GOAT CADDIES HIT THE LINKS AT SILVIES – PAGE A13
The
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
W edNesday , J uly 18, 2018
• N o . 29
• 18 P ages
• $1.00
www.MyEagleNews.com
NO LIMITS
Artist Hans Magden
stands in his
private gallery,
Beyond the Perimeter,
in John Day.
Artist Hans Magden fights back against Parkinson’s disease
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
A
John Day artist Hans Magden sometimes transforms
figures from his paintings into three-dimensional
sculptures.
common thread in John Day artist
Hans Magden’s extensive repertoire of
expressive paintings of human forms
is the use of bright hues.
“If I have a distinguishing stamp, it
would be color and the uniqueness of each piece,”
he said.
He adds color until he’s happy. However, it
doesn’t fit a traditional use of color, he said.
“My people ... it’s like they wandered into a
scene, and no one told them the dress code,” he
said, adding, “What if a clown walks out into a
field? That’s striking. It allows you to have a color-
ing concept that really isn’t acceptable.”
That bold spectrum faded for Magden in 2009,
when he was struck by Parkinson’s disease.
The chronic, progressive neurological disease
See ARTIST, Page A18
Eagle photos/Angel Carpenter
Hans Magden shows a sculpture in his studio, which is
a work in progress. The piece, inspired by a photo he
saw of Alpine ibex goats climbing a cement dam, will
eventually be taken to a foundry.
Initiative would require sixth-grade students to study firearms
By Paris Achen
Capital Bureau
Gun rights advocates have a filed an
initiative petition that would mandate a
firearms safety instruction class in the sixth
grade at Oregon public schools.
Initiative Petition 6 was filed July 11
by Ston McDaniel of Prineville and Jerrad
Robison of Redmond for the Nov. 3, 2020,
statewide general election ballot.
Robison also is chief petitioner for a
gun rights initiative in Deschutes County.
The Second Amendment Preservation Or-
dinance would allow the county sheriff to
block enforcement of local, state or federal
gun laws the sheriff deemed as unconstitu-
tional.
The proposal is the brainchild of Kevin
Starrett, founder of the Oregon Firearms
Federation, said Rep. Mike Nearman,
R-Polk County, who is helping out with the
initiative.
“In spite of the efforts of some extremist
groups to simply ban firearms, rational peo-
ple recognize that firearms will continue to
exist irrespective of any law,” Starrett wrote
in an email to the Pamplin/EO Capital
Gun rights
advocates have filed
an initiative petition
to make firearms
safety instruction
mandatory in
the sixth grade
in Oregon public
schools.
See FIREARMS, Page A18
Pamplin Media Group
Rough-in work on bike park trails completed
Park should be
open before
school starts
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
Three weeks of digging,
scraping and prying wound
down last week, as the Ptar-
migan Ptrails bike trail con-
struction company completed
roughing in Phase 1 of the
Seventh Street Bike Park.
The park will open to the
public before school starts,
Aaron Lieuallen told the Eagle.
Lieuallen is a member of the
nonprofit Grant County Eco-
nomic Council, which led the
fundraising for the project.
The Eastern Oregon Trail Al-
The Eagle/Richard Hanners
From left, Zach Parkin, Ed Kessler and Abe Schmidt
of Ptarmigan Ptrails spent three weeks constructing
a single-track mountain bike trail system above the
Seventh Street Complex in John Day.
liance wants to test ride the trails
and make minor adjustments
with hand tools over the next
six weeks, and work needs to
be completed on signage, a trail-
head kiosk and parking, he said.
Color-coded trails
The single-track bike trails
wind back and forth across
the hill overlooking the sports
complex in John Day, meander-
ing past junipers and boulders.
Access is made by the gravel
road that runs east of the sports
complex or by Well Road off of
Valley View Drive.
Ed Kessler, Zach Parkin and
Abe Schmidt used a skidsteer
and a mini excavator as well as
hand tools and heavy pry bars
to create the trails. Dirt was
hauled in to create flow features
on the trail running just below
Well Road at the top of the hill.
The trails will be color-cod-
ed for difficulty, with the begin-
ner trail marked green, the two
intermediate trails marked blue
and the technical trail marked
black. Signs on the trailhead
kiosk will explain the routes to
visitors, Lieuallen said.
Directing access to the bike
park is a concern of the de-
signers. They don’t want bik-
ers coming down from Well
Road, creating “social trails,”
or riding on the paved Jimmy
Allen Memorial Trail that runs
around the sports complex.
Access will be up a private
road owned by the Holmstroms
just east of the skate park, and
parking for 10-15 vehicles will
be established near the city
well.
The bike park is not a city
project, Lieuallen noted. The
nonprofit Grant County Eco-
nomic Council led the fund-
raising, and the Eastern Ore-
gon Trail Alliance provided
technical guidance, he said.
Other major stakeholders
include Grant School District
See TRAILS, Page A18