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EAGLE
Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
W edNesday , M ay 30, 2018
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Clemency decision may be imminent
for imprisoned Oregon ranchers
Dwight and Steven Hammond sentenced to five years for arson
By Mateusz Perkowski
EO Media Group
A decision may be imminent on
presidential clemency for two Ore-
gon ranchers serving five-year mini-
mum mandatory sentences for arson,
according to farm groups seeking
their release.
Dwight Hammond, 76, and his
son, Steven Hammond, 49, were
convicted in 2012 of setting fire to
rangeland close to their ranch near
Burns, for which they were initially
sentenced to prison terms of three
months and one year, respectively.
However, the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals overturned those
more lenient sentences at the urging
of the U.S. government, finding the
ranchers had to complete the full
five-year minimum terms for arson
required by federal law.
The Hammonds reported to pris-
on in early 2016 to begin serving the
remainder of their time, but protests
of their plight culminated in the
standoff between federal agents and
armed occupiers at the Malheur Na-
tional Wildlife Refuge.
The father and son asked for
clemency from President Barack
Obama shortly after resuming in-
carceration, but it now appears their
request has gained traction under the
Trump administration.
Protect the Harvest, a nonprofit
representing agriculture and hunt-
ing interests, has learned the Ham-
monds’ request for clemency has
in recent weeks come under review
by the Office of the White House
Counsel Don McGhan, said Dave
Duquette, the group’s national stra-
tegic planner.
Steven
Hammond
Dwight
Hammond
“It’s moving much quicker than
we anticipated it moving,” he said.
“That’s a good thing, from what I’ve
heard.”
The Hammonds have sought a
commutation of their sentences but
are hoping for a full pardon, which is
within the president’s power to give,
Duquette said.
“If they only get a commutation,
then they’re still felons,” and subject
to a prohibition on owning guns,
among other restrictions, he said.
Jerome Rosa, executive director
of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Associ-
ation, said he recently broached the
subject with Interior Secretary Ryan
Zinke during a visit to Washington,
D.C.
Just as Congress recently af-
firmed that air emissions from live-
stock weren’t intended to be reg-
See HAMMONDS, Page A12
Eagle file photo
The Kam Wah Chung & Co.
Museum in John Day.
Contributed photo
CELEBRATING
Two dragons
from the Portland
Lee’s Association
Dragon & Lion
Dance Team eye a
head of cabbage.
K AM W AH C HUNG
Chinese
miners
supported
historical
business
Kam Wah Chung
sold herbal medicine,
even automobiles
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
Chinese dragon dancers to perform at dinner
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
I
t’s been about 140 years since Kam
Wah Chung & Co. opened its doors
to Chinese and American custom-
ers in John Day. And it’s been 10
years since the Friends of Kam Wah
Chung restored the historic business into
an interpretive center.
To celebrate this unique heritage site,
the Oregon State Parks Foundation and
Friends of Kam Wah Chung will host a
dinner June 9 at the John Day Senior Cen-
ter with former First Lady Mary Oberst
and Barbara Sidway, who spearheaded
fundraising for the interpretive center in
2005, as honorary speakers.
Other speakers will include Christy
Sweet, who served as curator at the Kam
Wah Chung Heritage Site from 2005 to
2016, and Eric Brand, an expert in Chi-
nese herbal medicines who accompanied
five professors from universities in Hong
Kong, Beijing and Taiwan in a cultural
visit to John Day in 2017.
Following the dinner, the Portland
Lee’s Association Dragon & Lion Dance
Team will perform a traditional Chinese
dance. They also will perform during the
’62 Days parade in Canyon City the same
day at 11 a.m.
Unique site
Between the Chinese Cultural Revolu-
tion from 1966 to 1976 and the commu-
nist country’s dramatic industrialization
over the past three decades, much of Chi-
na’s rich heritage has been lost, leaving
the Kam Wah Chung site both culturally
unique and significant. The five visiting
Chinese professors commented on this
fact last August.
“During their visit, they were allowed
access to the apothecary and archives,
where they were absolutely amazed at the
amount of information we had on Chinese
medicine,” site curator Don Merritt said
in his season newsletter. “In fact, they told
us of all the places they visited around the
world in the last 10 years, this is the best
preserved, most intact and complete col-
lection they have seen so far.”
That information includes some 20,000
documents found inside the building.
T
he Whiskey Gulch gold rush
in 1862 brought thousands
of prospectors to the Canyon
City and John Day area. About nine
years later, Chinese immigrants
opened a store called Kam Wah
Chung, translated as Golden Flow-
er of Prosperity, in a former trading
post that was built on The Dalles
Military Road around 1866.
About 2,000 Chinese men lived
in the “Tiger Town” part of John
Day by 1885. Two Chinese immi-
grants bought the business in 1888
and expanded it to a grocery, dry
goods store and clinic.
Ing “Doc” Hay offered herbal
medicine to the burgeoning Chi-
nese population as an alternative
to Western medicine. Lung On,
See CELEBRATE, Page A12
Filling finance gap for new
sewer plant could be a challenge
Recreational pot industry
to expand in Grant County
By Richard Hanners
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
When completed, John
Day’s new wastewater treat-
ment plant could be the larg-
est project in Grant County
history — perhaps twice the
cost of the Grant County Re-
gional Airport, City Manag-
er Nick Green told the John
Day City Council at their
May 22 meeting.
The project would be a
big lift for the local econ-
omy, and the 70-year-old
plant located close to the
John Day River needs to be
replaced, Green said. But ac-
cording to results of a recent
income survey conducted to
see if the city would be eligi-
ble for a federal grant, the lo-
cal community cannot afford
to pay for the plant, he said.
Combining the $750,000
in the city’s wastewater re-
serve fund with a $2 million
federal grant and a $2.5 mil-
lion federal loan would only
get the city halfway to the
final cost of the plant, Green
told the council.
Green said he will travel
to Pendleton June 21 to meet
with the state’s Infrastruc-
ture Finance Authority about
how to pay for the new treat-
ment plant, but he expects to
come away with a gap that
the city will need to fill.
Representatives from the
Anderson Perry engineering
firm and Sustainable Water
of Richmond, Virginia, will
attend the council’s June 26
meeting for a review of the
updated facilities plan.
Green noted that the city
needs to have financing in
place or it can’t go forward
— and whatever the city
builds must last another 70
years. Mayor Ron Lundbom
added that other Oregon
See SEWER, Page A12
See HISTORY, Page A12
Blue Mountain Eagle
Fifty-three percent of Grant
County voters recently over-
turned a ban on recreational
marijuana businesses, but how
the new industry will look is
not entirely clear at this point.
With 3,179 votes cast in
the May election, a total of
1,687 voted to repeal the ban
and 1,492 voted against. Grant
County Clerk Brenda Percy
said the election results would
be certified by June 4 at the lat-
est.
The ban was put in place
by the Grant County Court in
2015 following passage of Bal-
lot Measure 91 by 56 percent of
Oregon voters in 2014, allow-
ing marijuana businesses. An
initiative to overturn the county
ban was defeated in May 2016
by a 1,689 to 1,469 vote. The
court amended the ban in Sep-
tember 2016 to allow registered
patients to purchase medical
marijuana.
Expanding
business
Rocky Mountain Dispen-
sary has been selling medical
marijuana just outside the John
Day city limits in the city’s
See POT, Page A12