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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (March 7, 2018)
The Blue Mountain EAGLE Grant County’s newspaper since 1868 PRAIRIE CITY BOYS PLACE 2ND AT STATE W edNesday , M arch 7, 2018 • N o . 10 • 18 P ages • $1.00 PAGE A13 www.MyEagleNews.com Legislature adjourns 2018 session “ I was worried that we were over-committed, doing too much, but we just adjourned eight days before the constitutional deadline.” By Paris Achen Capital Bureau Oregon legislative leaders Satur- day celebrated a 28-day policymak- ing session marked by some biparti- san legislation. The Legislature’s Democratic leaders launched the session Feb. 5 with lofty ambitions of univer- sal health care and a cap and invest program. Adjourning Saturday law- Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem makers left the state Capitol having passed smaller policy advancements with consensus from the Republican minority in many instances. “This session surprised me,” said Senate President Peter Court- ney, D-Salem. “I was worried that we were over-committed, doing too much, but we just adjourned eight days before the constitutional dead- line.” Lawmakers made a fix to the state’s domestic violence gun laws, passed some measures to push back on Trump administration policies and made changes to help fund af- fordable housing and shed light on pharmaceutical drug prices. The Legislature’s “short” session — held in even-numbered years — was sold to voters in 2010 as a time to fix laws and adjust the state budget. In 2016, the Legislature used the short session to pass major policies such as an increase in minimum wage and limits on the use of coal power. This time, lawmakers showed re- straint as many of them prepared for reelection bids this year. The filing deadline for the May 15 primary was March 6. See SESSION, Page A7 Arcing across the divide Country kids and city kids spark welding bond in Monument By Angel Carpenter Blue Mountain Eagle W elding creates bonds — between metals, between students. Monument School shop teach- er Michele Engle and her six stu- dents welcomed Mark Lynch and four members of his high school welding class from Clackamas for two days of in-depth instruction. With a student population of 47 for Monument, and the visitors com- ing from a technical school of 3,500, the matchup Feb. 26-27 was a learn- ing experience for both groups. Engle met instructor Mark Lynch, a manufacturing instructor for Sabin-Schellenberg Profes- sional Technical Center, last De- cember at a Skills USA conference in Redmond. She said Monument School joined the career technical student organization this school year, and being new to welding herself, she was grateful when several people Monument junior Cade at the conference offered help, in- Milton shows a metal flower he made in class. cluding Lynch. Lynch is a certified welding in- spector, instructor and safety trainer. Over the two days, he and his students taught techniques in dif- ferent types of welding, including gas metal arc welding and gas tungsten arc welding. The students also learned brazing, a metal-join- ing process, and each created a life-sized metal rose. A welding competition also helped them gain more experience. Clackamas sophomore Alex Tobiassen said the trip to Monument with his welding friends was fun. See WELDING, Page A6 Eagle photos/Angel Carpenter Monument junior Cade Milton, right, welds with junior Davis Courtney of Sabin-Schellenberg guiding during a two-day event at Monument School. Marijuana measure will go to voters County could earn tax revenue from sales By Richard Hanners Blue Mountain Eagle A petition to allow recreational marijuana businesses to operate in Grant County nearly didn’t make it to the ballot for this May. Haley Olson, who had spear- headed the signature gathering, showed up at the Grant County Clerk’s office with four or five minutes to spare, her mother Cin- dy Kidd said. “If she had tripped on the court- house steps, she wouldn’t have made it,” Kidd said. To qualify for the ballot, Olson needed to collect signatures from at least 196 active registered vot- ers — 6 percent of the number of voters in the 2014 gubernatorial election, according to Grant Coun- ty Clerk Brenda Percy. Olson had only two weeks from the time the public challenge peri- od ended for the wording of the petition to the time the petitions needed to be filed with the county clerk. She submitted 293 signa- tures and 222 were accepted, Per- cy said. Second petition The measure seeks to overturn Grant County Ordinance 2015-01 and allow licensed recreational marijuana producers, processors, dispensaries, wholesalers, labs and research facilities to operate in Grant County. The county would Eagle file photo Cindy Kidd, left, and Haley Olson stand for a photo in Rocky Mountain Dispensary, Grant County’s first medical marijuana dispensary. receive tax revenues from these activities, the measure states. Grant County banned all mari- juana businesses in 2015. Attorney See POT, Page A6 Eagle file photo Several grams of marijuana at the Rocky Mountain Dispensary in John Day.
