PRAIRIE CITY BOYS PLACE FIFTH AT STATE
The
PAGE A10
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
151st Year • No. 10 • 18 Pages • $1.00
BlueMountainEagle.com
G RANTS COULD FUND SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN Leaders,
DOWNTOWN JOHN DAY
Len’s Drug may complete $646,000 expansion
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
ith both applicants’ approval,
the John Day City Council
agreed Feb. 26 to forward
two applications to the state
for Main Street Revitalization grants
worth up to $200,000 each.
Greg and Marla Armstrong requested
$200,000 they would match with
$446,000 for a major remodel of the
Len’s Drug store on Main Street.
Plans call for increasing retail space
by about 4,500 square feet by expand-
ing west. The Corner Cup building,
which they also own, likely would be
removed.
Noting how the store expanded into
W
A Main Street Revitalization grant from
the state to improve the retail space and
storefront for Len’s Drug may include
removing The Corner Cup coff ee shop.
adjacent spaces since 1977, the Arm-
strongs said the $646,000 project would
create a more uniform retail space with
less unusable corners and improve the
Main Street storefront with updated
energy-effi cient windows and insulated
walls.
The 1188 Brewing Company, which
completed a major interior remodel last
year, requested $90,860 with a $23,500
match to create an integrated facade for
the original part of the business and the
expansion into adjacent space to the
west.
See Grants, Page A18
Eagle photos/Richard Hanners
Greg and Marla Armstrong have applied for a
Main Street Revitalization grant from the state to
improve Len’s Drug’s retail space and storefront.
Conceptual plans call for changing river channel in John Day
Green: Army Corps recommends project that will not cost city
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
The public will get a chance
to see conceptual plans for
changing the John Day River
stream channel where it fl ows
through John Day during a
March 12 online open house.
“Walker Macy is going to call
in and show a presentation on
the big screen up at the airport,”
City Manager Nick Green told
the Eagle. “We’re going to live
stream the council meeting to
Facebook and post the recorded
meeting online afterward.”
The John Day City Council
reviewed the river restoration
plans developed by the Walker
Macy landscape architect fi rm
in Portland during a March 1
work session.
Historic gold dredging oper-
ations in John Day changed the
location of the river and left a
straight and narrow channel.
The confl uence with Canyon
Creek was once several hundred
yards downstream from its cur-
rent location.
The conceptual plans call for
restoring a mile-long section of
the river from the planned city
park near the Canton Street cul-
de-sac to the single-lane bridge
at the former Oregon Pine mill
site.
Plans call for constructing
the meandering river with side
channels and wetlands on city-
owned land north of the river
and not on private land along the
south side of the river.
State and federal funds
would pay for the project, not
city money, Green said. One
estimate places costs at $1-2
million.
Walker Macy’s conceptual
plans include a cross-sectional
diagram showing how a 200-
foot wide bench could be cre-
ated by removing earth about 6
feet deep along the north side of
the river. That bench would con-
tain spring runoff or other fl ood
conditions and reduce the size of
the 100-year fl oodplain.
Councilor Dave Holland
noted that excavating that much
earth and fi nding a place to put
it could be expensive. Filling in
the percolation ponds at the cur-
rent wastewater treatment plant
once it’s replaced could be one
use for the excavated earth.
The Army Corps of Engi-
neers had suggested making the
river channel changes to reduce
fl ood hazards, Holland said. The
Corps must approve the project
before work begins, Green said.
Holland also noted that the
Seventh Street extension would
need to bend north around the
meandering river, adding sev-
eral thousand feet of con-
struction costs to the road
project.
Green said a possible time-
line would include constructing
the new wastewater treatment
plant in 2020-2021 and starting
the river restoration project in
2022-2023.
How Oregon’s new rent control law works
By Paris Achen
Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon on Thursday enacted
the nation’s farthest-reaching
law limiting rent increases and
restricting no-fault evictions, pro-
viding immediate protection to
roughly 1 million renters across
the state.
Senate Bill 608 took effect
with Gov. Kate Brown’s signa-
ture just after noon Thursday,
making Oregon the only state
in the nation with statewide rent
control.
A key component of the new
law is that most landlords can’t
raise rents by more than 7 percent
on top of an infl ationary increase
tied to the Consumer Price Index.
That amount is set at 3.3 per-
cent until Sept. 30, when the Ore-
gon Offi ce of Economic Analysis
will determine a new infl ation-
ary increase based on the annual
12-month average change for the
West Coast.
Rentals built in the past 15
years aren’t subject to limit,
a provision added to encour-
age construction of rental units.
The clock for the 15-year period
begins with the certifi cate of
occupancy, according to the
legislation.
Here is a guide compiled by
the Oregon Capital Bureau on
how the law works for both land-
lords and tenants:
How do landlords calcu-
late the maximum rent allowed
under the new law?
The state will use 3.3 percent
for CPI until Sept. 30, when the
amount will be reset based on a
12-month average for the West
Coast, according to the Oregon
Offi ce of Economic Analysis.
The law does not apply to rent
increase notices sent out before
Thursday.
New construction is exempt
for a period of 15 years. For
instance, a rental home that
received a certifi cate of occu-
pancy on Feb. 28, 2018, would
be exempt from the rent increase
limit until Feb. 28, 2033.
How does the rent cap pen-
cil out?
The median rent for a two-bed-
room unit in Oregon in 2017 was
$1,043 per month. The maximum
See Rent, Page A18
residents
warn about
carbon bill
impacts
Farm Bureau, ranchers
request exemption
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
Regional opposition to a proposed cap-
and-trade carbon bill in the Oregon Legis-
lature has not been about the reality of cli-
mate change but about whether impacts to
rural and agricultural interests are fair or
reasonable.
Joining the opposition, the Grant County
Court agreed Feb. 17 to send a letter to the
Joint Committee on Carbon Reduction in
the Oregon Legislature expressing their
concerns with House Bill 2020.
“We are very concerned about the impact
HB 2020 will have on our agricultural and
rural communities,” the court said. “The
Grant County Court is opposed to HB 2020
and we urge an exemption for agriculture
from the cap in any version of the bill mov-
ing forward.”
Attached were letters from Ken and Pat
Holliday and from the Grant County Farm
Bureau.
The Hollidays expressed concern about
impacts cap-and-trade legislation would
have on agriculture and rural communities,
particularly increasing the cost of fuel for
vehicles.
“As a cattle ranch involved in produc-
tion agriculture, fuel is essential to operate
tractors, trucks and equipment required to
conduct our business,” they wrote.
The Hollidays noted that dyed-diesel,
which is only allowed in agricultural equip-
ment and not on vehicles that use high-
ways, will be included under the carbon cap
in the house bill.
“In order to truly exempt farms and
ranches from a cap-and-trade system, the
on-road diesel used in farm vehicles must
also be exempt from the cap in any version
of the bill going forward,” they said.
The Hollidays said cattle ranchers
“know fi rsthand the potential impacts cli-
mate change can bring to their agricultural
operations,” but they noted that HB 2020
“will not protect Oregonians from cata-
strophic forest fi res, drought and the global
impact of CO2 creation.”
The Grant County Farm Bureau asked
the committee to recognize the positive
contributions made by agriculture toward
reducing carbon dioxide output and pro-
tecting habitat in rural areas and asked that
agriculture-related activities be excluded
from the HB 2020 regulations.
“Quite simply, while everyone else has
been philosophizing about sequestering
carbon and reducing their carbon footprint,
we have been quietly studying, designing
and applying adaptive management tech-
niques with our agency and university part-
ners to implement what everyone else is
merely theorizing,” the bureau said.
The bureau noted that higher costs
resulting from HB 2020 “seriously risks
destabilizing our current land tenure and
production operations, which are already
threatened by an aging population, lack of
producer recruitment and competition from
outside, monied interests.”
See Bill, Page A18
The Eagle/Richard Hanners
Agricultural businesses and rural areas may
be adversely impacted by House Bill 2020, a
cap-and-trade carbon reduction bill.