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