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News
Blue Mountain Eagle
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dining and a variety of other amenities,
including shooting, hiking, bike riding,
fishing, tours and other ranch activ-
ities, Vice President Colby Marshall
said many team members were cross-
trained to help with multiple tasks.
“I didn’t know what to expect when
I first applied to work at Silvies, but
the team gave me so many opportu-
nities to grow,” said employee Sun-
shine Smarr, who was born and raised
in Grant County. “I learned to how to
serve meals in a fine-dining restaurant,
how to take detailed guest reservations
and how hard it is to keep a golf course
in shape.”
Eagle file photo
Jeff Wallach, left, and Renee
Renfrow enjoy a round of golf at
The Links at Silvies Valley Ranch.
Several new attractions are also
opening this year:
• The Rocking Heart Spa and Fitness
Center is scheduled to open in July, pro-
viding spa treatments as well as an in-
door lap pool, workout equipment and a
rock-climbing wall.
• McVeigh’s Gauntlet, a seven-hole
challenge course, will provide golfers a
chance to test their accuracy.
• The Council House Conference
Center can accommodate 35 people.
• The first phase of vacation cabins
will begin, providing investors options
for off-the-grid cabins.
“Our hope is that guests from across
the globe will be drawn to the proper-
ty through golf and outdoor activities,
fostering a connection with the natural
beauty of the landscape — a place that
we have had the privilege to call home
for so many years — and helping to
recover the local economy,” Campbell
said.
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A perfect storm of changing tech-
nology and declining local economic
conditions, however, ended that run.
Barntish said he couldn’t compete with
Redbox video-rental machines and on-
line streaming.
“I just didn’t have the rental volume I
used to have,” he said.
He also couldn’t compete with online
sales of electronic parts and equipment
— especially Amazon. He said people
have come into his store to ask about spe-
cific electronics equipment and prices,
then looked up the same items on their
smartphones and told him they could buy
it cheaper online. He also noted the large
number of computer repair people in the
small-town John Day economy.
“I don’t mind competition, but after a
certain point it cuts the pie too thin,” he
said.
The main impact, however, has been
the declining economy, with all the mills
closing, he said.
“We’ve lost population – I have less
foot traffic in front,” he said.
Barntish closed the doors at Prime
Time Video on Jan. 27. He said he plans
to put remaining inventory for sale on-
line or at local flea markets.
Muzzy’s 123
Dollar Store
Another casualty in the John Day
economy is Muzzy’s 123 Dollar Store
in the John Day Plaza, which is selling
off all its inventory at sharply reduced
prices.
The store never had to compete with
large dollar store chains at the local retail
level, store manager Nathan Gordani-
er said, but it had to compete with the
chains when purchasing goods.
“Sometimes the retail price at a Dol-
lar Tree store was less than my cost,” Go-
rdanier said. “We tried to keep 92 percent
of our items at one dollar or less, but we
didn’t have the volume to do that.”
The store never had the number of
customers it needed for the low margins
dollar stores could expect, he said. After
the Mountains Department Store and the
King’s Discount Store closed, leaving a
large empty space in the plaza between
Chester’s Thriftway and the dollar store,
the amount of customer traffic simply
dried up, he said.
Eagle photos/Richard Hanners
A sign at the Prime Time Video store.
The Eastern Oregon College of
Industries and Arts College of
Cosmetology in John Day has
become a professional hair salon.
“When Mountains closed, you could
see the numbers drop right away,” Gor-
danier said. “Finally, we had to make a
decision. At some point, you have to stop
the bleeding.”
The shrinking John Day economy just
doesn’t offer everything people need, he
said. When people go out of town for a
doctor’s visit or to buy something that
isn’t normally sold in town, they inevi-
tably do the rest of their shopping at the
same time. He noted that it was owner
Greg Armstrong’s intent to promote local
shopping by offering more items in the
dollar store, but he just didn’t have the
square-footage needed. The plan now is
to sell off everything in the store and then
close, Gordanier said.
EOCIA College of
Cosmetology
Facing additional hurdles, the East-
ern Oregon College of Industries and
Arts College of Cosmetology has closed
and reopened as a salon, business owner
Nina LeAnne Gast said.
The college on West Main Street in
John Day began holding classes in Feb-
ruary 2015 and celebrated its first grad-
uate five months later, but the school of-
ficially closed Dec. 31, after graduating
13 students.
A sign at the Muzzy’s 123 Dollar
Store.
“There’s been lots of shock and dis-
appointment,” Gast said. “It’s a huge
loss to the community.”
It took more than three years of ef-
fort before the Oregon Higher Educa-
tion Coordinating Commission licensed
EOCIA to operate as a private career
school. But Gast needed 11 students to
make ends meet, and she had only six.
More students would have signed
up if they could obtain federal student
aid, she said, but it would take four
more years before the college could be
nationally accredited and its students
would be eligible for student loans. And
the college had to be profitable before it
even applied, Gast noted.
“I knew about all this ahead of time,
but I felt sure I could maintain 12 stu-
dents and keep the college going,” she
said. “I had 20 students interested in the
college, but only six had the financial
resources to attend without student aid.”
In keeping with the acronym EO-
CIA, the salon will run under the name
Eastern Oregon Cosmetology Industry
Associates. Gast will be joined by Judy
Chapman, Miranda Hoodenpyl and
Chrisheena Fuglee.
Salon hours at the same location are
from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through
Saturdays. For more information, call
541-620-8863.
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Contributed photo
Young Wella Wilson smiles big in Ghana, Africa.
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people called us crazy for
jumping on a plane and fly-
ing across the world,” Kaylee
said. “That was a huge leap of
faith for us, and it certainly
wouldn’t be the last.”
Wella had malaria, was
severely malnourished and
appeared to be the “saddest
child,” Kaylee said. She
stayed behind with Wella
while James flew back to the
U.S. to work and raise funds
for the adoption fees and to
support his family — he was
gone for six months.
Kaylee said she’d always
wanted to live in Africa, but
those months apart from her
husband were “the hardest.”
She lived in rural Kpando,
without running water and
limited electricity. She was
also a new parent — and for a
time a “single” parent.
James said he spent the
long separation in a “zom-
bie-like” state, going through
the motions. Then a phone
call changed everything. Of-
ficials from the Tim Tebow
Foundation offered an $8,000
adoption grant.
“We hadn’t even applied
for the grant,” James said.
The foundation heard of
their plight through an organi-
zation called Show Hope. The
funds covered most of their
remaining adoption fees, and
they used savings for James’
return to Ghana.
While they wait to return
to the U.S., other opportuni-
ties have opened up. Kaylee
started a position as a market-
er and videographer for an in-
ternational school in Accra in
exchange for a house near the
U.S. embassy.
They’ve also grown
their coffee business Level
Grounds Xpresso, which fea-
tures beans from coffee farms
in Kenya, Peru, Guatemala,
PROJECT
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acquire the Weaver Building
at 131 W. Main St. and inspect
it for lead and asbestos, Green
said. Of that amount, $89,282
has been reimbursed through
37758
Costa Rica and Papua New
Guinea. One special six-bean
espresso is called “Wella’s
Blend” after their daughter.
Sales cover the Wilsons’
living expenses, and the prod-
ucts are available at The Cor-
ner Cup in John Day or online
at levelgroundsxpresso.com.
Uncertain of when they’ll
return, the couple said they
are trying to relax and enjoy
being a family.
“She’s very caring and af-
fectionate, and she’s grown to
love us,” James said.
Kaylee said she’s amazed
at how Wella has taken on
many of their personality
traits, including sense of hu-
mor.
Eager to preserve her
daughter’s history, Kaylee has
filmed much of their time in
Africa.
“We want her to be proud
of where she came from and
proud of her culture,” she
said.
James said they want to
share their story to encourage
others who may be thinking
of adoption.
“Don’t let yourself be
guided by fear,” he said. “I
think God has changed me in
so many ways. Looking back
to the boy that I was, that’s not
the man that I am today.”
Kaylee added, “(Since) we
knew this is what God was
asking us to do ... we knew he
would get us through it.”
When the Wilsons are
back on U.S. soil, they will
transition in John Day, then
plan to open a coffee shop,
continue overseas work and
adopt more children.
“Whether we’re home in
three weeks, three months
or three years, we are grate-
ful because we’re learning
and growing, and we are to-
gether,” Kaylee said. “We
thought we had a timeline,
but so far, looking back, God
is in control, and his timing
is perfect.”
grants, with the rest to be reim-
bursed upon submission of the
project’s final report, he said.
Drawings for the eight res-
idential units on the second
floor as they exist now have
been drafted by Strux Engi-
neering of Prairie City. Chang-
es in the layout are needed to
address ingress and egress reg-
ulations, Green said.
When asked what would
happen if the city decided to
sell the building after it was
fixed up, Green said he’d like
to see that happen, but he
wasn’t sure how it would work
out after using government
grants or loans.
The council also agreed to
move forward to a higher lev-
el of participation in the tiered
Oregon Main Street program.
The Exploring Downtown lev-
el requires more commitments
but provides greater grant op-
portunities, Green said.
Green said he would talk
with the Grant County Cham-
ber of Commerce and generate
more ideas about Main Street
revitalization through 2018
before applying to move to the
higher level. The city’s 2010
downtown master plan might
need to be updated to make it
more coherent, he said.
In other city council news:
• The council met in exec-
utive session to discuss real
property transactions.
• The John Day Planning
Commission will meet at 6
p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13, to re-
view two sign permit requests
and an eight-unit subdivision
request.
• The council will hold its
next regular meeting at 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 13, with a public
hearing on requests for propos-
als for the greenhouse project.
• The city council will meet
again on Feb. 27, with a pre-
sentation of the annual public
safety report.
• Green will present a state
of the city address at the March
13 city council meeting. The
council agreed to hold all the
meetings in the John Day Fire
Hall.