A18
News
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
BROWN
ROAD
Continued from Page A1
Continued from Page A1
said in the release. “By
joining Washington, we
will be able to share le-
gal resources with our
neighboring state and at
the same time ensure that
the voices of Oregonians
harmed by the Presi-
dent’s executive order
are heard.”
The governor’s ex-
ecutive order expands a
1987 law that prohibits
the use of state and local
law enforcement resourc-
es in federal immigration
enforcement.
“Oregon’s unique law
has succeeded in keep-
ing the deportation of
immigrants by the fed-
eral government sepa-
rate and distinct from
the enforcement of our
state criminal laws by
our local police,” said
Kimberly McCullough,
ACLU of Oregon’s leg-
islative director. “We are
pleased the governor has
extended this important
state
disentanglement
to all state agencies and
employees.”
It’s unclear how many
people headed to Oregon
were affected by Trump’s
executive order, accord-
ing to the ACLU of Ore-
gon, which has provided
legal support to airport
detainees.
A 5-month-old Iranian
girl who was scheduled
to have surgery at Or-
egon Health & Science
University for a heart
condition was one of
those not allowed to en-
ter the country because
of the president’s exec-
utive order, according to
a report by KATU News.
“I find it deplor-
able that an infant who
was supposed to come
to Oregon to receive
much needed live-sav-
ing care was not able to
access that care at Or-
egon Health & Science
University,” Brown said
Thursday.
The governor’s exec-
utive order does the fol-
lowing:
• Bars state employ-
ees from discriminating
against residents for their
immigration status.
• Prohibits the use of
state moneys, equipment
or personnel for detect-
ing or apprehending peo-
ple solely on the basis of
their immigration status.
• Prohibits the use of
state resources to assist
or facilitate the creation
of a Muslim registry, or
any other registry target-
ing a religious group.
County Court meeting. He
asked the commissioners to
have the county’s legal coun-
sel, Ron Yock-
im,
review
the validity of
the ordinance.
Webb said the
wording in the
ordinance was
Mark
too broad and
Webb
violated
the
Constitution and federal stat-
utes because it applied to all
roads on public land in the
county.
The ordinance was origi-
nally passed to ensure contin-
ued access to parts of Grant
Count and to aid in emergen-
cy and search and rescue op-
erations, according to Grant
County Judge Scott Myers.
The court planned to send
it on to Yockim for review,
Myers said. The ordinance
has come into play a handful
of times in dealings with the
Forest Service and Bureau
of Land Management. My-
ers said he understands res-
idents’ concerns about road
closures limiting access.
Prairie City resident
Frances Preston said she
believes the way of life in
Grant County
is threatened
and this is a
matter of lim-
iting access,
as well as a
systematic at-
Frances
tempt to con-
Preston
trol the people
by controlling the land.
She read from a letter at
the meeting, in which she
stated she believes states
always have rights over the
federal government and the
sheriff is the chief law en-
forcement officer. She said
she did not believe the ordi-
nance conflicted with laws
or state and federal consti-
tutions.
The Forest Service, how-
ever, does not recognize the
road ordinance as valid be-
cause it conflicts with feder-
al law, according to Malheur
National For-
est Supervisor
Steve Bever-
lin. He said
the Supreme
Court was the
highest
au-
Steve
thority in the Beverlin
country, and
the federal government has
authority over public federal
lands.
Beverlin said the Forest
Service would gladly work
with the county to transfer
authority, along with main-
tenance and liability costs,
to the county.
He said roads are some-
times closed because of
environmental impact on
wildlife or waterways. When
road closures are made, he
said, they try to maintain
access to some areas by re-
opening closed roads and
creating loops with other
roads.
Beverlin said any pro-
posed road closures are
brought to the attention of
the county court and the gen-
eral public before action is
taken.
“It’s a real open, transpar-
ent process that we encour-
age anybody to get engaged
with,” Beverlin said. “The
public are the ones that help
us modify our projects to
determine what’s really ap-
propriate, and we value their
opinion.”
Contributed photo
John Day resident Harsh Patel, center, stands with his teammates Jared Praino (fourth from left) and Kaopod
Chantapakul (third from right) as well as members of the Bangkok, Thailand, Rotary. The woman, right of Patel, is
affiliated with the Thailand Parliament. “They are taking this photo to show our approval in Thailand,” Patel said.
“They welcome our innovation and our new millennial way of thinking.”
WATER
Continued from Page A1
Feb. 10, in Seattle.
If they win there, the
young men will compete at the
TigerLaunch finals at Prince-
ton. Winners receive $30,000
and a chance to meet with top
venture capital firms.
Patel’s team is renovating
the design and building brand
recognition. The team bought
a water-dispensing machine
and recently traveled to Thai-
land to visit the factory where
it is manufactured, working
with designers there to make
updates to the machine.
Patel said the upgrades in-
clude a reverse osmosis pro-
cess to remove impurities from
the water — it can also desali-
nate salt water.
“We’re re-engineering the
water-dispensing machine to
ensure that the consumer gets
the cleanest water possible,”
he said.
They are also refining it
with a one-button process and
switching out the pipes in the
machine with a noncorrosive
PVC material.
Patel called the innovation
a “big movement.”
Because clean drinking wa-
ter is not readily available in
areas such as Thailand, people
purchase water bottles, which
911
Continued from Page A1
mind and a secure feeling to
know that we can pick up the
phone, call 911 and they will
be here,” Morgan said.
Green said the emergen-
cy dispatch center costs local
taxpayers roughly $200,000
a year to operate, and the city
is spending a massive chunk
of its revenue to continue pro-
viding emergency response
services for the entire county
— funds that could be used for
improving infrastructure or at-
tracting new residents.
John Day spends a high-
er percentage of its property
I found Dad’s remote in the fridge again.
…I’m beginning to get worried.
IT’S NOT LIKE HIM.
cost between seven to 10 Thai
bahts (about 21 to 30 cents).
“We’re charging one Thai
baht — 3 cents — per fill-up,”
Patel said. “Our machine saves
the consumer a lot of money.”
When the opportunity to
join the contest came up, Patel
said he was all for it.
“I like having the entrepre-
neur mindset,” he said.
When he told his friends
Kaopod Chantapakul and Jar-
ed Praino about the opportuni-
ty, he said, “Now is the time to
do it.”
“My team and I are dedi-
cated to giving clean water to
local people,” he said. “Hav-
ing the John Day community
supporting us and developing
countries means a lot. We’re
trying to get engaged with the
world and trying to improve it,
one step at a time.”
Although Patel lives
in Boston while attending
school, he still calls John Day
home. His parents Rakesh and
Jyotsna Patel live in John Day,
as well as his grandparents.
“We are very proud of
him,” Rakesh said.
Harsh invites those who
would like to vote for his proj-
ect to visit: http://www.tiger-
launch.com/seattle-regional.
Votes need to be in by 6:30
p.m. on Friday, Feb. 10, and
the team with the most votes
receives $400.
Contributed photo
The inside of the water filtration and dispensing
machine John Day resident Harsh Patel and his
college teammates are redesigning to provide
clean, affordable drinking water in developing
countries. They are competing in the TigerLaunch
entrepreneurship competition hosted by the Princeton
Entrepreneurship Club.
frontiers combined with state
tax policies that disenfranchise
rural communities, has result-
• second lowest median household income in Oregon at
ed in structural failure to our
$32,614 per household.
economy from which we can-
• highest unemployment rate in the state at 8 percent.
not recover.”
• tied with Harney County for highest suicide rate in the
He said there are two Or-
state with 32 per 100,000 people.
egons, both with their own
• behavorial crime rate 35 percent higher than state average, problems: the east, character-
with DUII rate 116 percent higher and liquor law violations
ized by inadequate infrastruc-
138 percent higher.
ture, population decline and
Information from John Day City Manager Nick Green.
dependence on outside subsi-
dies, and the west, character-
Green appealed to state ized by congestion, soaring
tax revenue on public safety
than any other city in Oregon, Rep. Cliff Bentz during a Jan. housing prices and hyper-ur-
Green said — nearly three 24 John Day City Council banization. Green is calling for
times the percentage Bend meeting to help secure fund- tax reform that will work for
ing. Bentz said this was a com- smaller, rural communities.
spends on public safety.
John Day is the home of the
The current 911 tax collects mon problem in rural commu-
75 cents a month from all land- nities, but it was the first he had only dispatch center in Grant
lines and cell phones and dis- heard about it in Grant County. County. It serves 4,529 square
tributes the funds to dispatch He pledged to work toward ac- miles, including 1.8 million
centers based on number of quiring funding sources for the acres of public land frequent-
ed by hunters and tourists.
dispatch center.
connections they serve.
Green said the minimum
“John Day is now in its
Green said, for the current
911 tax level to fully fund the third straight decade of popu- cost of staffing the facility
John Day Dispatch Center, lation and economic decline,” year-round is $445,000. The
Grant County would need to Green wrote in a memo to 911 tax provided $248,982 in
increase from 7,185 residents Bentz. “The inability to di- fiscal year 2015. This left the
versify our economy into new city, county and other tax ju-
to 64,667.
risdictions to come up with
roughly $196,000 to fund
the dispatch center.
Tax reform designating
the
dispatch center as “mis-
541-620-4255
sion
essential” and fully
New smartphone + old, dumb driver = dropped
funding the center would
calls. Sorry!
allow the almost $200,000
of county taxpayer dollars
You never need a taxi until you need one;
spent on the center to be
put me on speed dial.
spent on infrastructure proj-
Richie Colbeth/ Owner/Operator ects to improve the commu-
nity and attract more peo-
05225
ple, Green said.
Grant County by the numbers
Val
WE CAN HELP.
Call us with questions
about aging and Alzheimer’s.
Din entin
Feb ner S e’s
ruar
pec
y
1
0 th ial
Plea
&
rese se cal
541 rvatio l for
-44
8 ns
-25
26
11 th
IB
E R ER
M
T
I
PR OBS 00
L
&
$
35
1-855-ORE-ADRC
HelpForAlz.org
OREGON DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES PROGRAM
05257