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.