A18
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Parade
Continued from Page A1
About 125 trucks were in the
inaugural parade on Dec. 11,
1993, Traylor recalled. The aim
was to demonstrate the impor-
tance of the timber industry in
Grant County.
The D.R. Johnson Co. contin-
ues to sponsor a timber truckers
parade in Douglas County. They
also donated $200 for the fi rst-
place commercial prize, Traylor
said.
Traylor was a John Day city
councilor when the people sup-
porting the trucker parade asked
for a city representative to serve
on the organizing committee.
Traylor took on the job and has
been the go-to person for 17
years.
At the conclusion of the
parade, participants gathered in
the John Day Elks Lodge for
chili, hot drinks and the prize
announcements.
A hat was passed and $250 was
raised to assist with relief efforts
following the recent devastating
fi re in Paradise, California.
Parade results
Timber
First: Rude Logging, $200
Second: Iron Triangle, Ron
Taynton, $100
Third: Iron Triangle, Jerry
Butler, $50
Commercial
First: Mike DesJardin Den-
tistry, $200
Second: Eastern Oregon
Realty, Lindsay Madden, $100
Third: UPS, Zack DeRosier,
$50
Farm and ranch
First: Broken Leg Ranch, $200
Second: Keerins Ranch, $100
Community
First: Grant County Search &
Rescue, $200
Second: John Day Fire Depart-
ment, $100
Third: Living Word Christian
Center, $50
People’s choice
First: Living Word Christian
Center, $100
Second: Rude Logging, $50
Sweepstakes
Rude Logging, Ruger camo
rifl e
Shotgun winners
Steve Kowing and Bill Combs
The Eagle/Richard Hanners
Santa Claus waves to the crowds as the 2018 Timber Truckers parade ran down Main Street in John Day on Dec. 8.
The Eagle/Richard Hanners
The Eagle/Richard Hanners
A giant straw-fi lled crib rode down Main Street in John Day for the
2018 Timber Truckers parade on Dec. 8.
Horns blared and lights fl ashed as the 2018 Timber Truckers
parade ran down Main Street in John Day on Dec. 8.
Projects
Read this book, and you’ll understand
a lot about what makes Oregon Oregon.
Continued from Page A1
— Jackman Wilson, Editorial Page Editor, The Register-Guard
“Grit and Ink” tells a story
that is very worthy of being told.
— Kerry Tymchuk, Executive Director, Oregon Historical Society
Small-town family business history at its best.
—Richard Baker, U.S. Senate Historian Emeritus
NOW AVAILABLE AT
IN PRINT AND eBOOK FOR KINDLE
Also available from local booksellers or call 800-621-2736
books.eomediagroup.com/grit-ink
93529
“He is optimistic we
would succeed but acknowl-
edged the uncertainty of
establishing an off-season
grow process with unknown
potential yields, the need
to identify microbrewer-
ies able to harvest the hops
and determining the opti-
mal growing environment,”
Green said.
Green noted that the sav-
ings by building all fi ve bays
at one time was $40,000,
and the council didn’t need
to make a decision right
away. The materials for the
two bays could be sent back
to Euromex, he said.
Councilor Gregg Haberly
was not ready to give up on
the two-bay expansion. He
noted that the fi rst three
bays were dedicated to
growing produce for Ches-
ter’s Thriftway, but the
additional two bays could
be used to grow produce for
local restaurants and other
grocery outlets.
Paul Smith supported
that idea, suggesting the two
bays be used for produce
until the fresh hops market
could be established.
Councilor Brandon Smith
opposed the expansion, not-
ing that risks multiply and
can become worse. If it was
a private company, his opin-
ion might be different, but
this was public money, he
said. He suggested gather-
ing more information.
Councilor
Shannon
Adair agreed but noted that
her business, 1188 Brewing
Co., would buy all its pro-
duce from the city’s green-
house. Councilor Steve
Schuette said the city needs
to show some success before
expanding.
State bureaucracy was
holding up approval of con-
struction plans for the fi rst
three bays, Green said, but
once they were approved,
construction of the next two
bays would go much faster.
The council agreed to wait
for more information on
marketing before proceed-
The Eagle/Richard Hanners
Left to right, John Day City Councilors Brandon Smith,
Steve Schuette and Shannon Adair at the special joint
session at the Grant County Regional Airport on Dec. 4.
ing with the expansion.
Aquatics facility
Green also described
fi nancial constraints affect-
ing plans for an indoor
aquatics facility. An outdoor
pool with similar features
to the current Gleason Pool
could be built for $4.5 mil-
lion, but scaling up the proj-
ect to a larger indoor facil-
ity drove up operation and
maintenance costs beyond
what the local tax base
could support, he said.
An outdoor pool with a
recreation facility including
a basketball court, a climb-
ing area for children and
circuit-training equipment
was more feasible, he said.
But year-round costs for
an indoor pool don’t pen-
cil out according to the con-
sultants, he said. He cited
the high costs for an aquat-
ics facility in Madras as an
example.
Mayor Ron Lundbom
was skeptical of the news.
He suggested more peo-
ple would use a year-round
indoor pool than the current
pool, and he asked to see the
numbers.
Green also explained that
recent large disasters in the
U.S., including hurricanes
and large fi res, were driv-
ing up the costs for new
construction. On the other
hand, the county’s hospital
bond was ending soon and
loan costs were still low.
The city will receive
about $1 million from the
state for the sale of city
park property adjacent to
the Kam Wah Chung State
Heritage Site, which would
pay for about a quarter of
the smallest pool option,
Green said. But a $9 million
indoor project would cost
taxpayers about as much as
the hospital bond, he said.
There has been a strong
interest in an indoor facility,
but no money was set aside
for it, he said.
The pool project must
be more than a city proj-
ect, Paul Smith said — oth-
erwise the operations and
maintenance costs were not
sustainable.
Street projects
The council also learned
that the state’s Small City
Allotment Oversight Com-
mittee scaled back street
project grants, limiting cit-
ies to one $100,000 project
instead of two as previously
thought.
The state received 150
applications from 112 cities
totaling $14.8 million in the
competitive grant program,
but the state only awarded
56 projects totaling $5.4
million.
As a result, the city of
John Day will rebuild the
Charolais Heights intersec-
tion and not the Govern-
ment Entry Road project
that would have connected
Valley View Drive to Patter-
son Bridge Road.
In addition, the state told
John Day that rights-of-
way for projects must be
acquired ahead of time for
future applications, which
wasn’t done for the Gov-
ernment Entry Road proj-
ect. Prairie City and Day-
ville also were awarded
$100,000 grants.