News
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
A3
Greenhouse representatives tour John Day
City
agribusiness
will begin in
November
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
John Day Mayor Ron
Lundbom escorted three rep-
resentatives from EuroMex
around the city last week, in-
cluding a tour of the future In-
novation Gateway site where
the city’s commercial green-
house will be sited.
The John Day City Coun-
cil last month approved a no-
tice of intent to accept Euro-
Mex’s $337,590 bid to build a
6,240-square-foot greenhouse
that will produce 30 tons of
produce per year, meeting the
city’s demand.
Eric Rodriguez, owner and
CEO of EuroMex, George
Brumis, business develop-
ment manager, and Alex Res-
cala, architect and design di-
rector, spoke to the council at
their Aug. 14 meeting.
City Manager Nick Green
noted the city was in good
hands and that the EuroMex
representatives had already
pointed out improvements to
the city’s initial plans, includ-
ing changing the location for
the greenhouse at Innovation
Gateway and new ways to uti-
lize the former Oregon Pine
planer shed.
The greenhouse is expect-
ed to be in production by
mid-November, and the shed,
which will serve as a shelter
for a farmers market, should
be ready for use by next year,
Green said.
A member of the Ford
Family Foundation board
came to John Day with a pro-
gram manager earlier this year
to tour the Innovation Gate-
way site, Green said. About a
month later, they told the city
they’d be willing to accept an
application for funding that
would assist in future farmers
markets, he said.
This is the first time Euro-
Mex has had a city as a cus-
tomer, Rodriguez said, and
they recognized the potential
for growth in that market sec-
tor. Assisting John Day to en-
sure its success would reflect
well on EuroMex, he said.
One of EuroMex’s busi-
ness partners has offered to
host John Day’s agribusiness
manager, Matt Manitsas, for
two weeks of hands-on train-
ing in Mexico using the same
EuroMex equipment John
Day is purchasing, Green told
the Eagle.
Agritourism
funding
As initially proposed, the
greenhouse’s three 16-foot
The Eagle/Richard Hanners
Eric Rodriguez, owner and CEO of EuroMex, explains
how his company will work with the city of John Day to
make its new commercial greenhouse a success during
the city council’s Aug. 14 meeting. With him are George
Brumis, left, business development manager, and Alex
Rescala, right, architect and design director.
high, 26-by-80-foot bays will
have clear walls so visitors
can view the facility without
entering and potentially con-
taminating the controlled en-
vironment.
Efforts to promote the
city’s commercial greenhouse
and other local tourist oppor-
tunities could benefit from
$140,000 in grant funding that
will support a comprehensive
economic development strate-
gy, Green said.
The council approved ap-
plying for a $20,000 grant
from Travel Oregon, requir-
ing a $2,000 match, and a
$50,000 Business Oregon
grant that together could be
Crews respond to northern county fires
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
State and federal crews
have responded to several fires
in northern Grant County that
originated with the Aug. 19-
20 lightning storm. A Level 1
awareness notification has been
issued for residents in the Mon-
ument, Kimberly, Ritter and
Dale areas.
Quick action by crews from
the Oregon Department of
Forestry and Malheur Nation-
al Forest limited a fire about
9 miles southwest of Fox near
Forest Road 3950 to about 55
acres.
The fire was about 15 acres
when crews arrived by mid-af-
ternoon Aug. 20 with five en-
gines, two bulldozers and two
hand crews. The use of aerial
resources was limited by the
heavy smoke that blew into the
area from Washington and Can-
ada. A sixth engine was called
in, and by 6 p.m., the fire was
100 percent lined by bulldozer,
according to a Malheur forest
press release.
A second fire near Fox was
handled by a single ODF crew
that had discovered the fire by
using a digital lightning-strike
map, John Day Unit Forester
Ryan Miller said. The one-
tenth-acre fire was quickly con-
tained and mopped up, he said.
ODF also assisted the Uma-
tilla National Forest with two
fires in Grant County. The Cup-
per Canyon fire on the Heppner
Ranger District about 4 miles
northwest of Monument was
discovered Aug. 20 about 12:47
p.m.
The 50-acre fire was burn-
used as a match for a $70,000
U.S. Economic Development
Administration grant.
If successful, the city’s
$2,000 would be leveraged
into $142,000 to support a
comprehensive economic de-
velopment strategy for John
Day. The strategy would focus
on launching a controlled-en-
vironment agriculture indus-
try and enhancing the city’s
tourist economy, Green said.
In-kind contributions by the
city could boost the size of the
federal grant.
According to the city’s ap-
plication to Business Oregon,
the goal is to help John Day
and surrounding communities
recover from, withstand and
avoid future economic shocks
caused by the loss of the local
timber industry by spurring
investments in agritourism,
ecotourism and recreation.
The comprehensive eco-
nomic development strategy
“supports the city’s planned
$20 million investments in the
John Day Innovation Gate-
way and other infrastructure
projects along the John Day
River that will result in eco-
nomic expansion in new high
growth industries,” the appli-
cation states.
The state grants will be
awarded in September, Green
said. His 1 percent adminis-
trative fee, as approved by the
city council May 22, would
come to $1,400.
Development of the com-
prehensive economic devel-
opment strategy would begin
in November and culminate
during a regional econom-
ic development summit that
John Day will host next
spring, Green said.
Federal agencies will at-
tend the summit to identify
federal funding opportunities
to help finance the city’s pro-
grams and initiatives, Green
said.
Floodplain maps
Green also informed the
council on updates to the
floodplain maps for the John
Day and Canyon City area. A
public hearing will be held in
the Grant Union Junior-Se-
nior High School gym Oct. 24
to present the revised maps.
The Army Corps of Engi-
neers completed a flood study
along 5.3 miles of the John
Day River and 3.2 miles of
Canyon Creek in December
2014. The city and the county
then asked the Federal Emer-
gency Management Agency
to update the area’s Flood In-
surance Rate Maps.
The current maps, which
became effective in February
1982, are based on topograph-
ic surveys conducted in 1970
and 1975 and do not accurate-
ly reflect the flood risk today,
Green said. Changes in tech-
nology and the topographical
or hydrological environment
have occurred over the past
40 years, he said.
The city will send letters
to the 320 affected proper-
ty owners, who may submit
a letter of map revision to
FEMA if they can document
the need for a revision to the
flood data, Green said.
Some property owners
may learn they are in the
100-year floodplain and
will need to pay for insur-
ance with their mortgage
payments. But saying they
have lived at the same place
all their life and never seen
it flood will not qualify as
evidence of a low flood risk,
Green said.
Prairie City man one of eight
killed in Harney County crash
Names of eight
dead released
by state police
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Eagle/Richard Hanners
Smoke blowing in from Washington, Canada and Central
Oregon filled the John Day Valley Aug. 20.
ing in grass, brush and timber
and threatening a structure
about half a mile away. Re-
sources responding to the fire
included one helicopter, two
single-engine air tankers from
Grant County Regional Air-
port, three ODF engines, one
ODF hand crew and one Uma-
tilla forest engine.
By Tuesday morning, the
fire was mostly lined by bull-
dozer at about 50 acres, Miller
said. Agencies will call in a lot
of firefighting resources when
a fire threatens a structure, he
said.
A larger fire was burning
near the Morrow County line
about 12 miles north of Mon-
ument. The Gilman fire, which
was burning grass and timber
on Gilman Flats in the Heppner
Ranger District, was discov-
ered about 6 p.m. on Monday.
Originally estimated at
1,500 acres, the fire was down-
sized to about 650 acres by
Tuesday morning, Grant Coun-
ty Emergency Management
Office coordinator Ted Wil-
liams said.
A Type 3 incident command
with ODF and Umatilla forest
crews was slated to take over
the fire on Tuesday.
Residents in Grant Coun-
ty north of Highway 402 and
west of Highway 395, includ-
ing Monument, Kimberly,
Ritter and Dale, were given
a Level 1 awareness notifica-
tion, Williams said. Tailored
for slow-moving events, the
notification is intended to en-
able people with disabilities or
livestock to begin considering
plans for leaving in event fire
danger increases, he said.
Firefighters were hiking in
to a new fire discovered about
2 miles south of Olive Lake in
the North Fork John Day Wil-
derness on the Umatilla forest,
about 16 miles west of Sumpt-
er. Thick smoke was preventing
aerial resource from responding
to the Harrison Fire, but thermal
imaging provided an estimated
size of 30 acres Tuesday morn-
ing, Umatilla forest spokesman
Darcy Weseman told the Eagle.
A 48-year-old Prairie
City man was killed Aug.
13 in a head-on collision
south of Crane that took the
lives of eight people alto-
gether.
According to an Oregon
State Police press release,
Mark R. Rundell was the
driver of the white 1999
Toyota 4Runner that was
westbound on Highway 78
in Harney County when
it veered into the opposite
lane and struck an eastbound
vehicle.
The seven people in the
eastbound vehicle, a 2016
Contributed photo
Eight people, including a Prairie City man, died in a head-
on collision Aug. 13 on Highway 78 south of Crane.
Toyota 4Runner, were pro-
nounced dead at the scene
of the crash. They included
the driver, Erika C. Boquet,
29, Tacoma, Washington.
The passengers of the east-
bound vehicle included Kyla
M. Brown, 28, Arianna M.
Brown, 10, and Xavier K.
Johnson, 2, all of Olympia,
Washington; and Isabella E.
Boquet, 11, Elizabeth A. Bo-
quet, 8, and Tytis M. Boquet,
6, all of Tacoma, Washing-
ton.
Emergency personnel re-
sponded to the crash around
10 a.m. The state police were
assisted by the Harney Coun-
ty Sheriff’s Office, Hines
Police Department, Harney
District Ambulance, Burns
Fire Department, Range
Land Fire Protection Associ-
ation and the Oregon Depart-
ment of Transportation.
Motorcyclist dies after Harney County crash
Blue Mountain Eagle
A 74-year-old motorcyclist
died after a Harney County
crash Tuesday, Aug. 14.
At approximately 3:25
p.m., a semi-truck with two
trailers loaded with hay op-
erated by Randolph Pointere,
67, of Hines was traveling
north on Highway 205 near
milepost 2, according to an
Oregon State Police press
release.
Pointere was turning left
onto Hotchkiss Lane when a
motorcycle, operated by Da-
vid McNeill, 74, of Belling-
ham, Washington, attempted
to pass the semi-truck.
The motorcycle slid un-
der the first semi-trailer be-
fore coming to a stop. The
semi-truck and trailers were
able to stop without running
over McNeill.
McNeill was transported
to Harney District Hospital
and then transported by air
to St. Alphonsus Hospital
in Boise, Idaho. At approx-
imately 9:30 p.m. Wednes-
day, Aug. 15, McNeill died
from his injuries sustained in
the crash.
Pointere was not injured,
and the semi-truck was driv-
en from the scene.
OSP was assisted by
emergency medical services,
Burns fire, Burns police,
Hines police, Oregon De-
partment of Transportation
and the Harney County Sher-
iff’s Office.
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John Day Taxi “Richie”
would like to thank everyone
who assisted with the adopt-a-
mile clean up on August 18th.
Thanks again,
Richie