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ECLIPSE
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viewing areas in Grant County, for
example, to generate rough esti-
mates of how many vehicles remain
in the vicinity.
Strandberg also said the agency
is beefing up its Trip Check website
to show the pace of traffic through
the rural highways.
“We’re trying to implement that
before the eclipse, that’s the plan,”
he said.
And the state is shutting down
highway construction projects
through the area starting the week-
end before the eclipse through mid-
night Tuesday, Aug. 22, the day af-
ter.
ODOT’s motto for the event
is “arrive early, stay put and leave
late.”
“People coming the day of might
be stuck in traffic jams,” Strandberg
said, and a mass exodus the moment
it ends will cause the same result.
He also said visitors need to
come prepared.
“We expect gas stations to run
out of gas, grocery stores to run out
of food,” he said, and rest areas and
restaurants to be full. “It’s quite an
unusual situation, but we think it’s
manageable.”
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
He warned drivers not to rely on
GPS directions for rerouting around
turtle-speed traffic. Strandberg said
that would mean traveling over U.S.
Forest Service roads and rough terrain.
Not knowing those routes or having
the right vehicle could mean trouble.
“People need to stay on the main
highways,” he said. “That might be
a long delay, but if you are on a for-
est road ... you might be stuck a lot
longer.”
ARTIST
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After painting chemicals onto
a sheet of metal, he will quickly
rinse, dry and seal the piece with
another chemical to preserve the
reaction. However, if he decides
he doesn’t like the piece, he can
rework the metal again and again
until he does.
The acids he works with can be
volatile, and his clothes have the
holes to prove it.
Recently, Mead had been study-
ing with Zen artists working with
ink and brush on rice paper.
“It ends up transferring in a
very fascinating way to the steel,”
Mead said.
For his pieces, he is drawn to
wood most people would be afraid
to pick up. He looks for “nasty”
aged wood full of rusty nails to
strip down and use for the backing
of the piece.
For each piece, he custom
welds a steel frame.
“It’s a complete piece with
the frame,” Mead said. “Not just
a painting where you fill in your
canvas.”
While most of his pieces are
sold outside the county, he has
sold some locally.
Mead’s old neighbor, Maryann
Blem, bought one of his pieces be-
cause the blend of golds, browns,
rusts and textures also appealed to
her.
“Mytchell had an early piece
Eagle photos/Rylan Boggs
Mytchell Mead paints acid onto a piece of steel outside his home in
John Day. “I follow the piece,” Mead said. “The piece tells me where
it wants to go.”
that I was drawn to,” Blem said.
“It was called ‘Swell’ and could
be interpreted as the swell of a
wave, a swell of wheat blowing in
the field, or just plain ‘Gee, this is
swell!’”
Mead currently sells from gal-
leries in Bend, Sedona, Lake Tahoe
and Jackson Hole. Different styles
and colors sell better in different
galleries. For example, more rustic
pieces sell well in Jackson Hole,
while buyers in Sedona are drawn
a certain palette of colors that
don’t sell as well elsewhere.
While many of his pieces are
abstract, he also has representa-
tional work. Landscapes with a
focus on the horizon are some of
his favorites. He draws inspiration
from the horizon, a place where
the material meets the immaterial.
Mead said he creates art from
a place of clarity, something that
helped his sales stay steady during
the Great Recession.
“That’s what being an artist is
about, tapping in and tuning out
Local artist Mytchell Mead holds
a piece of wet steel he just
finished painting with acid.
the noise of the world, and what
comes through is the clarity of the
universe and the moment,” Mead
said. “And that’s what people are
seeking, they want clarity in this
confusing, massive world, and
when they find that seat of clari-
ty, that seat of silence in a piece of
artwork, they’re like, ‘I’ve got to
have that.’”
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Serving Morrow, Wheeler, Gilliam and Grant Counties
EMRY
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trailer in John Day and recovered
a Browning M2 .50-caliber ma-
chine gun with an obliterated se-
rial number. Emry told agents that
the firearm was fully automatic and
could fire 550-650 rounds per min-
ute, that he had stolen it from a man
in Idaho and that he had removed the
serial number prior to bringing it to
Oregon.
“I applaud federal and state law
enforcement officers for their swift
and decisive action in removing a
very dangerous stolen weapon from
the community,” United States At-
torney Billy J. Williams said in the
release. “Transporting stolen weap-
ons is a serious crime and will be met
with equally serious consequences.”
Prosecutors said Emry was in ne-
gotiations to sell the machine gun in
Oregon to a person he had been told
was a felon and the captain of a Tex-
as militia group, who was actually an
undercover law enforcement officer.
They said Emry also possessed a belt
of blank .50-caliber shells for the gun
and the blasting cap, which is a deto-
nator for a bomb.
According to an article on The
Voice of Idaho News website, Emry
was the proprietor of that organiza-
tion, as well as The Voice of North
Idaho and The Voice of Grant Coun-
ty, Oregon. The case was investigat-
ed by the FBI in collaboration with
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives and Oregon
State Police, and was prosecuted by
Assistant United States Attorney for
the District of Oregon Nathan J. Li-
chvarcik.
“I appreciate the partnership with
ATF and OSP in this investigation,”
said Loren Cannon, Special Agent
in Charge of the FBI in Oregon, in
the release. “The people’s represen-
tatives pass laws to keep our com-
munities safe. Mr. Emry broke
those laws and as a consequence,
he will spend time in federal pris-
on.”
NETWORK
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The scope of the project
is still being determined, but
Green said every community,
with the possible exception of
Granite, could be serviced by
the new network.
“Our goal is to address the
entire county’s needs, but we
will start with the urban corri-
dor,” he said.
The city received $1.82
million in state funding —
enough to construct the 75-
mile fiber line from Burns
— and plans to form an inter-
agency coalition to own and
manage the cable. The Grant
County Digital Coalition will
consist of representatives from
the county and other cities in-
terested in accessing the fiber
optic line.
The state funding will be
used as matching funds for
grants, including a United
States Department of Agricul-
ture rural development grant,
to develop the infrastructure
for residents to tap into the
high-speed network, Green
said. A hybrid network, which
would provide a blanket of
internet access without laying
fiber optic line to every home,
is being considered.
The coalition would have
to determine whether to oper-
ate as a public utility compa-
ny, providing internet access
directly to customers, or to
lease access to the new net-
work to other internet pro-
viders. Green said there were
pros and cons to both, and
the risks and rewards would
be weighed in the coming
months.
DeLinda Kluser, gener-
al manager at Oregon Tele-
phone Corporation, said the
company wants what is best
for the people and business-
es of Grant County. She said
Oregon Telephone is willing
to work with the city and lend
its local expertise and experi-
ence with fiber optic technol-
ogy. Kluser said she saw it as
a win-win situation.
The Grant County Internet
Task Force — a group of rep-
resentatives from the private
sector, city, county and Grant
School District — has been
working toward securing better
internet for residents. The task
force will be disbanded upon
the creation of the coalition.
State Sen. Ted Ferrioli of
John Day helped secure the
funding through an amend-
ment to a House appropriations
bill. He said it would help erase
the barrier of time and distance
faced by those working in rural
Oregon. Ferrioli said access to
affordable high-speed internet
is needed to transition commu-
nities like John Day into what
he called “the new West.”
“It could turn out to be the
key piece to attracting a few
new employers and growing
local businesses,” he said.
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