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Blue Mountain Eagle
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The Eagle/Richard Hanners
Chief Dispatcher Valerie Maynard keeps track of
numerous computer monitors at the John Day
Emergency Communications Center.
911
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This drain on the city’s
general fund affects efforts to
diversify and strengthen the
city’s economy, Green said.
A countywide levy would
be more equitable, Green said.
“Right now, John Day res-
idents pay about $60,000 per
year more than they would
if the other cities (in Grant
County) also contributed on a
per capita basis, and the coun-
ty pays about $25,000 more
per year,” he said. “We both
split the deficit, but not pro-
portionally.”
Green said the previous
John Day city manager, Peg-
gy Gray, attempted to invoice
the rural fire districts to help
cover the deficit, but the $500
per district that the city could
expect “never made sense”
for a $450,000 operating bud-
get, he said. Green also sent a
proposal to the other cities for
sharing the cost.
“Some cities responded
favorably,” he said. “I believe
Prairie City went so far as to
budget for the cost, and Sene-
ca may have as well.”
By state law, the local
option tax can only fund the
dispatch department for five
years and can be reduced or
rescinded if additional state
funding becomes available.
Green notes that the 75-cent
telephone surcharge for 911
hasn’t been adjusted since
1995, despite steadily increas-
ing costs.
“New services like digital
address mapping, text to 911
and geo-location of emergen-
cy calls have improved the
accuracy and timeliness of
emergency responders, but
they have also added to the
cost to deliver 911 services,”
Green said.
Green traveled to Salem in
February and March to lob-
by state legislators, includ-
ing Sen. Ted Ferrioli, R-John
Day, and Rep. Cliff Bentz,
R-Ontario. The result was a
$420,000 special appropria-
tion that will cover the fund-
ing gap for the next biennium.
That will provide the city
and the county with time to
work on a long-term fund-
ing solution through the state
legislature. Doubling the tele-
phone surcharge to $1.50 per
month per line would elimi-
nate the deficit and leave a lit-
tle surplus, but “at $1.25 we’d
break even,” depending on
how the legislature structured
the fee, Green said.
If the ballot measure fails,
the city will follow up on talks
to outsource 911 service to
Frontier Dispatch, a regional
dispatch center in Condon,
Green said.
“I think the million-dollar
question residents will want to
know is what happens to our
911 service if this local option
levy doesn’t pass?” he said.
“The answer to that question
is that they will still have 911
service — it just may not be
local 911.”
The impacts of outsourc-
ing are three-fold, Green notes
— the loss of six jobs at the
emergency communications
center in John Day, transfer-
ring duties to dispatchers who
are not familiar with the his-
tory and geography of Grant
County, and losing control
over dispatch costs in the fu-
ture.
“Our dispatch operators
provide a critical public safe-
ty service for our county,”
Green said. “While they are
employees of the city of John
Day, they represent each of us
and respond to every call for
service, regardless of where
it originates. They answer
the phone on the worst days
of our residents’ lives. Their
work is admirable, and their
dedication to our community
should be revered.”
Ballot forum slated
The Grant County Cham-
ber of Commerce will host a
forum on the ballot measure
at the Senior Center in John
Day on Wednesday, Oct. 18
at 6 p.m.
According to state law,
public employees may not
support or oppose measures,
candidates, recalls, petitions
or political committees while
on the job during working
hours.
A public employee who
appears at an event as the rep-
resentative of the jurisdiction
is considered to be on the job,
the League of Oregon Cities
advises.
While elected officials are
not considered public employ-
ees, they are prohibited from
directing other non-elected
public employees from en-
gaging in political activity.
That doesn’t include the
gymnasium space in the
former junior high school,
which can be used for large
gatherings. Waggoner has
served as an adult 4-H vol-
unteer for more than 20
years and started working
at the local extension office
in 2008.
“The Grant County ex-
tension office was estab-
lished in 1926 — the last
one in the state,” she said.
Everyone at the ex-
tension office helps with
the Grant County 4-H
program. Shanna North-
way is the county leader,
which has 219 members
and 44 adult volunteers
in 23 clubs across the
county.
The year-round program
culminates in the county
fair with more than 400
exhibits submitted by 4-H
members.
The clubs meet six
times a year as the mem-
bers develop their projects
and learn by doing. The
annual Lake Creek Youth
Camp jointly held in Logan
Valley by Grant and Har-
ney counties provides five
days of activities for 110
members. High school 4-H
members serve as counsel-
ors for children in grades
4-6.
“The kids get to know
each other as they partici-
pate in classes, hiking and
other activities,” Northway
said.
This past summer’s
camp theme was Dr. Seuss.
Next year will be “circus.”
Local 4-H members can
also attend an Eastern Or-
egon leadership retreat and
a statewide summer confer-
ence on the Oregon State
University campus, where
they stay in dormitories
and visit the O.H. Hinsdale
Wave Research Laboratory
and learn about tsunamis.
The 4-H program is di-
verse and includes a for-
eign exchange program.
Several local members
have traveled to Japan or
other countries, and a local
family hosted a Japanese
member through 4-H.
Northway, who has a
master’s degree in agri-
culture education and has
taught agriculture sci-
ence at Grant Union High
School, is in her fourth
year at the local extension
office. She assists local
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“
We fill in the gaps for small
schools for college and career
readiness. We help students
visualize what it’s like to live
outside this area.”
Didgette McCracken
open campus coordinator
farmers and ranchers with
questions about hay, for-
age, livestock, and weed
and pest control.
“We are the middlemen
between Oregon State re-
searchers and locals,” she
said, offering help in col-
lecting soil and hay sam-
ples and providing pesti-
cide classes.
Northway also fields
questions about horticul-
ture and gardening. Wag-
goner helps coordinate the
Master Gardener Program,
which is taught by locals or
OSU faculty from January
through April.
Didgette
McCracken
is the open campus coor-
dinator. The open campus
concept has existed under
OSU’s Department of Out-
reach and Engagement for
about 10 years, but is new
to Grant County, she said.
The program’s three goals
are economic and com-
munity development, pro-
moting college and career
readiness, and assisting in
degree completion,.
“The Innovation Gate-
way project in John Day
has all of these compo-
nents,” she said.
The extension service’s
new office includes a large
room that can be used for
meetings or classes, and
a smaller room that can
serve as a computer lab.
Locals will be able to use
the facilities to take on-
line courses or to proctor
online tests, McCracken
said.
McCracken, who taught
in public schools for 20
years, joined the exten-
sion office in June 2016.
She notes that smaller ru-
ral schools in the coun-
ty sometimes need help
providing guidance coun-
seling. She also helps
students learn job inter-
view skills through career
fairs.
“We fill in the gaps for
small schools for college
and career readiness,” she
said. “We help students vi-
sualize what it’s like to live
outside this area.”
Christal Culley is the
office’s education program
assistant and works with
the Supplemental Nutri-
tion Assistance Program
(SNAP), teaching elemen-
tary school children about
nutrition and physical ac-
tivities.
“We do a pre-evaluation
to see what the children
know and a post-evaluation
to see how their behavior
changes,” she said.
This includes switching
from sweets to vegetables
and making better nutrition
choices. Culley provides
the children with recipes to
follow, such as a pasta sal-
ad with half a dozen differ-
ent vegetables.
“Parents send us photos
of their children making
these better choices,” she
said.
Culley, who worked as
a preschool teacher and for
School District 3, provides
students with activity ideas
and encourages them to ex-
ercise for at least an hour a
day. She also works with th
4-H program.
“Fair is one of my fa-
vorite things to be involved
with,” she said. “I love to
see youths grow and learn
within their projects.”
Culley said she is start-
ing something new this
year — providing a series
of mini-sessions on lead-
ership and communication
for fifth and sixth graders.
“The sessions will take
place before school starts,”
she said. “It will provide a
fun and engaging way for
the kids to learn and build
on some life skills.”
Kristal Hansen is the
STEM program coordina-
tor at the extension office.
This is her second year pro-
viding a combined science,
technology,
engineering
and math program for stu-
dents at Humbolt Elemen-
tary School.
Last year, about 40
fourth- and sixth-graders
signed up to attend STEM
classes on Fridays from 9
a.m. to noon. Students vis-
ited Blue Mountain Hos-
pital to learn about jobs in
the health industry.
They also visited col-
leges in La Grande, On-
A7
tario, Redmond, Prineville
and Bend.
“The students had to
commit to a full year,”
Hansen said.
This year, with a small-
er grant funding the pro-
gram, the STEM program
will only be offered to
fifth-graders starting in
November. The focus will
be on trades and careers,
including the construction
and mechanical trades.
Hansen said she saw a
strong turnout at last year’s
Family STEM Night. This
year’s event will be held in
March instead of Novem-
ber, she said.
Bob Parker handles for-
estry services for Grant and
Baker counties and works
out of an extension office
in Baker City.
He assists family for-
est landowners in setting
goals for how their tim-
ber holdings will look and
produce.
This could include thin-
ning, harvesting and tree
planting. He also has pro-
vided a number of work-
shops on defensible spaces
for homes in an urban-wild-
land interface.
“Quite a few family
forests were impacted by
recent area fires,” he said,
citing the 2015 Canyon
Creek Complex as an ex-
ample.
Parker points to the
Ritter Land Management
Team, a collaboration of
private timber and ranch
owners, as a “great suc-
cess.”
“The goal was to im-
prove management on a
watershed scale, including
juniper removal, noxious
weed control and finding
markets for raw materials,”
he said.
Every two years, the
extension service in Bak-
er City offers Tree School
East for people from
around Eastern Oregon.
The one-day event
with about 24 classes will
take place next April, he
said. Parker, who has a
master’s degree in forest-
ry and worked for many
years in the private for-
est industry, also partic-
ipates in the Lake Creek
Youth Camp, teaching
young students about forest
management.
The Grant County Ex-
tension Service is located
at 116 NW Bridge Street,
Suite 1, in John Day. They
can be reached by calling
541-575-1911.
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