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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 22, 2017)
HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL PREVIEWS The – PAGE A10 Blue Mountain EAGLE Grant County’s newspaper since 1868 W edNesday , N ovember 22, 2017 • N o . 47 • 18 P ages • $1.00 www.MyEagleNews.com Planning for a public broadband network By Richard Hanners Blue Mountain Eagle A new high-speed internet option is moving for- ward for parts of Grant County. The John Day City Council unanimously approved an ordinance Nov. 15 ratifying cre- ation of the Grant County Digital Network Coalition, an intergovernmental agency to manage a new publicly owned broadband network in Grant County. “This is great,” Mayor Ron Lundbom said. “It’s been a long time coming.” Upon approval by the Oregon Secretary of State, the coalition will become active Jan. 1, John Day City Manager Nick Green said. Green expected the Seneca City Council to adopt a similar ordinance that night and for the Grant County Court to do so on Nov. 22. Each party to the agree- ment will appoint a member to represent their jurisdiction on the coalition’s board of directors. Prairie City and Canyon City opted to not join the coalition, Green said. “We won’t extend service to those two communities,” he said, adding that the communities join- ing the coalition will have a great- er share of the system’s revenue but also take on more risk. The backbone of the network in Grant County will be a high-capacity fiber cable installed from Burns to the John Day Valley. The state legislature provided $1.8 million for the project, which according to an esti- mate by OFS Optics was sufficient to run the line from Burns to John Day, Green told the Eagle. One of the route’s hurdles involves obtaining rights- of-way through Forest Service land. The task force working on the proposal has negotiated with Oregon THE FIBER-OPTIC CONNECTION “ Fiber is more expensive on the capital side but much lower cost on operations and maintenance.” Nick Green John Day city manager See BROADBAND, Page A18 Police committee votes to close Palmer investigation Licensing agency staff recommended no further action By Sean Hart Blue Mountain Eagle Oregon’s police licensing agency is closing an investi- gation into citizen complaints about Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer. The Police Policy Commit- tee of the licensing agency, the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, vot- ed unanimously Nov. 16 to affirm the rec- ommendation of DPSST staff that no further action be taken on the com- plaints against Palmer. Mal- Sheriff heur County Glenn Sheriff Brian Palmer Wolfe and an- other voting member recused themselves. DPSST Professional Stan- dards Coordinator/Investiga- tor Katrina Robson told the committee DPSST received “numerous citizen complaints alleging misconduct” by Palmer. The agency forward- ed the complaints to the Or- egon Department of Justice, which concluded its criminal investigation in October with no charges filed, stating the “investigation simply has not revealed concrete evidence of criminal conduct.” Robson said the DPSST waited to review the com- plaints until the criminal in- vestigation was completed. She said the committee needed to determine the next steps and that DPSST staff recommend- ed taking no further action because, without criminal con- duct, there was no “objectively reasonable” basis to initiate proceedings to suspend or re- voke Palmer’s police licenses. “A majority of the allega- tions contained in the com- plaints are related to Sheriff Palmer’s management opera- tion of the Grant County Sher- iff’s Office, matters that are outside of the board’s and the DPSST’s jurisdiction,” Rob- son said. “After reviewing the remaining allegations and considering the findings of the DOJ’s criminal investigation, staff does not believe that an independent investigation would uncover any additional information related to Sheriff Palmer’s conduct.” See PALMER, Page A18 Council mulls 911 dispatch options By Richard Hanners Blue Mountain Eagle The John Day City Coun- cil at its Nov. 14 meeting unanimously voted to accept $420,000 in state funding to keep its local 911 dispatch center operating for two more years. It also unanimously au- thorized City Manager Nick Green to organize an inter- agency task force to dissolve the current dispatch center and to negotiate a transition plan for a new 911 jurisdic- tional plan to become opera- tional by 2020. During discussion about the failure of the local option tax election, Green said the county didn’t have the best taxing tools to address the 911 funding deficit, and the special option tax appeared to violate a basic principle of tax fairness. “It was hard to explain that to voters on social me- John Day City Councilman Paul Smith John Day City Councilwoman Shannon Adair dia,” he said. Voters also didn’t under- stand that John Day paid about $200,000 per year to make up the annual funding deficit for the countywide dispatch center, Green said. The city gradually took over responsibility of the local dispatch center as members stopped coming to User Board meetings and the tech- nical oversight group “atro- phied,” he said. Chief Dispatcher Valerie Maynard, who researched See 911, Page A18 ACCESS TODAY! See Page A3