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The
PAGE B1
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
W edNesday , M ay 2, 2018
Tyler
Dehiya
Kathy
Meyer
Mitchel
Long
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Pace
• 20 P ages
Aaron
Roseberry
Nicole
Shaffer
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Starnes
www.MyEagleNews.com
Vincent
Tietjen
Glen
Wadley
Katie
Watt
10 locals swept up in big meth bust
Criminal forfeiture
filed for three
properties
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Grant County Interagency
Narcotics Team arrested 10 people
on drug-related charges April 28
after executing search warrants on
two properties in Mt. Vernon and
one in John Day.
The warrants were the culmi-
nation of an ongoing investigation
of a covert drug operation that has
lasted more than a year, according
to a Grant County Sheriff’s Office
press release.
“During the searches, metham-
phetamine, money, drug parapher-
nalia, stolen firearms and vehicles
were among some of the things
seized at the residences,” the press
release said.
Grant County Undersheriff
Zach Mobley, who supervises the
Interagency Narcotics Team with
Oregon State Police Sgt. Tom
Hutchison, described the drug
problem in the local community as
an epidemic. The sheriff’s office
said the case isn’t over, and more
arrests and warrants are pending.
According to court records, the
10 people arrested April 28 were:
• Tyler D. Dehiya, 24, Mt. Ver-
non, was charged with 10 drug-re-
lated counts, including seven
felonies. Several charges allege
possession, manufacture and deliv-
ery of meth, one count is for crim-
inal conspiracy and one count is
for frequenting a place where con-
trolled substances are used.
That place is a camp trailer that
was parked inside a wood-framed
garage on Ingle Street in Mt. Ver-
non. The state filed a criminal
forfeiture charge alleging that the
camp trailer is subject to forfeiture
to the state. Dehiya is being held
in Grant County Jail on a $130,000
bond.
• Vincent R. Tietjen, 52, Mt.
Vernon, was charged with eight
See METH, Page A10
ARMING TEACHERS
Opinions are mixed on whether teachers should carry guns,
while many favor additional school safety steps
City to offer school
resource officer
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
O
pinions about arming teach-
ers are mixed.
Most of the people who
spoke at an April 25 meeting
at Grant Union Junior-Senior
High School to take input on school safety
were in opposition to arming teachers, but
the majority of those who took a survey at
the meeting were in favor.
About 50 parents and staff attended
the meeting, and 26 people spoke to the
school board. Some didn’t take a posi-
tion on arming teachers but instead asked
questions or made suggestions. Four
spoke directly in favor of arming teachers,
and 13 spoke in opposition.
According to an interactive survey held
during the meeting using smartphones,
about 43 percent supported arming school
staff, while 30 percent were opposed and
25 percent were unsure.
A preliminary survey of students
showed about 68 percent of the 215 Grant
Union students responding supported
arming school staff, and about 86 percent
of the 58 Humbolt and Seneca sixth-grade
students responding said they supported
arming school staff.
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
I
The Eagle/Richard Hanners
Student, staff survey
Grant Union students and Humbolt and Seneca school sixth-
graders were asked whether they supported arming staff.
Question: Do you support arming staff?
Unsure: 5 or 2%
Grant Union students *
No: 62 or 29%
Yes: 148 or 69%
No: 8 or 14%
Humbolt and Seneca sixth-graders
Public input
Concerned about school shootings
across the U.S., Grant School District 3 is
considering a wide range of measures to
increase safety at Grant Union, Humbolt
Elementary and Seneca School, from re-
stricting access to hiring a school resource
See GUNS, Page A10
Yes: 50 or 86%
Humbolt and Seneca staff
No: 9 or 26%
Yes: 26 or 74%
*The sample size for Grant Union staff was too small for inclusion.
Source: Grant School District
Grant School
District 3 board
members Colleen
Robertson, Chris
Cronin and Zach
Williams listen to
comments during
a public meeting
about arming
teachers or hiring
a school resource
officer at the Grant
Union Junior-
Senior High School
April 25.
EO Media Group graphic
See Page A10 for a
survey of audience
responses.
f Grant School District is interested in con-
tracting for the services, the city of John Day
would provide a school resource officer.
The contract could help the city benefit from
a fourth certified police officer,
City Manager Nick Green told
the John Day City Council at
the April 24 meeting.
The city has proposed a
one-year pilot program, split-
ting the costs of the SRO with
the school district. Green
estimated the total cost of a
certified officer with benefits
at about $92,000. The coun-
cil reached a consensus to go
ahead with the SRO contract. Incoming
As a parent, Green said he interim
would prefer a trained SRO to Police Chief
Mike Durr
arming teachers.
“Having a visible police listens to the
presence at the high school John Day
could have a more signifi- City Council
cant deterrent effect on active April 24.
shooters than the possibility
that school employees may be
armed,” he said.
Councilor Paul Smith said he was opposed
to arming teachers and noted that an SRO could
assist police in emergencies and vice versa.
Smith said the school district’s past SRO was
See OFFICER, Page A10
911 dispatch to stay local
Groups vote
unanimously, new
site unknown
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
Emergency 911 dispatch will
remain local in Grant County.
The
Intergovernmental
Council that oversees the Grant
County Emergency Commu-
nications Agency and a board
comprised of entities that use
dispatch each voted unanimous-
ly to keep a dispatch center in
the county rather than outsourc-
ing it to Frontier Regional 911
in Condon.
“We’re shooting for all our
ducks to be in a row, including
personnel management for pay-
rolls and insurance, by the end
of the calendar year,” said Ken
Delano, who was appointed to
chair the IGC.
The IGC was established
in May 1989 to establish and
maintain consolidated safety
communications services in
Grant County. Council mem-
bers represented Grant County,
eight cities and three rural fire
protection districts. Delano was
an original board member.
Both the council and the 911
User Board had not met regu-
larly for years. The IGC legally
reestablished itself earlier and
held a joint meeting with the
user board April 26.
The groups needed to clean
up some of the original agree-
ment language, including de-
leting the Prairie City Police
Department from the board
because it no longer exists and
adding Granite, the National
Park Service and the Bureau of
Land Management.
Consensus was reached that
current dispatch manager Val-
erie Maynard would continue
to manage the dispatch center
under the IGC after it leaves the
city of John Day. A professional
personnel contractor would be
responsible for payroll and ac-
counting under the IGC.
The dispatchers currently
work under a collective bar-
gaining agreement that runs to
the end of the fiscal year in June
2019, Delano said. That would
provide the IGC a six-month
See 911, Page A10
The Eagle/Richard Hanners
The combined Intergovernmental Council and
911 User Board met to create a new 911 dispatch
entity in Grant County at the Oregon Department
of Forestry building in John Day April 26.