LETTERS TO SANTA SPECIAL SECTION, INSIDE
The
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
150th Year • No. 51 • 20 Pages • $1.00
BlueMountainEagle.com
Hunter going for record books
Getting ram tag took 48 years
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
Walt Kight has been hunting
since he was a child, and he’s long
had a special interest in sheep. He
now can claim bagging three of the
four sheep subspecies in the North
American Wild Sheep Grand Slam
and possibly a new state record for
California bighorn sheep.
Kight moved to Grant County in
1972 after serving in the Marines.
He typically hunts elk, deer, antelope
and upland birds, but he’s traveled
to Alaska fi ve times for hunts, four
of them without guides. He’s also
worked for a British Columbia out-
fi tter as a guide for elk hunters and
hunted moose in British Columbia.
After leaving the Marines, Kight
worked nine years for the Ore-
gon Department of Fish and Wild-
life running a fi sh-screening crew.
During that time, he talked his way
onto a sheep-trapping crew, netting
sheep on the ground or from a heli-
copter. He left ODFW and went to
work for a private contractor heli-
copter-netting sheep across the
Northern Rockies.
Walt Kight shot
this
bighorn
sheep Nov. 10,
opening day of
the East John
Day River hunt,
after 48 years
of applying for
a tag. The ram
is the pending
state record with
a green score of
185 2/8.
Grand slam
There are six subspecies of wild
sheep in North America — Dall,
stone, Fannin, Rocky Mountain,
See Hunt, Page A10
Contributed photos
This young boy and his brother received a fun surprise last week as volunteers from the nonprofi t Sleep in Heavenly Peace organization delivered new beds and bedding to
their home.
SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE
delights local children with new beds
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
S
ome area children are receiving a special Christ-
mas gift — new beds and bedding — thanks to
the Grant County nonprofi t chapter of Sleep in
Heavenly Peace.
Volunteers with the organization render a
unique service, utilizing elbow grease to build twin-size
beds for kids in need in Grant, Harney, Baker and Malheur
counties.
Their motto is “No Kid Sleeps on the Floor in our Town.”
On Dec. 1, a total of 34 volunteers, 22 adults and 12
children, joined in to build 10 bunk beds at the late Henry
“Butch” Goslin’s shop in Prairie City, in his honor.
Chapter president Susie Brown of John Day said she was
overwhelmed at the sight of so many gathered to help.
“I immediately got emotional when I started to thank the
group for coming,” she said. “Several times I was fi ghting
back tears.”
The helpers kept busy that morning to early afternoon
working in different stations, in a production line, to com-
plete the various stages of the building process.
Chelsey McDaniel, who was Goslin’s girlfriend, said the
event was amazing to see.
“It was mind blowing the amount of people that showed
up — kids and people from everywhere,” she said. “They
busted out 20 beds in three hours — 10 sets of bunk beds.”
She added, “Butch would have been incredibly proud
because he was a carpenter. He would have been a part of it
no matter what.”
From sanding and staining boards to assembling head-
boards and side rails, many hands made light work.
Clockwise from left: Mason
Rigney, Bryant Baker, Connor
McLeod and Tracker McLeod
work on a project to help make
the Sleep in Heavenly Peace beds.
See Beds, Page A10
Free bus service to start in January
bus will run three
times a day link-
ing Prairie City and
Free bus service in the John Day
Mt. Vernon with 37
Valley will start in mid-January, with
stops. Bus stop signs
one route circulating through John
could be set up by
Day and Canyon City and another
March depending on
running from Prairie City to Mt. Angie Jones Oregon Department
Vernon.
of
Transportation
The exact location of stops will be approval, Jones said.
refi ned as the Grant County Trans-
People with diffi culty getting to
portation District looks at ridership scheduled stop locations can call 24
numbers in the coming months, Dis- hours in advance, and the bus will
trict Manager Angie Jones said. The come to their homes. People can fl ag
new bus service will operate Mon- down the bus at unscheduled locations,
days through Fridays, with other but Jones advised they call ahead to let
People Mover services continuing as the People Mover staff know.
before.
While many businesses and public
As currently planned, a People agencies have approved use of park-
Mover bus will loop through John ing lots and highway pullouts for bus
Day and Canyon City about every 45 stops, people shouldn’t expect to be
minutes with 57 stops. The east-west able to park their vehicles at a stop to
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
ride the bus, Jones said.
Riders can board the buses fare-
free. Funding will come from a pro-
vision in the 2017 Transportation Bill
that passed the Senate by 22-7 and the
House by 39-20.
The bill provided for a payroll tax
of less than 0.1 percent to fund pub-
lic transit. Grant County will receive
$100,000 per year, the minimum
amount available for counties, Jones
said.
The public transportation provision
specifi ed criteria that transportation
districts should consider when spend-
ing that funding. Jones said the new
bus service will address both access
and lower rates. The provision also
required that 1 percent of the funding
be used to provide transportation for
students in grades 9-12.
The new bus service will provide
stops at Prairie City School and Grant
Union Junior-Senior High School, as
well as Humbolt Elementary School,
Jones said. Departure times should be
early enough for students in John Day
to travel to the Prairie City School or
the reverse, she said.
The Canyon City-John Day route
extends from Bridge Street on High-
way 395 south of the courthouse, west
on Highway 26 to Apple Road and
north several blocks on North Canyon
Boulevard with a stop at the People
Mover barn.
The east-west valley route includes
a small loop with eight stops in Prai-
rie City, more than a dozen stops in
John Day and three stops in Mt. Ver-
non. The bus will also stop at Clyde
Holliday State Park, which could
be popular with tourists in summer
time.