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News
Blue Mountain Eagle
CELEBRATE
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About half are written in English and
involve bookkeeping, Merritt told the
Eagle, and about half
are in Chinese and in-
clude medical formu-
las, patient records and
business transactions.
“We are in our 11th
year of scanning these
documents into the
Savannah computer,” Merritt said.
“We have about one
Wyllie
year’s left to finish.”
The Kam Wah Chung
site has been recognized in many
ways. The building was added to the
National Register of Historic Places in
1973, and the store opened as a city-
run museum in 1975.
The site was named a National His-
toric Landmark in 2005, by which time
the city understood that it lacked the
funds to run the museum properly and
sold the site to the state.
A 2010 documentary about the Kam
Wah Chung site was produced for the
Oregon Public Broadcasting television
series “Oregon Experience.”
A crew from the Discovery Channel
will be in John Day in July to begin
filming another documentary, Merritt
said.
Last September, 12 students and
two professors from Washington State
University visited the Kam Wah Chung
site, the first field trip for WSU’s new
Asian Culture studies program. Forest
Service archaeologist Don Hann led
the class on a visit to a Chinese archae-
ological site during their trip.
POT
Continued from Page A1
urban growth boundary since
June 1, 2017. All cities in Grant
County ban the sale of medical
or recreational marijuana in-
side their city limits, including
John Day.
Both attempts to overturn
the Grant County ban were led
by Haley Olson, whose family
owns Rocky Mountain Dispen-
sary. The language of the mea-
sure filed by Olson Jan. 18 calls
for allowing producers, proces-
sors, dispensaries, wholesalers,
labs and research businesses
licensed by the Oregon Li-
quor Control Commission and
the Oregon Health Authority
to operate businesses in Grant
County.
OLCC spokesman Mark
Pettinger said the licensing
process would take four to six
months.
Olson’s mother, Cindy
Kidd, said Rocky Mountain
Dispensary plans to expand
their business to include rec-
reational marijuana sales in
the same building where med-
ical marijuana is sold. Medical
marijuana customers must be
18 or older and provide a card
showing they are registered
with the state, while recreation-
al marijuana customers must be
21 or older.
Kidd said the company
plans to offer a wider variety
of products and to continue to
Contributed photo
A dragon from the Portland
Lee’s Association Dragon & Lion
Dance Team team balances atop
sawhorses during an exhibition at
the Kam Wah Chung Heritage Site
in John Day in 2008.
Tourism
improvements
The popularity of the Kam Wah
Chung site has grown in recent years.
Merritt, who succeeded Sweet as cu-
rator in 2016, reported that 9,314 vis-
itors and 1,154 tours representing all
50 states and 42 countries came to the
heritage site in 2017. Taking into ac-
count the impact of the eclipse event
last year, visitation increased by about
1,000 people, he said.
“We expect between 9,000 and
10,000 visitors this year,” he said.
Former Grant County Chamber of
Commerce President Jerry Franklin led
a two-year effort to erect a new sign
on Main Street in John Day directing
visitors down Northwest Canton Street
to the heritage site. The 26-foot-tall
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
sign, which required a conditional-use
permit from the city, will feature an
8-foot tiger and an 8-foot dragon on
each side.
The colorful orange and black ti-
gers and green and red dragons were
hand-painted by Grant Union High
School art student Savannah Wyl-
lie as her senior project. The steel
plates were cut into shape by the high
school’s metal class using a computer
numerical control plasma cutter.
The chamber recently presented a
proposal to the John Day City Coun-
cil to establish a sister city relationship
between John Day and Sijiuzhen, a city
in the Guangdong Province in China,
or Canton, the provincial capital.
Ha-Pen, a village in Sijiuzhen, is
where Ing “Doc” Hay and Lung On,
owners of the Kam Wah Chung busi-
ness, lived before coming to the Unit-
ed States. Sister city relationships not
only foster tourism and cultural and
educational exchanges but also estab-
lish contacts that could lead to trade
and investment, Taci Philbrook said on
behalf of the chamber of commerce.
Merritt said three-directional sound
speakers recently were installed in
the interpretive center that allow for
a quieter viewing and visitor experi-
ence. Funding for the speakers came
from the Oregon Department of Parks
and Recreation, Friends of Kam Wah
Chung & Co. and the chamber using a
John Day room tax grant.
Tickets for the June 9 celebration
dinner at the John Day Senior Center
have already sold out.
For more information about the
Kam Wah Chung Heritage Site, vis-
it https://oregonstateparks.org and
friendsofkamwahchung.com.
grow marijuana at their other
location. She said “quite a few”
marijuana growers are already
in the county, but with passage
of the measure overturning the
ban, she knew only of locals
interested in growing, includ-
ing hemp, but not opening dis-
pensaries.
Regulatory
hurdles
Medical and recreation-
al marijuana businesses must
comply with a long list of
regulations, which range from
background checks and strict
business practices to special
security measures and prod-
uct safety rules. Growers must
prove they have a legal source
of water.
With certain exceptions, a
marijuana dispensary cannot
be located within 1,000 feet
of a school or in an area zoned
exclusively for residential use.
Applicants for a state marijua-
na business license must pro-
duce a land-use compatibility
form signed by the local juris-
diction.
While growers can set up
business in Grant County’s
vast agriculturally zoned land,
dispensaries are mostly limited
to the urban growth boundary
areas adjacent to some of Grant
County’s cities.
Grant County Planning
Director Hilary McNary said
a small urban growth bound-
SEWER
Continued from Page A1
cities will want to copy John Day’s
innovative greenhouse approach to
wastewater treatment. Councilor Paul
Smith concurred, noting that the leg-
islature and the governor should rec-
ognize that this was the wave of the
future and give the city its support.
One option for filling the finan-
cial gap is to turn to the private
sector, Green told the council. Or-
dinarily the private sector won’t fi-
nance a municipal wastewater treat-
ment plant, but John Day’s would
EO Media Group/E.J. Harris
Marijuana businesses will soon be legal in Grant County
after voters overturned the ban in the recent election.
ary exists next to Seneca, and
Prairie City’s urban growth
boundary is the only one in the
county that a city government
administrates.
The John Day urban growth
boundary is administrated by
the county under an intergov-
ernmental agreement. The city
can review and comment on
development requests, but the
final decision is made by the
county.
The goal of the urban
growth boundaries is to pro-
mote orderly development with
the expectation that a city may
one day annex the area into the
city. But with a ban on marijua-
na businesses inside the John
Day city limits, annexation of a
property with a marijuana busi-
ness could create a conflict.
be unique — it would produce
Class A reclaimed water, something
that might attract private investors.
Green also noted that the Trump ad-
ministration had said it would sup-
port infrastructure projects, but de-
tails were still lacking.
Green updated the council on oth-
er city projects:
• The greenhouse project that will
use city water to produce vegetables
for human consumption was set back
about 30 days after the city received
no compliant bids for its requests for
proposals, Green said. The first har-
vest is expected to take place later this
year.
The greenhouse designers were
This situation arose in
October 2016 when Rocky
Mountain Dispensary applied
for a land-use review for their
medical marijuana dispensary.
In his comment, John Day City
Manager Nick Green stated,
“The city will not support the
extension of city services or
the annexation of the property
into the city of John Day for so
long as the prohibition remains
in effect and/or the use and ac-
tivities continue to occur on the
subject property.”
When asked by the Eagle
about Rocky Mountain Dis-
pensary’s future plans, Green
said, “The city does not intend
to take a position on recreation-
al dispensaries in the urban
growth boundary.”
McNary noted that a county
unable to find a local builder, so the
city may have to take over the gen-
eral contractor role and subcontract
portions of the construction project,
Green said.
• Green said he was able to submit
a lengthy and complex application for
up to $3 million in funds to improve
local internet service through a U.S.
Department of Agriculture Commu-
nity Connect grant, but insufficient
bandwidth locally made things diffi-
cult. He called the situation ironic.
The grant will be used to pay for
extending internet service south from
Canyon City to Seneca. Green said
the city will learn if it’s on the short
list in a few months, at which point
The following tax foreclosed properties failed to sell at the Tax Foreclosure Auction on May 17 th , 2018:
Acct.#
2470
39185
3639
3721
6744
6773
6780
6232
4949
1773
1211/1862
2842
2275
Map & Tax Lot
08S35V-900
09S26-3608
09S35V4AD-500
09S35V4DA-5200
10S3010BC-1700
10S3010CB-1900
10S3010CB-2600
13S2813-302
13S2919D-100
13S3121C-2600
13S3126BB-1505
13S3302CA-700
16S3135CD-300
Minimum Bid
$ 23,215
$ 72,880
$ 9,920
$ 12,575
$ 19,545
$ 5,935
$ 27,425
$ 20,300
$ 20,395
$ 1,300
$ 7,700
$ 15,130
$ 5,100
Property Description
19.87 Acres North of Granite
12.80 Acres in Kimberly
Bare Lot in Granite
1.72 Acres in Granite
House in Long Creek
House Not Habitable Long Creek
House in Long Creek
9.62 Acres N. of John Day River
17.56 Acres S. of Hwy. 26
Steep Hillside S. of Hwy. 26
Steep Hillside above Hospital
House Not Habitable Prairie City
Bare Lot in Seneca
No minimum bid offers were received for the above listed properties. The Grant County Court will now
accept reasonable written offers for each of the above listed properties. The written offers must include the
dollar amount of the offer and the name, address and telephone number of the person making the offer. Present
the written offers in a sealed envelope to the Grant County Court either in person or by mail to: 201 S. Humbolt
Street, Suite 280, Canyon City, OR 97820. All written offers must be received by 4 pm on Monday, June 11,
2018. The Grant County Court will review offers received and make a decision regarding each offer on June 13,
2018. Contact the Court Office with questions at 541-575-0059. Grant County retains the right to refuse any
and all offers, and to accept the offer that is in the best interest of Grant County.
Continued from Page A1
who spoke both Chinese and
English, ran the general store
and facilitated communica-
tion between Chinese and
American settlers.
Over time, the building
served as a community center,
offering a place for gambling,
drinking and smoking. Some
miners boarded there as well.
At its heyday in 1887, the
Chinese community in John
Day included three stores,
a temple and a laundry. The
Kam Wah Chung building is
all that remains of those struc-
tures.
“Doc” Hay and Lung
On held onto their business
through a period of violent
anti-Chinese agitation in Or-
egon in the mid-1880s. By
1910, American settlers be-
gan to visit Hay for their ail-
ments. As his reputation grew,
Hay began serving clients as
far away as Massachusetts,
sending diagnoses and herbal
remedies by mail. Meanwhile,
On put his business acumen to
work and opened the first auto
dealership in Oregon east of
the Cascades.
Lung On suddenly sick-
ened and died in 1940. His
estate was valued at $90,000
at the time. Kam Wah Chung
& Co. continued running for
eight more years, at which
time “Doc” Hay fell and
court decision is not required
for Rocky Mountain Dispen-
sary to start selling recreation-
al marijuana at its current site,
and the matter may not go to
the county planning commis-
sion.
She also said, if the business
goes into an existing building,
there is no requirement to notify
nearby property owners. That
was the case with the medical
marijuana business, she said.
But other questions remain
about how state marijuana laws
mesh with local laws, McNary
noted, and the county may need
to update its zoning regulations
in the future.
Tax benefits
According to state law, a 17
percent base tax on recreational
marijuana sales is collected by
the state on the retail sales of
leaves, flowers and immature
plants; edibles, concentrates
and extracts; products used on
the skin or hair; and other can-
nabinoid products.
The revenue is distributed
by the state, with 40 percent
going to the Common School
Fund, 20 percent to the men-
tal health, alcoholism and drug
services, 15 percent to the Or-
egon State Police, 10 percent
each to cities and counties that
allow recreational marijuana
businesses for enforcement of
the state’s marijuana laws and
5 percent to the Oregon Health
Authority for alcohol and drug
federal personnel will come to Grant
County to conduct speed tests and re-
view local conditions.
• The consultants who will be in-
volved in planning the Innovation
Gateway project using a state Trans-
portation Growth Management grant
have been selected. They include
DKS Associates, transportation plan-
ners in Salem; Walker Macy, a land-
scape architect firm in Portland; JLA
Public Involvement, a communica-
tions firm in Portland; Inter-Fluve, a
river restoration firm in Hood River;
Angelo Planning Group, a commu-
nity planning firm in Portland; KPFF
Consulting Engineers of Portland;
and John Southgate Consulting, a
TAX FORECLOSED PROPERTIES FOR SALE
Auction#
1
2
3
4
6
7
8
11
12
17
18
22
30
HISTORY
Eagle file photo
Yu-Ling Ho and Eric Brand
examine a rattlesnake in a
jar that is part of the Kam
Wah Chung collection.
broke his hip. He traveled to
Portland for treatment and
died there in 1952.
Hay was brought back
to John Day and was buried
alongside Lung On at Rest
Lawn Cemetery. Three years
later, Bob Wah deeded the
Kam Wah Chung building
and its contents to the city of
John Day for use as a cultur-
al museum. The building was
boarded up.
Then in 1967, while
surveying for a new park,
John Day city staff discov-
ered the ownership deed.
When volunteers opened
the building, they found it
just as it was in 1955, with
food in the kitchen, a stock
of dry goods and medicinal
herbs and Hay’s tools on the
apothecary table.
abuse prevention programs.
Cities and counties can tack
on another tax up to 3 percent
by referring the ordinance to
local voters at the next state-
wide election. The local gov-
ernments can use the revenue
as they see fit.
Grant County Judge Scott
Myers told the Eagle he intends
to seek a 3-percent tax on sales
of recreational marijuana. He
said he would like to see the
tax revenue used to offset any
legal costs resulting from over-
turning the ban.
While Oregon law allows
marijuana businesses, it re-
mains illegal under federal law.
In a memo released May 18,
U.S. Attorney for Oregon Billy
Williams said his top priorities
in enforcing marijuana laws
will be threats to public safety
and interstate trafficking.
Among his concerns were
overproduction of marijuana
in Oregon and its diversion
across state lines; minors’ ac-
cess to marijuana; marijuana
violations that involved fire-
arms, violence or threats to
public safety; the involvement
of organized crime; and pro-
tecting public lands and nat-
ural resources from growers’
consumption of water or use of
pesticides.
Williams also said he would
“not make broad proclamations
of blanket immunity from pros-
ecution to those who violate
federal law.”
municipal financing firm in Portland.
The city is preparing an applica-
tion for a grant through the Oregon
Department of Parks and Recreation
for improvements to numerous exist-
ing trails along the John Day River
that will connect to the Innovation
Gateway site. John Day Senior Proj-
ect Manager Aaron Lieuallen said the
entire trails project could cost about
$240,000.
• The John Day City Council will
hold a hearing on the city’s urban re-
newal plan at their June 12 meeting.
The city hopes providing a 7 percent
rebate and waiving system connec-
tion fees will encourage construction
of 100 homes over 20 years.
HAMMONDS
Continued from Page A1
ulated under the Superfund
statute for hazardous waste,
so too rangeland fires weren’t
intended to be punished as
arson, he said. Zinke agreed
with this sentment, giving the
sign of the cross while vowing
to give his blessing for their
release to President Donald
Trump, according to Rosa.
Local employees of the
U.S. Bureau of Land Manage-
ment, which is overseen by
the Interior Department, seem
to have developed “hard feel-
ings” in the matter and sup-
ported the Hammonds’ return
to prison, he said.
The Oregon Cattlemen’s
Association and Oregon Farm
Bureau are planning to submit
a court brief in a civil lawsuit
urging that the Hammonds’
grazing privileges be restored,
Rosa said.
Duquette said he believes
the Hammonds’ dispute with
federal officials in the region
originated because the govern-
ment wanted to buy their prop-
erty for inclusion in the Mal-
heur National Wildlife Refuge.
However, he said, it’s un-
fortunate that in the public’s
mind, the occupation of the
refuge has become entwined
with the Hammonds, who did
not support the takeover.
Pardoning the ranchers
would be a show of goodwill
by the new presidential ad-
ministration, Duquette said.
“It shows they’re getting
things done and trying to right
the wrongs that were done be-
fore.”