A8
Year in Review
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
REVIEW
Continued from Page A2
the Malheur National Wildlife
Refuge.
• Dayville resident Julie
Carr collected signatures
in an effort to recall Grant
County Commissioner Boyd
Britton.
• Blue Mountain Hospital
employees IRS Form W-2
information was compro-
mised in an email phishing
scam, but no patient data
was affected.
• The Grant County Court
chose not to immediately
support a proposal to change
the sheriff’s office dispatch
center from the current ser-
vice provider, the city of
John Day, to a company in
Wheeler County.
• Thirteen natural fea-
tures in Grant County were
re-named, replacing “squaw”
titles for new monikers pro-
posed by the Grant County
Court and the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation.
May
• Jacob DeRosier, 29, John
Day was accused of shooting
two men in a John Day trailer
park.
• Hannah Brandsma and
Rayne Houser, both 2014
graduates of Grant Union
Junior-Senior High School,
and seniors Taylor McClus-
key from Grant Union and
Jamie Waltenburg from Day-
ville each received $5,000 in
Oregon Trail Electric Co-op
scholarships.
• The Lady Prospector
softball team beat the Uma-
tilla Vikings 25-0 and 27-1 at
the Seventh Street Complex.
• The FBI arrested Mi-
chael Ray Emry, 54, of Idaho
in John Day for possessing
an unregistered machine gun
with the serial number re-
moved.
• Grant County offi cials
threatened to sue over a feder-
al board’s decision to rename
geographic features that con-
tained the word “squaw.”
• The cast of the reality TV
show “Gold Rush” were spe-
cial guests at a Grant County
Chamber of Commerce meet-
ing.
• Prairie City Mayor Jim
Hamsher was elected to serve
as a Grant County Commis-
sioner starting in 2017.
• Haley Walker was hired
as the new manager of the
Grant County Regional Air-
port in John Day.
• A ransomware attack on
Grant County Education Ser-
vice District shut down coun-
ty and school email and inter-
net operations.
• The same day Sheriff
Glenn Palmer’s attorneys re-
Eagle file photo
The Eagle/Sean Hart
Tidewater Contractors employees, including Prairie City resident Hal Gilliam,
right, finish paving the parking lot for the new John Day fire hall on South
Canyon Boulevard May 10. The new facility features more bays and more area
for firefighters to perform maintenance and safety checks on the equipment.
The Eagle/Rylan Boggs
Five-year-old Brooklynn
Kimball of John Day
races at the county fair
Aug. 11.
Contributed photo/Sheriff Glenn Palmer
The wreckage of a 1988 Enstrom helicopter was
found near Ritter Butte Lookout in northern Grant
County. The crash was reported the morning of Jan.
13. The pilot of the helicopter, Cliff A. Hoeft, 60, Pilot
Rock, and a passenger, Cody Cole, 34, Monument,
were transported by ambulance to Blue Mountain
Hospital in John Day. Hoeft was later transferred by
aircraft to St. Charles Medical Center in Bend.
sponded to an allegation he
deleted a public record, a law-
suit was fi led asking a judge
to force him to release other
records.
• Grant County became the
second in Oregon to be desig-
nated a “Purple Heart County.”
• The Grant Union girls
track team won the 2A OSAA
Track and Field State Cham-
pionship.
June
• John Day City Council
members unanimously agreed
to appoint Nick Green as city
manager.
• Grant Union Junior-Se-
nior High School Choir Di-
rector Mary Ann Vidourek
announced her plans to retire
after 25 years of teaching.
• William Allen Goodwin
III was indicted on two sex
crimes involving a minor .
• A Seneca man and his son
on an Alaska fi shing trip died
when their boat overturned in
Glacier Bay National Park .
• Fourteen stock and guard
dogs were poisoned with
strychnine in southwestern
Idaho, and 12 died.
• Authorities recovered
the body of Cody Lane Wat-
son, 16, of Monmouth who
drowned in the John Day Riv-
er near Spray.
July
• David Kodesh, 21, of
Mt. Vernon was arrested and
charged with unlawful use of
a weapon, fi rst-degree assault,
menacing and second-degree
disorderly conduct, following
a shooting in John Day.
• County Clerk Brenda
Percy said she certifi ed 505
signatures to place the recall
of County Commissioner
Boyd Britton on the ballot
during a special election.
• A Forest Service decision
authorized salvage treatments
for the Canyon Creek Com-
plex fi re.
• The John Day Swim
Team placed fourth overall at
the Lakeview Swim Meet.
• The Grant County Court
voted unanimously to allow
the placement of medical
marijuana dispensaries in the
county, outside of cities.
• Gov. Kate Brown un-
veiled a multi-pronged plan
called “Oregonians United to
End Gun Violence,” aimed
decreasing gun violence in
the state.
• The legal expense trust
fund for Grant County Sheriff
Glenn Palmer, who is being
investigated by the Oregon
Department of Justice, re-
ceived more than $20,000 in
donations between April and
June, including one from a
fi ctional character with a false
address.
• Seven-year-old Dylan
Beede was found after
spending the night alone in
the Malheur National For-
est after becoming separat-
ed from family and friends
camped at the Elk Creek
Campground.
• The Blue Mountain Ea-
gle won 10 awards at the an-
nual Oregon Newspaper Pub-
lishers Association’s 2016
Better Newspaper Contest.
• Ryan Payne, a military
veteran accused of taking
leadership roles in two armed
standoffs involving federal
authorities, pleaded guilty
in Oregon to a conspiracy
charge.
harvest again.
Don’t let knee or hip pain keep you from doing what you love.
StCharlesHealthCare.org/Mako
A view of the Strawberry Mountains from Keeney
Fork Road on the Malheur National Forest in Grant
County. An additional $1.5 million — for a total of $4
million this year — has been awarded by the federal
government for Collaborative Forest Landscape
Restoration projects on the Malheur forest.
August
• David Kodesh pleaded
guilty to two charges stem-
ming from a shooting in John
Day and was sentenced to
eight months in county jail
with 24 months of post-pris-
on supervision 18 months of
supervised probation and 60
hours of community service
for the misdemeanor.
• A judge granted a tempo-
rary restraining order against
Grant County Sheriff Glenn
Palmer , preventing him from
deleting emails, after The Or-
egonian newspaper sued him
to release records.
• Grant County voters
chose to keep County Com-
missioner Boyd Britton in
offi ce, voting almost two to
one against the recall attempt
against him.
• Country legend Sammy
Kershaw played to a packed
arena at the Grant County
Fair.
• At a public forum nearly
a year after the 110,000-acre
Canyon Creek Complex fi re
in 2015 that destroyed 43
homes, Forest Service offi -
cials said, in hindsight, they
would have done some things
differently but that weather
conditions fueled the cata-
strophic fi re, which could not
be safely quelled due to a lack
of available fi refi ghters in the
region.
• A 12-person jury con-
victed former Monument fi re
chief Roy Richard Peterson
on three felony counts related
to theft from the fi re district.
• Dayville resident Cindy
Bolman received four stitches
after jumping in to rescue a
dog being attacked by another
dog in John Day.
• John Day City Manager
Nick Green proposed an inno-
vative solution to upgrading
the city’s out-of-date waste-
water treatment plant by re-
placing it with a hydroponic
treatment plant that would use
reclaimed wastewater to help
grow cash crops to offset the
cost of the facility.
September
• Eva Dougharity was
sworn in as mayor of Mt. Ver-
non .
• The Grant Union Pros-
pector football team started
its season with a shutout win
over the Weston-McEwen Ti-
gerScots .
• Sixteen-year-old Justin
Baker’s body was found in
the Malheur National Forest a
day after he disappeared.
• Scott Raymond Beard,
46, a former Deschutes Coun-
ty Sheriff’s Offi ce captain and
resident of Deschutes County,
was sentenced to fi ve years in
prison by U.S. District Judge
Michael J. McShane for steal-
ing over $200,000 in public
funds he was entrusted to
manage.
• John Day residents told
the city council they walk
armed in fear of dog attacks.
• Chad Finley of Mt. Ver-
non placed fi rst in calf rop-
ing with a time of 8.20 at the
Grant County Rodeo, one of
the last NPRA rodeos of the
regular season.
• Norma Rynearson was
honored for years of service
to the Prairie City American
Legion Unit 106 Auxiliary,
which she joined shortly after
World War II.
• Grant County Circuit
Court Judge William D. Cra-
mer Jr. nullifi ed the citizen
initiative that created the
Public Forest Commission,
stating it confl icted with par-
amount state and federal law.
• Canyon City resident
Judy Kerr, who is also a spe-
cial sheriff’s deputy, shot a
dog that attacked her while
See YEAR, Page A9