A10
News
Blue Mountain Eagle
MISSING
Continued from Page A1
that they bought in the mid-
1990s, according to Sharon’s
sister Cathy Hinshaw, who
lives in Hawaii.
The Smiths first met in
junior high school while
growing up in Springfield,
Hinshaw said. Over the
years the couple operated
restaurants,
second-hand
stores, a clothing business in
Bali, Indonesia, and season-
ally at farmers
markets
in
Washington.
The Smiths
never
had
children and
were always
Sheriff
working and
Glenn
keeping busy.
Palmer
Hinshaw re-
called them
serving food at homeless
shelters on Thanksgiving
and Christmas.
“Terry would give you
the shirt off his back,” she
said, adding that he always
picked up hitchhikers.
The Grant County Sher-
iff’s Office took the lead in
the investigation of the miss-
ing couple from the very
beginning, with assistance
from state police and the
FBI. On Aug. 2, Palmer re-
ported that his office and the
FBI had made some contacts
in the case and conducted nu-
merous interviews. On Sept.
5, Palmer announced that the
case was being treated as a
homicide.
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Happy Halloween
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
Kathlyne Page, 9, left, dressed as a unicorn and Ella Carpenter, 8, a Monster High
character, choose a candy prize after playing corn hole at the carnival in John Day.
Contributed photo
In this photo from the Association of Oregon Counties, Grant County Judge Scott
Myers (blue shirt) listens as Vice President Mike Pence speaks Oct. 11 in the
Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C.
MYERS
Continued from Page A1
Earlier the same day, My-
ers and several other Oregon
county representatives toured
the White House. Myers said
they posed for a photograph
in front of the Oval Office just
hours before rap singer Kanye
West and football legend Jim
Brown met there with Presi-
dent Donald Trump.
RIGHTS
Continued from Page A1
ODOT’s request went be-
fore the Grant County Plan-
ning Commission three times
after it was submitted in No-
vember 2017. Following a
hearing in January, the county
planning department request-
ed information about a 5(c)
designation from the state
Department of Land Conser-
vation and Development.
The county representatives
were afforded ample opportu-
nity for questions at the EEOB
meeting, Myers said. Issues
that were raised included in-
frastructure repairs, especially
bridges, Secure Rural Schools
and payment in lieu of taxes
funding for timber communi-
ties and the devastating im-
pacts of wildfires.
Interior Secretary Ryan
Zinke explained to the county
representatives that the Inte-
rior Department oversees the
Bureau of Land Management
and not the Forest Service,
and he declined to address
wildfire concerns, Myers said.
The county representatives
emphasized to the federal of-
ficials that they would like
to see a more permanent fix
to the Secure Rural Schools
act, which provides important
funding for roads and schools
but cannot be relied upon
from year to year, Myers said.
An aggregate specialist at
DLCD supported a 5(b) des-
ignation, which the planning
commission recommended at
their February hearing. But
when their recommendation
reached the county court in
March, the court said the 5(c)
designation had not been ful-
ly explored and suggested
DLCD had influenced the
planning commission’s deci-
sion.
The matter was sent back
to planning commission,
which was unable to recon-
vene with the same five mem-
bers, as requested by ODOT,
for six months. In Septem-
ber, the planning commission
changed its recommendation
to 5(c), noting that based on
evidence in the record, no
conflicts existed between the
proposed quarry and existing
uses in the 1,500-foot impact
area.
The planning commission
also noted that the economic
and social impacts of prohib-
Once upon a time a man very much alive was listed in an obituary column. He replied something to the effect that
reports of his demise were greatly exaggerated. Well, recently a friend from a local bank suggested I may have some
dead brain cells because I was confused regarding a financial transaction; she was right, no exaggeration there. But I had
enough between the head handles to build a successful taxi business from the ground up; however, my wife is the CFO
because I don’t know an asset from a debit; I haven’t written a check in 30 years but I’m not ready for the boys in white
coats yet just because I don’t know how.
Having said that, I would like to shed some light on the situation. I’ve got a Masters in Electronics, a Masters in Theology,
I’m a Paralegal, have degrees in Personnel Management and Christian Education. Dumb and confused as I am, I have a
genius IQ and belong to Mensa; well actually belonged to Mensa, I finally got smart and quit paying dues. I was chess
champion of the biggest Air Force Base in the world - Eglin AFB, Florida, I wiped out the whole chess club 5-0 and can
still do an en passant on anyone on the block. I was a cowboy in Montana (I had a smart horse) and I’m a pilot. People
like me tend to think outside the box and sometimes do squirrelly things as did Benjamin Franklin when he strapped a
pair of magnifying glasses on his nose, the Wright brothers built a bicycle that flew and another guy thought he could
replace horse carriages, ho, ho.
Back to John Day Taxi now dba Cowpie Ride Share. We step On it For You. I service about 40
regulars; I know all my customers by first name and exactly where they live. On round trips I
get name and address, pick them up and bring them right back to the exact same spot an
hour later. Yea for short term memory. Granted I am slipping a tad on the multi-
$$$
tasking end of things but I ain’t dead yet you can bank on it.
Richie Colbeth - Owner/Operator
86393
The Blue Mountain Healthcare Foundation would like to
thank everyone who attended and supported the Annual
Meeting, Dinner & Auction on October 20th at the John
Day Elks Lodge. Funds raised will be put towards a new
updated nurse call system & a vein finder.
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
Contributed photo/Emily Kokesh
Prairie City juniors Emily Ennis, left,
and Hailee Wall offer face painting
at Friday’s school carnival.
iting or limiting recreational
or dwelling uses in the 1,500-
foot impact area was too
much for the property owners
to bear and would restrict the
overall use of their property.
They also noted that a 5(b)
designation would negatively
impact county tax revenue by
prohibiting development.
State response
In an Oct. 4 letter respond-
ing to the planning com-
mission’s recommendation,
Senior Assistant Attorney
General Stacy Posegate em-
phasized that the Meadow-
brook Quarry was a highly
valuable aggregate site.
“If quarry operations cease
or become severely limited
because of the conflicting
uses, negative economic, so-
cial, energy and environmen-
tal consequences can be ex-
pected,” she said.
The nearest quarries are
14.5 miles north at Camas
Creek and 28.5 miles south at
Long Creek Mountain, Pose-
gate said. Using the Camas
Creek quarry could increase
haul costs by $145,000 for a
typical road project, as well
as cause wear and tear on the
highway, traffic congestion,
more vehicle emissions and
increased fuel consumption,
she said.
Posegate requested that the
court add a requirement that
any person wishing to build
a dwelling in the buffer zone
sign an affidavit recognizing
Children enjoy the doughnut-eating contest
at the carnival and trunk-or-treat activity
held Oct. 24 at The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints in John Day.
the quarry as a superior use.
An alternative would be a
requirement that the person
notify ODOT of a dwelling
development and provide
ODOT with an opportunity to
object and request a hearing.
Sipp described to the court
the importance of the High-
way 395 corridor and ODOT’s
desire to maintain good rela-
tions with local communities.
Posegate noted that nuisance
lawsuits are common and can
go on for years, shutting down
a quarry by injunction until
resolved.
Raschio asked Sipp and
Posegate why ODOT hadn’t
purchased the 1,500-foot buf-
fer land. Commissioner Jim
Hamsher asked why ODOT
hadn’t acquired a noise and
dust easement for the impact
area. The 5(b) designation
would place an “encum-
brance” on the property, Ra-
schio noted.
Court decision
In his motion to accept the
planning commission’s rec-
ommendation of a 5(c) desig-
nation, which would protect
the neighboring landowners’
property rights, Raschio noted
that new testimony presented
in Posegate’s Oct. 4 letter had
been submitted too late for
planning commission review.
But even if the court was
required to consider the new
testimony, “the county court
finds that the bare, unverified
and unsupported assertions”
made in the DOJ’s Oct. 4 let-
ter “do not constitute substan-
tial evidence of impacts to the
quarry,” Raschio said.
Raschio also noted that
“the impacts DOJ asserts
primarily focus on impacts
to ODOT, not economic, en-
vironmental or social con-
sequences to the broader
community” and “appear to
be clearly overstated or exag-
gerated based on the limited
information provided.”
Furthermore, the court
“finds that limiting conflict-
ing uses would likely engen-
der legal, economic or social
pressures, protests or possi-
bly even lawsuits against the
quarry, or the county, that
would be of greater magni-
tude and consequence, and far
outweigh, any possible social
or economic consequences of
not providing protections to
the resource site,” Raschio
said.
“Put simply, the quarry is
much more likely to co-exist
harmoniously from a social
and economic perspective un-
der a 5(c) designation than a
5(b) designation,” he said.
The county court’s unan-
imous approval of Raschio’s
motion will not be final until
a written decision and order
drafted by county counsel
Dominic Carollo is approved
at a future court meeting.
ODOT can appeal the coun-
ty’s decision to the state Land
Use Board of Appeals and ul-
timately state court.
Thank you to the following businesses for supporting
Newspapers in Education
Their generous support of the Blue Mountain Eagle NIE
program helps provide copies of the newspaper and
unlimited access to BlueMountainEagle.com and the e-Edition
to schools throughout the community.
A special thank you to each of our sponsors for this year’s event!
Central Oregon Radiology
Robert Rascio
Blue Mountain Hospital Auxiliary
Gary & Virginia Miller
Dowdy Family
Dougs Motor Vehicle Repair
Gardner Enterprises
Health Tech
Len’s Drug
Les Schwab
Southworth Brothers
Triangle Oil
Mary Ellen Brooks
Tidewater Contractors
Solutions CPA’s
Old West Federal Credit Union
Bank of Eastern Oregon
Intermountain Law
Austin House Cafe & Country Store
Berry Creek Ranch
NFP
Iron Triangle
Hutch’s Printing
Oregon Trail Electric Coop
Turn Key Medical
Ansel & Judy Krutsinger
Blue Mountain Eagle
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