FALLING IN LOVE WITH THE OUTDOORS
The
PAGE B1
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
W EDNESDAY , J UNE 1, 2016
• N O . 22
• 20 P AGES
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www.MyEagleNews.com
John Day council selects Green as city manager
Green: Family ties, background make job excellent fit
By Sean Hart
Blue Mountain Eagle
John Day may have found
a new city manager to replace
Peggy Gray, who is retiring
after 15 years.
John Day City Council
members unanimously agreed
to appoint Nick Green to
the position upon a mutual-
ly agreed upon employment
agreement Tuesday, May 24.
Gray said he has been liv-
ing in Bothell, Washington,
As spending
on lobbying
increases,
transparency
remains
murky
By Hillary Borrud
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Businesses,
special interest groups and
governments have increas-
ingly invested in lobbying
Oregon lawmakers and oth-
er state offi cials over the last
nine years. And based on
spending data from the state,
those groups appear to have
concluded lobbying is a good
investment: Reported annu-
al spending on lobbying in-
creased 15 percent from 2007
to 2015, when adjusted for
infl ation .
Yet despite the millions of
dollars involved, it’s nearly
impossible for Oregonians to
get details on how lobbyists
spend that money to achieve
payoffs for their clients, be-
cause Oregon law allows lob-
byists and their clients to dis-
close little information about
how they infl uence state laws
and spending.
The EO Media Group/
Pamplin Media Group Capital
Bureau categorized lobbying
spending in Oregon by indus-
try and sector using data from
the Center for Responsive
Politics, which tracks spend-
ing on lobbying by industry
at the federal level. In total,
groups spent more than $251
million on lobbying over the
last nine years, according to
state data.
The health care sector —
whose ranks include nurses,
pharmaceutical companies,
hospitals and doctors — re-
ported spending the most on
lobbying from 2007 through
2015, a total of $36.5 million.
See SPENDING, Page A10
and previously worked as a
senior associate for Booz Al-
len Hamilton before returning
to school to obtain his mas-
ter’s degree in public admin-
istration at the University of
Washington, which he com-
pleted earlier this year. She
said he sat across the table
from three-star generals in his
previous job.
“I think he’s going to defi -
nitely do a good job and take
the city in a new direction,”
she said.
Green said he was a senior
executive with Booz Allen
Hamilton for seven years and
a program manager for Jacobs
Engineering for three years.
“I was a management con-
sultant,” he said. “I led large-
scale organization change and
transformation initiatives for
federal government agencies.
And I also worked in technol-
ogy acquisition — basically,
my role was to help fi eld ad-
vanced technologies to sol-
diers fi ghting in Iraq and Af-
ghanistan.”
Mayor Ron
Lundbom said
Green
previ-
ously managed
a staff of 40
with a budget
Nick
of $8 million.
Green
Lundbom said
Green “did his
homework” on the city, read-
ing several years of coun-
cil minutes, the city charter
and its employee handbook.
Lundbom said, during his em-
ployee interview, Green sug-
gested two possible projects
— wastewater and marketing
programs — that could bene-
fi t the city.
“I was convinced after his
interview,” Lundbom said. “I
saw a lot of potential.”
Lundbom said Green’s
wife was raised in John Day,
and she still has family in the
area, which made the position
desirable.
Green said he married
Morgan Haney, daughter of
Tom and Ginger Haney, about
10 years ago and has visited
John Day twice a year since
then. He said they have two
children, Kaden, 10, and Pe-
nelope, 2, and were looking
for an opportunity to be closer
to family.
“I love John Day,” he said.
“It’s just a very serene place.
Family is very important to
me. We love the outdoors
and camping. I personally
like playing golf and riding
motorcycles, and I’m an avid
reader. Those are my hobbies.
It sounded like a pretty good
fi t.”
Green earned a bachelor’s
See GREEN, Page A10
IN SOLEMN
REMEMBRANCE
Grant County reveres those
who died while serving
By Cheryl Hoefl er
Blue Mountain Eagle
T
he brave men and women who died during their military service to the
United States were not forgotten in Grant County this Memorial Day
weekend.
Both Prairie City and Canyon City cemeteries were trimmed in
stunning style, with the red, white and blue of large American fl ags
fl anking the gravel roadways. Smaller American fl ags were posted at hundreds of
gravesites for each veteran who died in battle — some dating back to the Civil War.
The decoration was the hard work of local American Legions — No. 106 in Prairie
City and No. 77 from John Day doing the honors in Canyon City.
Legion 106 held a short remembrance, attended by about 40 people, on Monday
morning, May 30, at the Prairie City Cemetery. Commander Tom McAuslan led the
event with prayers and words of comfort. Legion members presented a gun salute,
and Ed Heiple played “Taps” on trumpet.
McAuslan laid a poppy wreath at the base of the cemetery’s veterans memorial
for those who died in battle on land. Most of the group followed to the Bridge Street
bridge where McAuslan dropped a wreath into the John Day River, in remembrance
of those who were lost at sea.
Eagle photos/Cheryl Hoefler
American Legion Post 106 Commander Tom
McAuslan tosses a wreath into the John Day River in
remembrance of those military personnel who were
lost at sea. LARGE PHOTO: American flags, courtesy
of American Legion 106, line roadways at Prairie
City Cemetery. Smaller flags mark the gravesites
of veterans. TOP PHOTO: Members of Prairie
City’s American Legion Post 106 offer a gun salute
during a Memorial Day remembrance at Prairie City
Cemetery on May 30. See more photos on Page A10.
Giant leap for Grant Union student scientists
Research project
returns from
space station
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
From left, Zack Deiter, Duane Stokes, Dante
Valentine, Sonna Smith and Cauy Weaver test
the space experiment proteins.
JOHN DAY — Five Grant
Union sophomores were glad
to learn a space experiment
they’re conducting made a
successful landing on Earth af-
ter a few weeks in space.
The group, sophomores
Zack Deiter, Elijah Humbird,
Duane Stokes, Dante Valentine
and Cauy Weaver and teacher
Sonna Smith, experienced set-
backs along the way but fi nal-
ly opened their package from
space at the school May 25.
They’ve been testing the ma-
terials the past week in the Grant
Union science lab using biotech-
nology equipment, comparing
the protein (a three-dimensional
structure of green fl uorescent
protein in E. Coli) sent to space
with the same mixture stored at
the school.
Their fi ndings could show
if micro-gravity contributes
to or diminishes the misfold-
ing of protein, which could
help prevent long-term health
problems for astronauts or
provide new treatment path-
ways in the future.
Testing they’ve conducted
so far shows growth of the
protein sent to space.
“We know the protein we
are testing grew in space,”
Smith said. “That’s what the
glowing tells us, but we still
don’t know how much mis-
folding happened.”
See SCIENCE, Page A10