News
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, September 19, 2018
Highway littering ordinance considered
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
Grant County’s beautiful high-
ways are being littered with trash
blown out the back of trucks, Dave
Traylor told the Grant County Court
Sept. 12. An ordinance requiring
loads headed to the Clark’s Disposal
transfer station be covered is needed,
he said.
It’s not just an aesthetic issue but
a public safety concern, Traylor said.
Vehicles that swerve to avoid hitting
branches or construction debris can
end up leaving the road or hitting oth-
er vehicles, he said.
Traylor said he’s talked to District
Attorney Jim Carpenter about the
problem for several years and noted
that other Oregon counties have or-
dinances requiring loads be covered
and secured.
Traylor also said he’s found evi-
dence in trash found along highways
that identified the previous owner, but
law enforcement officials were not
interested in pursuing the matter. He
asked that the county ordinance allow
citizens to cite litterers.
Gordon Larson commented that
nobody likes to see litter along road-
ways, but he questioned the need for
the ordinance when a state law al-
ready exists.
Carpenter told the Eagle, under
existing state law, a citizen who ob-
serves littering can complete a com-
plaint form at the Grant County Jus-
tice Court.
“They need as much identifying
information as possible,” he said.
“The offender is then cited into Jus-
tice Court to answer the complaint.”
The proposed county ordinance is
still being formulated, Carpenter said.
“However, the ability of a citizen
to make a citizen citation is codified
by state law and would likely remain
the same, whether there is an ordi-
nance or not,” he said.
The court also discussed the mer-
its of increasing the fee at Clark’s
Disposal for uncovered and unse-
cured loads to as much as $50. My-
ers, however, noted that if the penal-
ty is too high, a person might drive
away and dump their trash elsewhere
in an illegal location.
Carpenter said he was willing to
draft the proposed ordinance, and the
court agreed to follow up on Traylor’s
request.
Treasurer’s report
In her department head report to
the court, Grant County Treasurer
Julie Ellison described her duties in
receiving and disbursing all of the
county’s funds. In addition to paying
bills and making out payroll checks,
she invests the county’s $30 million
in reserves and prepares the annual
budget document.
Ellison, who’s served as treasur-
er for two years, said larger counties
have financial advisors while she
works with a broker. She noted that
state policies limit how she invests
county reserves and prevent her from
making longer-term investments that
could earn more.
“Under Oregon law, the county
is currently restricted to purchas-
ing investments maturing within 18
months,” she told the Eagle. “In or-
der to purchase investments maturing
longer than 18 months, the county
would need to submit an investment
policy to the Oregon Short Term
Fund Board that allows for a max-
imum maturity of five years. Once
the board reviews the policy and
provides their recommendations, the
county would adopt the policy and be
allowed to purchase investments ma-
turing within five years instead of 18
months.”
On the payroll side, Ellison asked
the court to consider implementing
a policy requiring county workers
to have a direct-deposit account for
payroll. Administrative Assistant
Laurie Wright noted that a direct-de-
posit system would need to be put in
place before the policy could be im-
plemented.
The court also agreed to create
a department assistant position that
would be full time but shared by the
Justice Court and Assessor’s Office.
The court had earlier approved cre-
ating a part-time position at Justice
Court, but then a part-time employee
at the Assessor’s Office announced he
was moving out of the area.
Combining the two part-time
positions to create a single full-time
position would help retain work-
ers, Wright said. Commissioner Jim
Hamsher agreed, adding that it would
also reduce training costs. The work-
er would serve in either position as
needed, with more time in the Asses-
sor’s Office during tax time.
Commissioner Rob Raschio ob-
jected to the requirement for a crim-
inal background check, noting that
people who have served their time
should not be excluded from apply-
ing. He also noted that combining
two part-time positions into one full-
time position was not budget neutral
— a full-time employee would earn
certain benefits.
The wording will be amended to
allow people with a record of accept-
able criminal behavior to apply.
The Grant County Court’s next
meeting is Sept. 26.
A7
Road worker
finds explosive
at rock pit
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Oregon State Police bomb
squad was sent from Salem Sept. 12 to
deal with explosive device found by a
Grant County Road Department worker.
According to Undersheriff Zach Mo-
bley, the road department worker discov-
ered the device at a rock pit and brought
it to the road department to be turned in.
The device is a commercial explosive
used in blasting operations at rock pits,
Mobley said. Called a cast booster, the
device needs a detonator to initiate it,
Capt. Tim Fox at the OSP office in Sa-
lem told the Eagle. The commercial de-
vice was about 4 years old. The bomb
squad collected the device and stored
it in OSP’s explosive magazine for de-
struction at a later date, Fox said.
A cast booster is a high-density,
high-energy explosive device that is sen-
sitive to detonators or detonating cord.
Mobley reminded the public that if
they find an explosive device or some-
thing that looks like an explosive device,
they should not touch it or try to move it
because that could result in catastroph-
ic consequences. Anyone who finds an
explosive device should contact 911 so
a professional can deal with it, he said.