HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY
The
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
W edNesday , J uly 4, 2018
• N o . 27
• 16 P ages
• $1.00
www.MyEagleNews.com
Local gun initiative shot down
Judge Cramer cites
superior state laws,
limitations to
county authority
By Richard Hanners
EO Media Group file photo
Blue Mountain Eagle
An initiative aimed at prohibiting
enforcement of laws that restrict gun
possession in Grant County will not
appear on the November ballot after
Grant County Circuit Court Judge
William D. Cramer Jr. determined it
was pre-empted by state law.
In a June 29 decision, Cramer said
the proposed ordinance would have
violated a state statute prohibiting
counties from regulating firearms,
components and ammunition, and the
initiative would have confused voters
about limitations to county authority.
The Second Amendment preser-
vation ordinance, which could have
appeared on the ballot this fall as
Measure 12-72, was submitted by
Ron Rue of Prairie City and was chal-
lenged by Mark Webb of Mt. Vernon
May 14.
According to an initiative sum-
mary provided by the Grant County
District Attorney’s Office, the pro-
posed ordinance would make uncon-
stitutional in Grant County “any law
or regulation that restricts a person
from possessing firearms, ammuni-
tion and firearms accessories” and
“would require the Grant County
sheriff to review federal, state and lo-
cal laws affecting firearms, firearms
accessories and/or ammunition.”
Initiative review
In his petition, Webb maintained
that “given the scope of its subject
matter,” Rue’s initiative “goes well
beyond the matters of county con-
cern” allowed under the state’s ini-
tiative process.
Some of the initiative’s language
was so broad that substantive legal
changes to existing statutory and
constitutional law would occur if it
IP 43 supporters throw in
the towel on 2018 measure
By Claire Withycombe
Capital Bureau
Supporters of an initiative petition to ban certain firearms in Oregon
say they’ll withdraw the initiative, but maintain efforts to restrict fire-
arm possession in the state.
Initiative Petition 43, an effort to ban certain types of semiautomatic
firearms and magazines holding more than 10 rounds, was proposed
by a coalition of faith leaders in the wake of the shooting that killed 17
people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida,
on Feb. 14.
Supporters were enthusiastic, but encountered legal opposition to
their efforts when gun rights advocates filed challenges at the Oregon
Supreme Court against the language used to describe the measure.
See IP 43, Page A16
See GUNS, Page A16
FIRST CLASS
Graduates of 2018 first not to attend Mt. Vernon Middle School
T
he first graduating class at Grant
Union not to attend Mt. Vernon
Middle School recently turned
their tassles.
The Grant Union class of 2018 was
the first to attend six full years at Grant
Union. At the close of the 2010-11 school
year, the sixth- through eighth-grade
middle school, part of Grant School Dis-
trict 3, closed its doors because of budget
cuts.
In fall 2012, the class of 2018 stayed
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
on at Humbolt Elementary School
for sixth-grade, while seventh- and
eighth-graders joined the newly named
Grant Union Junior-Senior High School.
Grant Union PE teacher Doug Sharp,
who taught at the middle school back
then, said it was a difficult transition.
“It was hard to give up Mt. Vernon
because the middle school kids had
their own facility and identity,” he said.
“Change is always hard, but it’s worked
out.”
He said there were worries about bul-
lying, recess, lunchtime and how athlet-
ics would work, but he added, “All in all,
it’s been nice.”
“I tell the kids look for the good in
everything, and don’t focus on the nega-
tive,” he said.
Grant Union history teacher Cin-
dy Dougharity-Spencer, who also once
taught at the Mt. Vernon school, said
there were “definitely some growing
pains” but the transition worked out fair-
ly well.
“The big thing is, the students missed
See CLASS, Page A16
Contributed photo/Tanni Wenger Photography
The Grant Union High School class of 2018.
Design chosen for sewer treatment plant
particularly for promoting water reuse
and conservation.
He said the goal is to finance 80
percent of the project with grants and
the other 20 percent with loans, which
could finance the plant at or near current
sewer rates for residents.
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
A new sewer treatment plant in
John Day could cost $10.3 million, the
John Day City Council learned June
26, but complete financing for the crit-
ical infrastructure project has not been
nailed down.
“The key to implementing part or
all of the John Day wastewater system
improvements project ... is the ability
of the city to acquire a low-interest loan
coupled with grant funding,” the engi-
neering firm Anderson Perry concluded
in their draft feasibility study.
City Manager Nick Green told the
Eagle the city will also be looking into
nontraditional funding sources, includ-
ing the New Markets Tax Credit Pro-
gram, which provides private invest-
Contributed photo
A conceptual rendering from
Sustainable Water of the proposed
wastewater treatment plant in
John Day with a hydroponic
greenhouse behind.
ment to distressed communities, and
new programs from the Oregon Water-
shed Enhancement Board and Senate
Bill 839, which allows government sup-
port of water projects with economic,
environmental and community benefits,
Alternative designs
Anderson Perry studied three alter-
natives. Two are not considered viable
because the engineers were unable to
find available land needed for a large
lagoon despite a decade-long search.
The cost of the least expensive alter-
native, which called for spray-irrigating
effluent on a 45-acre pasture, would
have been $6 million. The cost of the
third alternative, a mechanical system
using a membrane bioreactor with a
large lagoon for winter storage, would
have been $13.7 million.
The selected alternative calls for re-
placing the existing percolation ponds
with either a mechanical treatment fa-
cility or a hydroponic treatment facility
designed and prefabricated by Sustain-
able Water. Either facility costs $10.3
million. No storage lagoon would be
included.
Class A or B effluent could be pro-
duced with either system, and the cost
for producing Class A or B effluent
would be about the same, Anderson
Perry’s Brett Moore told the council.
Class B effluent could be used to
irrigate the city golf course, landscap-
ing around the proposed Innovation
Gateway project, non-residential toilet
flushing, log deck watering at Malheur
See SEWER, Page A16