECTED TO WHERE ACCESS WAS PART OF
THE COMMENT OR OBJECTION
PROJECT NAME
ACRES WITHIN PROJECT
Dove Project
43,892
Galena Project
35,790
Jane Project
31,400
Wolf Project
39,465
Elk 16 Project
42,257
Summit Project
38,005
Magone Project
27,087
TOTAL ACRES
257,896
Proposed Action for Malheur Travel Management
Plan Blue Mountain National Forests Proposed Land
Management Plan and Draft Environmental Impact
Statement
I am sick and tired of being berated by people in this community, who either don’t know what
they are talking about or choose to ignore the facts because it doesn’t fit their narrative. Sitting
back and offering social media sniper fire towards those that are trying to make this a better
community while doing little to nothing to make it better yourself is shameful. We may not have
all the answers but our effort and hearts are in the right place. Iron Triangle employs 100 people in
this community and we donate significant amounts of money to many local teams, organizations
and causes. I will not apologize for being a for-profit business as this is what America is built on,
small business. My company will continue to be involved in anything that works to effect change
in the policies of the public lands in Grant County; and regardless of the mudslinging that goes on
will continue to contribute positively through employment, contributions and public involvement
joining with many others in our county who are working to keep Grant County moving forward.
In closing, whoever has control of the forests in Grant County, whether it’s federal, state or
county, Iron Triangle will be here logging and building roads because that’s who we are and it’s
what we do.
Russ Young
Owner, Iron Triangle LLC