Year in Review
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Monument making
infrastructure upgrades
Grants finance
water and sewer
projects
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
The city of Monument has
just wrapped up a wastewater
improvement project and ap-
plied for grant money for im-
provements to its public water
supply system, according to
City Manager and City Re-
corder Dorothy Jordan.
A federal grant was used to
install a chlorination system to
treat wastewater from the la-
goons before it’s land-applied
by sprinklers, she said. The
grant was also used to pur-
chase emergency generators
for the wastewater plant, and
an existing federal loan was
refinanced through the U.S.
Department of Agriculture,
she said.
Monument’s water system
has one well and a storage tank
on a hill above the football
field providing water for the
city’s 130 residents through
83 commercial and residential
hook-ups, she said. A high-wa-
ter event in 2011 drove the
need to upgrade the system.
“The well was deemed
Contributed photo/Jeanne Strange
Buckaroo Festival grand marshals Betty Richards, left,
and Donna Campbell sit together at this year’s event in
September. Tom Campbell was the third grand marshal.
‘under the influence of surface
water’ by the Oregon Health
Authority,” Jordan said.
The city received a tech-
nical assistance grant from
the Oregon Infrastructure Fi-
nance Authority to study the
best options to avoid a repeat
of the 2011 problem. An en-
gineering firm recommended
the city draft a water master
plan, Jordan said, but OHA
said Monument was too small
to require a water master plan
and turned down the city’s
application for a Community
Development Block Grant to
pay for the plan.
“The city council didn’t
want the ratepayers to bear the
burden for something intangi-
ble like a water master plan, so
we looked at other options,”
Jordan said.
The city is currently under
an administrative order issued
by OHA that requires a solu-
tion by January 2019, Jordan
said. The city plans to hire a
firm to draft a preliminary en-
gineering report to determine
if a filtration system for the
well will solve the problem
and how much a filtration sys-
tem will cost to install and to
operate and maintain.
Scott Fairley at Business
Oregon said the state is wrap-
ping up the paperwork for
another $20,000 grant to pay
for the preliminary engineer-
ing report. The engineers will
determine if it’s more cost ef-
fective to put in another well
or install a filtration system for
the old well.
In the meantime, the water
is chlorinated and safe to drink,
and the city has implemented
small rate increases over the
past few years in anticipation
of needed improvements, Jor-
dan said.
Monument recently signed
a contract with Western Dis-
play Fireworks for next year’s
Fourth of July celebration.
“We put on the best fire-
works show in Grant County,”
Jordan said.
Funding for the display
comes from generous dona-
tions from community mem-
bers, she said. The successful
Buckaroo Festival in Septem-
ber raised money for the Mon-
ument Senior Association,
which maintains the commu-
nity’s senior center, and Mayor
Sahara Hyder has applied for
state grant money to improve
the city’s downtown park, Jor-
dan said.
Quiet times in Long Creek
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
Life is a lot simpler and
quieter in Long Creek, City
Recorder Marsie Watson told
the Eagle.
The community’s in-
frastructure originally was
designed for 800 residents,
but the city has shrunk since
then.
“Everything’s
gravi-
ty-fed,” she said. “The well
pumps water to the tanks, but
everything flows downhill
from there.”
Following a local resi-
dent’s advice, the city paid to
install a new motor starter for
the well to protect electrical
equipment.
The half-block city park
CITY
Continued from Page A8
for the project beginning July
1.
In addition to constructing
a new wastewater treatment
plant that will reclaim up to
80 million gallons of water
per year, plans call for mak-
ing the Innovation Gateway
a community gathering place
and an attraction for tourists.
Plans include construction
of a river trail and gardens, a
commercial greenhouse that
will grow 31 tons of produce
annually and converting the
former planer building into an
open-air farmers market.
Portions of the Oregon
Pine property will be sold,
and the steel maintenance
building will be utilized as a
new city shop. A state Trans-
portation Growth Manage-
ment grant will be used to pay
for design work starting in
spring 2018.
Watson said the city is
careful with its limited bud-
get, setting aside money for
rainy days. With no growth
in the community, the city
often “reacts” to needs as
they arise, she noted.
Long Creek’s Fourth of
July picnic is held to honor
the city’s founding fathers,
Watson said. An all-class
reunion is held about every
five years. The community
raised money to remod-
el the school’s kitchen by
holding an educational
Contributed photo/Brian Burgess event during the eclipse,
People gathered to view the eclipse in Long Creek Aug. 21. featuring personnel from
the National Oceanic and
on Highway 402 is popu- son said.
Atmospheric Administra-
lar with local children, with
“There’s often someone tion.
swing sets, a merry-go-round using the basketball hoop,”
“We had a good turnout,”
and a basketball hoop, Wat- she said.
she said.
ment plan became a city goal
in 2017, and a task force was
established to study broad-
band possibilities in the coun-
ty. The mission was to retain
and attract younger people
and virtual commuters to the
John Day area.
The two main internet
providers in the county were
CenturyLink, which brought
internet to the county by mi-
crowave tower and provided
DSL service over copper tele-
phone lines, and Oregon Tele-
phone Corporation, which
accessed the outside world
with fiber cable and ran fiber
to homes and businesses in
some areas.
Green traveled to Salem
in February and successful-
ly lobbied the legislature for
$1.8 million in state funding.
A plan emerged calling for
running a 144-strand fiber ca-
ble from the fiber backbone on
Highway 20 at Burns 75 miles
to John Day. The cable would
cross Forest Service land and
hang on Oregon Trail Electric
Cooperative power poles.
Grant County and Seneca
joined John Day in establish-
ing a Grant County Digital
Coalition to decide how the
legislative funding would be
spent and how a broadband
network would be built and
operated in the county. Prairie
City and Canyon City opted
not to join the coalition, fear-
ing unknown future expenses
or obligations.
Establishing the coalition
proved controversial, with
opponents arguing that gov-
ernment should not compete
with private enterprise, coun-
ty taxpayers should not be on
the hook for improving inter-
net access for John Day res-
idents and the new network
should provide broadband to
Long Creek and Monument
and rural residents scattered
between the cities.
Despite these objections,
the county court approved
creating the coalition Dec. 13,
but it will be March before the
members can meet and start
making decisions.
Main Street
revitalization
Fearing that a prominent
building in downtown John
Day might close, forcing
four ground-floor business-
es to move and increasing
blight on Main Street, the city
council approved purchas-
ing the Weaver Building and
making improvements to the
120-year-old structure.
In June, however, the
council learned that the
12,000-square-foot
com-
plex consisted of four build-
ings sharing one roof. The
city had been awarded a
$100,000 Main Street Revi-
talization Grant to purchase
the building, but fire hazards
posed by failing electric sys-
A9
County welcomes new
hires, shuffles offices
Repairs
completed
on library,
fairgrounds fixes
coming
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
Road, building and office
projects were the highlights
for the county in 2017, Grant
County Judge Scott Myers
told the Eagle.
Roadmaster Alan Hick-
erson said preparation work
was completed on County
Road 18 near Magone Lake,
including cattle guards and
brush-clearing, in preparation
for chip-sealing in 2018.
Federal government crews
in 2018 will rebuild County
Road 73 near Drewsey, which
has a bad base and pavement,
Hickerson said. Work will be-
gin on the Granite road proj-
ect in 2018, with seven miles
of 33-year-old pavement and
four new bridges needed to
replace culverts. The coun-
ty will provide a 10 percent
match for the project, which
could run around $8 million
in total, Hickerson said.
New hires for the county
include Katee Hoffman in the
Veteran Services office and
Allison Field at the Econom-
ic Development office. Myers
said Field’s grant writing abil-
ities will be an asset for the
county.
With the OSU Extension
Office relocated to the Mad-
den Business and Education
Center in John Day, a shuf-
fling of offices is underway
at the county’s L Building on
Highway 26, with the Eco-
nomic Development office
moving into the former Ex-
tension Office location. The
Emergency Management and
Veteran Services offices like-
ly will also relocate to the L
Building, Myers said.
Both the Treasurer’s and
County Court offices were
remodeled in 2017, with new
carpeting and painting, Myers
said.
New reader boards and
a new audio system were
installed at the Grant Coun-
ty Fairgrounds, Myers said.
Planning continues for re-
modeling Keerins Hall —
bids are being collected for a
new roof, which could be in-
stalled in spring 2018. Myers
tems and voids in walls in-
dicated the project might re-
quire more restoration than
anticipated.
Green described the build-
ing as “highly dangerous” and
a “playground for fire.” Dep-
uty State Fire Marshall Dave
Fields said the whole block
could be lost if a fire started in
the building.
The city closed on the
property Nov. 16 and began
to line up a $200,000 loan to
complete Phase 1 renovation
work — interior demolition
of the top floor, removal of
hazardous materials, required
structural reinforcement and
constructing a fire separation
between the first and second
floors, Green said. Rental in-
Contributed photo
Katee Hoffman was hired
as Grant County’s new
veterans service officer in
2017.
said volunteers likely would
hang new siding on the hall.
A leaky library roof in No-
vember 2016 resulted in about
four months of remodeling
and repair, Library Director
Vicki Bond said — including
a new roof, a new wall, paint-
ing and a new carpet. Books
and bookcases had to be tem-
porarily moved during the
project, which concluded in
late March. A new bike rack
will be installed outside by
February 2018.
Looking forward, the li-
brary will offer a program
through the Dollywood Foun-
dation and sponsored by Ore-
gon Trail Electric Cooperative
that will provide one age-ap-
propriate book per month for
children for their first five
years, Bond said. Other pro-
grams include the monthly
Lego Night, a music program
starting in April and the Sum-
mer Reading program.
Grant County and other
Eastern Oregon counties were
represented at numerous For-
est Service meetings in 2017
during the Malheur National
Forest Plan revision, Myers
said. County representatives
were successful in relaxing
grazing regulations and re-
ducing the number of acres
set aside for wilderness study
areas or potential wilderness,
Myers said.
Commissioners from Har-
ney and Wallowa counties
traveled to Washington, D.C.,
when the Forest Plan was
presented. The final environ-
mental impact statement for
the Forest Plan is expected to
be completed by July 2018,
and work will begin next on
the Malheur National Forest’s
Travel Management Plan,
Myers said.
come from the four business-
es would pay off that loan in
10 years, he said.
The goal is to develop
a mixed-use property, with
commercial businesses on the
ground floor and six condo-
miniums on the second floor.
Peter Baer of Pinnacle Archi-
tecture estimated the project
could cost nearly $2 million
to complete.
Green defended the city’s
acquisition of the Weaver
Building by noting that the
private sector had not invest-
ed in renovating downtown
buildings. If this project
proved successful, perhaps
more private investment in
downtown John Day would
follow, he said.
Broadband
Improving internet access
in Grant County as part of an
overall economic develop-
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