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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (March 13, 2019)
Dance team showcases state routine The PAGE A9 Blue Mountain EAGLE Grant County’s newspaper since 1868 Wednesday, March 13, 2019 151st Year • No. 11 • 16 Pages • $1.00 BlueMountainEagle.com WISHES GRANTED John Day seeks $10 million in funding this year Grants awarded to John Day, 2017-19 With $4.5M already secured, sewer and broadband top priorities The city of John Day and Grant County Digital Network Coalition plan to apply for more than $10 million in grant funding in 2019. Here are the grants John Day has received in the last two years. Awarded ($ dollars) Project • 911 Transition • Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy • Innovation Gateway Area Plan • City Parks and Trails • Wastewater Treatment Facility • Broadband • Main Street Revitalization • Housing Incentive Program • Street Improvement Projects By Richard Hanners Blue Mountain Eagle With almost $4.5 million in grants awarded in the last two years, John Day City Manager Nick Green told the city council Feb. 12 he plans to apply for more than $10 million in grant funding this year. The funding would support several large capital improvement projects related to critical infrastructure and the city’s long-range plan for economic development. “We’re undertaking some complex and ambitious proj- ects,” Green told the Eagle. “We recognize that. We also feel it’s necessary to help our community recover fi nancially from its extended economic John Day decline.” Mayor Ron The grants and projects are Lundbom all about community reinvest- ment, he said. “Over the past 12 months we’ve issued (requests for proposals) for a greenhouse, for two fi ber optic builds and for street improve- ments,” Green said. “We’re putting local con- tractors to work on projects that will benefi t our community for years to come. This is exactly what a local government should be doing.” Total 420,000 120,000 174,150 434,300 266,500 1.84 million 165,300 38,500 1 million $4.45 million Source: City of John Day EO Media Group graphic See Funding, Page A16 Community center in Dayville gets $1.45 million boost Heart of Grant County receives $1.5 million for shelter By Richard Hanners Blue Mountain Eagle City vision Mayor Ron Lundbom encourages residents to show up at city meetings or to talk to a city councilor to learn more about how grant fund- ing for city projects will help the city achieve The Eagle/Richard Hanners City Recorder Ruthie Moore and Mayor Ilah Bennett in front of the Dayville Community Hall, which will be renovated thanks to a $1.45 million Community Development Block Grant. The Eagle/Richard Hanners The city of John Day plans to sell city park land surrounding the Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site and the Gleason Pool facility to the state. Eagle fi le photo The John Day Innovation Gateway. Residents of Day- ville recently received great news — their cen- tury-old Community Hall will receive a major facelift thanks to a $1.45 million federal grant. “This has been a dream of the people of Dayville for many years, for us to have a meeting place to hold community events and socialize,” Mayor Ilah Ben- nett said. “We are all look- ing forward to the day that our community hall can be used year-round. We still have a long way to go, but the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter.” Grants and fundrais- ers have supported archi- tectural studies over the past two decades with the goal of fi nding a right-sized solution to restoring the deteriorating 4,513-square- foot building. A 1999 assessment was updated in 2009 and again nine years later by Pinna- cle Architecture. That work backed a successful appli- cation for the $1.45 million Community Development Block Grant. “Renovating the hall has been the talk of our town for decades,” City Recorder Ruthie Moore said. “It was known that restoring this grand old building was going to cost a considerable amount more than our small town could afford, but with a determination to do what we could, countless fund- raisers have taken place throughout the years.” Local history “The Dayville Commu- nity Hall is and has been the heart of the Dayville community for the past 99 years, and if old, weathered wood walls could talk, that building would indeed have quite a story to tell,” Moore said. The hall’s story began in 1920 when 87 locals bought $25 shares in the Hall Com- pany, a nonprofi t orga- nized to build a community hall in Dayville. Lumber was brought in from Flat Creek, 10 miles away, win- dows were shipped in by mule train and locals vol- unteered to erect and fi nish the building. “The Community Hall in Dayville was the crown- ing achievement of a com- munity that came together to create a communal space that could be enjoyed for decades,” grant-writing consultant Nicholas Ducote said in the application. Small cities and com- munities sprouted across Oregon during the lum- ber boom of the early 20th century, but many vanished after the local mills either downsized or shut down. Resilient cities like Day- ville, however, continued to thrive. “It is rare to fi nd a build- See Dayville, Page A16 Pool options include bond election City, parks and rec district meet to discuss future By Richard Hanners Blue Mountain Eagle With the Gleason Pool expected to close after two more seasons, local offi cials continue to look at options — from construction to fi nancing. The city of John Day expects to sell city park land surrounding the Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site to the state for development of a new interpretative center. The Eagle/Richard Hanners From left, John Day-Canyon City Parks & Recreation District Executive Director Art Thunell and board member Zach Williams listen to a presentation on pool options March 1. That includes the pool. Design options John Day City Coun- cil met with John Day-Can- yon City Parks & Recreation District Executive Director Art Thunell and board mem- ber Zach Williams March 1 to discuss the options. Williams started by asking if it was possible to sell some city park land to the state and hold onto the pool. John Day City Manager Nick Green said a sale agreement had not been fi nalized, but several councilors explained they had been told the pool had out- lived its useful life and was not salvageable. The city has hired Coun- silman-Hunsaker and Opsis Architecture to provide design options. Cost estimates and rough designs presented Feb. 28 by Opsis include an out- door competition pool with an indoor gymnasium. Construc- tion costs ranged from $10-14 million for three designs. Those costs could be sig- nifi cantly reduced by phas- ing construction. An outdoor pool and associated buildings could be built fi rst, and a gym could be added later. Previous estimates for a facility similar to the current Gleason Pool ranged around $4.3 million. Green noted, while oper- ation and maintenance costs are higher when a gym is open year-round, young chil- dren and seniors need a place to go in winter when side- walks are covered with snow and ice. He also said a gym See Options, Page A16