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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (June 8, 2016)
W EDNESDAY , J UNE 8, 2016 • N O . 23 • 18 P AGES • $1.00 www.MyEagleNews.com The Blue Mountain EAGLE Grant County’s newspaper since 1868 DISTRACTED TO DEATH EO Media Group/E.J. Harris Shannon Moulton of Richland, Washington, holds a photo of her daughter, Alexxyss, as traffic passes by on Highway 395 in Pendleton. Moulton lost her daughter after she collided with a vehicle while driving from Long Creek on Highway 395 and using her smartphone in February. Mother on quest to end ‘epidemic’ of distracted driving By Phil Wright EO Media Group Alexxyss Therwhanger was 18 when she got her fi rst tattoo: “I love you, Mom.” Her mother, Shannon Moulton, a tattoo enthusiast, said she replied in ink as well with “I love you more.” Alexxyss the afternoon of Feb. 19 left a friend’s place in Long Creek, a small town in remote Grant County, Unity slate divides state GOP convention By Paris Achen Capital Bureau SALEM — A slate of can- didates seeking positions as Oregon delegates to the Re- publican National Conven- tion ran on a platform that they would help unify the party. Instead, the slate and a confl ict over ballot rules caused division in the party during the statewide conven- tion in Salem Saturday. The slate included 48 candidates — mostly polit- ical insiders — to fi ll every position in the delegation. Among them were state Reps. Bill Post, R-Keizer, and Greg Barreto, R-Cove, Sen. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, and Ou- rania Yue, the wife of Repub- lican National Committee- man Solomon Yue Jr. The slate came to the con- vention with campaign ma- terials, set out on attendees’ chairs, and endorsements from 13 organizations, including the Ted Cruz and Donald Trump campaigns, Oregon Right to Life and Oregon Small Busi- ness Association. When some party mem- bers saw the ballot for at- large delegates, they stopped See GOP, Page A18 “ This is my new project. I don’t want any other family to have to go through this.” — Shannon Moulton and headed north on Highway 395 in a 1998 Buick Century to return to Hermiston. She lived in Hermiston most of her life and was staying there again. South of Pilot Rock she drift- ed into the other lane and crashed head-on into a Lincoln Continental. The two occupants of that car, Frank Wimberley and Donnetta Kulis of Prairie City, were injured. Alexxyss died. She was 19. Oregon State Police investigated and determined Alexxyss was using her smartphone throughout her trip. Shannon, 42, now is raising awareness of the dangers of distracted driving. “This is my new project,” she said. “I don’t want any other family to have to go through this.” Oregon State Police used Alexx- yss’s phone records to determine a time line leading up to the fatal crash. Lt. Mike Turner, commander of the Pendleton offi ce, said based on the records and driving time, Alexxyss never stopped the car when she handled the phone. “Everywhere she had coverage, she was texting, sending and receiving texts, taking calls, sharing and review- ing Facebook pages,” Turner said. The Oregon Department of Trans- portation defi nes distractions as “anything that diverts your attention away from focusing on your primary task — operating your vehicle — and See QUEST, Page A18 PREPARING FOR DISASTER Agencies work together for success By Angel Carpenter Blue Mountain Eagle J OHN DAY — Emergency responders fl ocked to the scene of an apparent crash and fi re Thursday, June 2, but there was no need to panic — it was only a drill. On the side of the highway, about 4 miles east of John Day, the scene included an overturned vehicle and a school bus with 21 teen “patients” with various injuries. The mock emergency also involved a fi re which “spread” to the nearby hill. While operations were ongoing at the crash scene, a call came in to John Day 911 dispatch for fi ve residents of Valley View Assisted Living Facility who had symp- toms of the norovirus — all a part of the drill. “It’s a county emergency management and hospital emergency preparedness event,” said Kara Kohfi eld, who was the mass-casualty incident director of oper- ations. “For the hospital, this drill is meeting state and federal requirements to prove that we have the resourc- es to help our communities.” See DRILL, Page A18 The Eagle/Angel Carpenter Emergency responders work to remove “patients” from a Grant School District bus during a disaster drill held on Thursday morning on Highway 26 east of John Day, including firefighters William Reffett, left, and Dylan Brandsma. The “patient” being removed from the back bus window is Grant Union student Brett Copenhaver. Celebrate the good old ’62 Days Meet the grand marshal: Mary Ellen Brooks Blue Mountain Eagle CANYON CITY — Missing the good old days? Celebrate them with a good old time at the ’62 Days Celebration Friday and Saturday, June 10 and 11, in Canyon City. The festivities kick off Friday evening with high- lights from the documen- tary concert “Romancing the West,” presented by the Grant County Chamber of Commerce, at 6 p.m. at the Canyon City Community Center. Tickets to the show cost $15, or two for $25. Saturday’s schedule starts bright and early with breakfast at 6 a.m., and the Gold Rush Walk/Run at 7 a.m. The parade begins at 11 a.m. with this year’s theme, By Cheryl Hoefl er Blue Mountain Eagle Eagle file photo The Whiskey Gulch Gang, organizers of the annual ’62 Days Celebration, have a rootin’ shootin’ time during the parade in 2015. This year’s event will be Friday and Saturday, June 10 and 11, in Canyon City. “Tell me About the Good Old Days.” Lifelong Grant County resident Mary Ellen Brooks will be riding and waving in style as the pa- rade grand marshal. Afternoon activities include a barbecue and ice cream social from noon to 3 p.m., the mock See ‘62, Page A3 CANYON CITY — Reign- ing over the ’62 Days parade this Saturday will be Grant County native Mary Ellen Brooks. Brooks has lived in Mt. Vernon since high school, but she was born in Canyon City and spent her early years there, including attending fi rst- and second-grade at the Rebel Hill school. Her family’s roots in Canyon City date back even further. Her great-grandfather, Mar- tin Lucas, settled in the town in the mid-1860s and helped build St. Thomas Episcopal Church a few years later. One of his children, Etta (Lucas) Clark, Brooks’ grandmother, was born in 1878. During the Bannock uprising between the U.S. mil- itary and Paiute and Bannock tribes that year, while her grand- mother was just a baby, the fam- ily hid in a cave for several days until the confl ict subsided. Clark reigned as Pioneer queen during the ’62 Days Celebration of 1957. From the event’s early years through the 1960s, a full “pioneer program” was part of the festivities which included a pioneer queen, musi- cal programs, pageants, histori- cal and patriotic presentations, and a multitude of competitions See BROOKS, Page A3