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www.MyEagleNews.com
Breakthroughs in missing couple case
Terry Smith
remains
identified, truck
found in Boise
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
Two breakthroughs in the
case of the missing couple
whose house burned in the
Laycock Creek Road area
were announced Oct. 24 by
the Grant County Sheriff’s
Office.
The sheriff’s office re-
ceived confirmation from
the Boise Police Depart-
ment in Boise, Idaho, that
the pickup truck belonging
to Terry and Sharon Smith
was located over the Oct. 20
weekend.
Sheriff Glenn Palmer also
announced that the Oregon
State Medical Examiner no-
tified his office Oct. 22 that
samples of human tissue
submitted for DNA testing
had been partially analyzed.
The samples, from remains
found in the burned out res-
idence on Nan’s Rock Road,
tested conclusively to be
those of Terry Smith.
Myers meets
Washington
officials
on their
own turf
Contributed photo
Terry and Sharon Smith.
Further testing is under-
way on tissue samples and
dental records submitted to
the State Medical Examiner’s
Office in an attempt to locate
and identify Sharon Smith,
Palmer said in the press re-
lease.
The sheriff’s office is joint-
ly investigating the case with
the Hilo Police Department in
Hawaii County, Oregon State
Police, Boise Police and the
Federal Bureau of Investiga-
tion, Palmer said.
Both in their 60s, Terry
and Sharon Smith were con-
sidered a “sociable” couple
by friends and family mem-
bers, so their disappearance
following the fire at their
home in the hills south of
Mt. Vernon was always sus-
pect. The disappearance of
their silver 2006 Toyota Ta-
coma added to the mystery.
By the time first respond-
ers arrived at the cabin on
Nan’s Rock Road in the ear-
ly morning hours of July 18,
the remodeled rural cabin was
completely burned and the
metal roof had collapsed over
the ruins.
The Smiths divided their
time between a home in Ha-
waii and the cabin in Eastern
Oregon, where Terry often
fished and hunted. The Smiths
were known to let people stay
on the 80- to 100-acre proper-
ty in the Laycock Creek area
See MISSING, Page A10
Happy Halloween!
Vice President
Pence surprises
county
representatives
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
It was a whirlwind round trip,
Grant County Judge Scott Myers
said — about 40 hours from John
Day to Washington, D.C., and
back again. But memories of meet-
ing Vice President Mike Pence in
the ornate Eisenhower Executive
Office Building were worth it.
About 20 county representa-
tives from Oregon joined about
twice that number from Washing-
ton at the invitation of Britt Carter,
the associate director of the White
House Office of Intergovernmen-
tal Affairs, Myers said.
The National Association of
Counties hosted the county rep-
resentatives for a dinner at their
building in downtown Washing-
ton, D.C., on Oct. 10.
The next day they met with
seven Trump administration offi-
cials in the EEOB, near the White
House West Wing. The officials
represented the departments of
Housing and Urban Develop-
ment, Education, Transportation,
Veterans Affairs, Intergovern-
mental Affairs and Interior.
The three-hour meeting had
gone late when the county repre-
sentatives were surprised to learn
that Pence had entered the room
to speak to them, Myers said.
White House Counselor Kelly-
anne Conway also made an im-
promptu appearance.
See MYERS, Page A10
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
Two-year-old Leif Felix is ready to play a bowling game along with Sammantha Guy, 13, (back left) and Sarah Smith, 10, at the
carnival and trunk-or-treat activity held Oct. 24 at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in John Day.
Variety of events planned
Blue Mountain Eagle
hildren and adults enjoyed
some spooktacular fun last
week at local events, and more
activities are scheduled in the area for
Halloween evening.
Kids played games at a free indoor
carnival and trunk-or-treated at the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints in John Day Oct. 24.
Prairie City School’s parent-teacher
committee held a carnival fundraiser
Oct. 27 in the school gym.
A children’s party at the John Day
Elks Lodge 1824 took place Tuesday
past press time.
C
Events taking place today, Oct. 31,
include:
• Free kids carnival from 5-7 p.m.
at the Dayville Community Hall, orga-
nized by Dayville School student body.
• Free haunted house with candy
given away at 6 p.m. at the Canyon City
Community Hall, organized by their lo-
cal volunteer fire department.
• Free trunk-or-treat activity from
6-8 p.m. at Humbolt Elementary
School’s parking lot, sponsored by the
PTA.
• Laser tag from 7-9 p.m. for ages
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
13-18 at the John Day Elks Lodge, with
a cost of $1 or one canned food item Zoey Rookstool holds her young friend Presley
for admission, and another for laser tag. Harper during the cupcake walk in John Day.
• See more photos on Page A10 •
Facing down the state over property rights
County court rejects
ODOT quarry buffer
zone request
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
The county faced down the state
to protect residents’ property rights
during an Oct. 17 public hearing.
Allowing the Oregon Department
of Transportation to limit uses in a
1,500-foot buffer zone around a quar-
ry pit would set a precedent for sim-
ilar applications in the future, Judge
Scott Myers explained.
The 20.26-acre Meadowbrook
Quarry on Highway 395 near Dale
contains about 1 million tons of high
quality aggregate. Region 5 Manag-
er Craig Sipp said ODOT had been
eyeing the quarry site for a long time
and planned to rely on it for decades
to come.
ODOT took possession of the site
in March 2010 through condemnation
and paid Arthur Brenner $33,000 plus
interest for the land and $22,500 for
Brenner’s legal costs in defending
against the condemnation proceeding.
Protecting quarry operations from
potential nuisance lawsuits by adja-
cent landowners is a high priority for
ODOT, which requested a “significant
aggregate site” designation in Grant
County’s comprehensive plan for the
quarry site.
ODOT also requested a 5(b) des-
ignation, which would limit conflict-
ing adjacent uses to protect quarry
operations. A 5(c) designation would
fully allow conflicting uses in the buf-
fer zone despite possible impacts to
quarry operations, thereby protecting
adjacent landowners’ property rights.
“Throughout the process, the
neighboring property owners have
requested that the impact area be
assigned a 5(c) level of protection,”
Grant County Planning Director Hil-
ary McNary told the court.
Year-long process
A mandated Economic, Social,
Environmental and Energy analysis
identified potential conflicting uses
within 1,500 feet of the quarry as rec-
reational uses, such as parks and camp-
grounds, hunting and fishing preserves
and natural areas, as well as construc-
tion of land dwellings. A signed agree-
ment had resolved potential access
issues with an existing agriculture op-
eration using neighboring corrals.
See RIGHTS, Page A10