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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 10, 2016)
W EDNESDAY , A UGUST 10, 2016 The • N O . 32 • 18 P AGES • $1.00 www.MyEagleNews.com Grant County’s newspaper since 1868 Blue Mountain EAGLE CANYON CREEK COMPLE X FIRE Illustration/Thinkstock.com 1 YEAR LATER Post-fi re rehab a ‘community effort’ By Sean Ellis For the Blue Mountain Eagle T he bulk of the post-Canyon Creek Com- plex fi re rehabilitation work has been ac- complished, and federal, state and local offi cials say it has been a successful effort. The work includes projects to rehabilitate parts of the Malheur National Forest that were scorched by the 110,000-acre fi re, repair parts of Highway 395 dam- aged by the blaze and help Canyon Creek withstand the possibility of major fl ooding. “It was a really successful project,” engineer Doug Ferguson said about a $350,000 Grant County project to place berms, dikes and sandbags in key areas along Canyon Creek to mitigate fl ood risks. “We actually ac- complished a lot more than we INSIDE set out to.” Ferguson, who was hired by the county to act as a liaison for More than the various post-fi re restoration 1,000 tons of efforts, estimates the improve- hay donated ments will protect against a ma- for livestock PAGE 8 jor fl ood event that would result in Canyon Creek fl ows reaching Last 1,000 cubic feet per second in summer’s certain areas. fire pushes As a comparison, during the bears to new 2011 fl ood that damaged part of food sources the local high school, fl ows in PAGE 9 Canyon Creek reached 856 cfs. A specialized U.S. Forest Service team that studied the impacts of the Canyon Creek Complex blaze pro- jected that because of the loss of vegetation, a major storm could result in catastrophic fl ooding. A 10-year storm could result in creek fl ows peak- ing at 1,997 cfs, the team estimated, which would have devastating effects on Canyon City and John Day. Before the fi re, that same type of storm event would have caused fl ows to reach 661 cfs. See REHAB, Page A8 Contributed photo/U.S. Forest Service To prevent stream blowouts and protect fish habitat, this log jam was one of 14 that were placed in streams affected by the Canyon Creek Complex fire to store sediment. Some damaged trees that still had their root balls attached were placed in streams to slow the velocity of the water and help catch debris and sediment and improve stream banks. Courtney and Dean Fox, along with daughter Brooke, stand outside their newly built home, one year after the devastating Canyon Creek Complex fire. Brooke is holding the family’s puppy Dusty, and Spendy and Deuce are also in the photo. RISING FROM THE ASHES Families rebuild, relocate after fire destroys their homes By Angel Carpenter Blue Mountain Eagle emories of the Aug. 14, 2015, Canyon Creek Complex fire are still fresh, especially for resi- dents whose homes went up in fl ames. A total of 43 homes were lost in the fi re that roared through the canyon south of Canyon City and later swept through M the Strawberry Wilderness area, threat- ening the town of Prairie City. One year later, families are fi nding their own way of moving on from the devastation . On the morning of that fateful day, business owners Dean and Courtney Fox went to work at Pioneer Feed in John Day, as usual. “When we left for town that morn- ing, it was blue skies and not a worry in the world,” Courtney said. She said what followed was chaos — “a nightmare.” They made an effort to protect their home, but nothing, at that point, could save it from the unrelenting fi re that rushed down the hill into their back yard. The Eagle/Angel Carpenter See RISING, Page A9 Grant County Fair: Judge orders Sheriff Palmer not to delete emails 10 things not to miss By Sean Hart Blue Mountain Eagle A judge granted a tempo- rary restraining order against Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer Aug. 3, preventing him from deleting emails. Grant County Circuit Court Judge William D. Cra- mer Jr. ruled in favor of Or- egonian Publishing Company and reporter Les Zaitz, who fi led a motion July 22 request- ing the temporary restraining order against Grant County Sheriff’s Offi ce, employee Sally DeFord and Palmer, while awaiting the court’s action on a May complaint seeking an injunction requir- ing Palmer to disclose cer- tain emails. Cramer said there is a “strong likeli- hood” Palmer Sheriff will eventual- Glenn ly be ordered Palmer by the court to turn over a number of emails to satisfy the plaintiffs’ public records request and that requiring the preservation of all emails re- lated to the case did not seem overly burdensome on the sheriff’s offi ce. He said, however, there was a clear possibility of ir- reparable injury to the plain- tiffs if emails that should have been disclosed were already deleted. He ordered the sheriff’s offi ce to tempo- rarily preserve all emails in whatever form they current- ly exist, whether electron- ic or printed copies, until a future court action on the matter. Attorney Brad Daniels, on behalf of the plaintiffs, claimed in the request for the restrain- ing order that it is the sheriff’s offi ce’s “pattern and practice to delete all electronic copies of emails from the email accounts that they use to conduct the public’s business.” See PALMER, Page A18 By Angel Carpenter Blue Mountain Eagle Visitors at this year’s Grant County Fair can antic- ipate a fun event with a few new twists in entertainment. “Kids at the Fair — Ev- erywhere” is the theme, but whether young or young at heart, all should fi nd plenty to do and see at the fair, which runs Wednesday through Sat- urday, Aug. 10-13. Admission is free on Wednesday, and tickets for the remainder of the week are $6 daily and $13 weekly. Seniors 65 and older and children 5 and under enter the gates for free. Fair tickets can be pur- chased at the fairgrounds, Len’s Drug and Radio Shack in John Day; Bar W-B in Prairie City; Boyer’s Store in Monument; and Duke Warner Realty in Dayville. The following are top 10 things at the Fair, but don’t forget about the Grant Coun- ty Fair Parade at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 13 — it trav- els north from Grant Union Junior-Senior High School on South Canyon Boulevard, with a small detour onto Southeast Dayton Street, and then west on Main Street. For more events, check out the See FAIR, Page A18