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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (March 20, 2019)
NATIONAL AG DAY: THE PAST AND THE FUTURE A7-9 The Blue Mountain EAGLE Grant County’s newspaper since 1868 Wednesday, March 20, 2019 151st Year • No. 12 • 18 Pages • $1.00 FOREST PLAN BLUES BlueMountainEagle.com Architects present Innovation Gateway concepts Commercial greenhouse business faces hurdles By Richard Hanners Blue Mountain Eagle Forest Service withdraws Blue Mountains Forest Plan Revision By George Plaven EO Media Group A fter 15 years of planning, studies and which were released in June 2018 along with a joint negotiating with Eastern Oregon com- Environmental Impact Statement. The current forest munities, the U.S. Forest Service is plans, which were last updated in 1990, will remain scrap- in effect for now. p i n g “Many factors three revised land compounded to pro- management plans duce revised plans for the Malheur, that would be diffi - Umatilla and Wal- cult to implement,” lowa-Whitman French told Casa- national forests. massa in a statement. Collectively “While my review known as the Blue did not identify any Mountains Forest specifi c violations Plan Revision, the of law, regulation or documents contain policy, signifi cant guidelines for every- changes occurred The Eagle/ Richard Hanners over the 15-year time thing from grazing and timber harvest Chris French, brown plaid shirt, a Forest Service reviewing period of the planning to wilderness pro- offi cer, speaks at a Forest Plan objectors meeting at the process.” tections. While the Trowbridge Pavilion at the Grant County Fairgrounds on Nov. 27. Forest plans are plans did not autho- expected to be revised rize any specifi c projects, they did set goals and every 10-15 years to account for changes in the desired conditions for the forests — making them landscape and to keep up with the latest science. a lightning rod for controversy among industry and The Blue Mountains Forest Plan Revision has gone environmentalists. through multiple iterations and remains hotly con- Chris French, acting deputy chief of the Forest tested in the region. Service, has instructed Regional Forester Glenn See Forest, Page A18 Casamassa to withdraw the revised forest plans, Although the Innovation Gateway project in John Day could become an attrac- tion for visitors while ben- efi ting local residents, the business plan for the city’s commercial greenhouses might require more work. That was one of many takeaways from a special meeting of the John Day City Council held at the Grant County Regional Air- port and streamed live on March 12. Destination development Ken Pirie and Michael Zilis of the Walker Macy landscape architect fi rm in Portland presented several conceptual designs for the EO Media Group fi le photo See Concepts, Page A18 Clear path presented for new treatment plant Details presented for possible river restoration project By Richard Hanners Blue Mountain Eagle The Blue Mountains Forest Plan Revision has been withdrawn. 83-acre city-owned river- front project area, much of it brownfi eld properties. Project goals set from the beginning include creating a thriving destination, attract- ing investment and jobs, honoring John Day’s iden- tity and character, promot- ing a connected and healthy community, creating oppor- tunities for hiking and bik- ing, providing public access to the John Day River and Canyon Creek, construct- ing the Seventh Street exten- sion as a parkway with pocket parking, opening up the north side of the city for development and divert- ing traffi c from the Bridge Street river crossing to Pat- terson Bridge Road. A proposed main loop trail along the river and a network of other trails would connect the Innova- tion Gateway complex at the former Oregon Pine mill site to the Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site, the new The design for John Day’s new wastewater treat- ment plant has been given a green light, and there is a clear path forward for construction of a facility that will produce Class A reclaimed water, City Man- ager Nick Green announced March 12. In some ways, the proj- ect is the most critical to the city and the linchpin to other projects related to developing 83 acres of city- owned brownfi eld property along the John Day River — including even a possi- ble restoration project aimed at returning the river chan- nel to a more natural condi- tion while reducing fl ooding concerns. The design for the waste- water treat- ment plant was approved that very same day by the Oregon Nick Department Green of Environ- mental Quality, Green said during a special meeting at the Grant County Regional Airport. The council unan- imously approved a resolu- tion adopting a 2019 waste- water facilities plan update supporting the new plant. Green noted that the new treatment plant will take up 1 acre versus the 30-plus acres currently occupied by three sewage lagoons and a 70-year-old mechanical treatment plant. The lagoons are not the best use for riv- erfront property, Green said. The city will pursue $11 million in grants and loans to pay for construction of See Plant, Page A18 Is it the end of daylight saving time? Bill would end biannual clock change By Mark Miller Oregon Capital Bureau Whether they’re for standard time or daylight saving time, Oregonians are tired of changing their clocks twice every year. That’s the mes- sage state senators considering a time change in Oregon received last week. More than 50 people submitted written testimony or addressed the Senate Business and General Govern- ment Committee March 12 regard- ing Senate Bill 320. Only one wit- ness argued that Oregon should keep switching between standard and day- light time every March and Novem- “I JUST THINK IT’S A SMART THING TO DO, AND I THINK PEOPLE ARE JUST GRUMPY AND TIRED OF CHANGING THE CLOCK.” Rep. Bill Post, R-Keizer ber. The others said they want to get rid of the biannual change. The legislation would let voters settle the matter in November 2020. If voters approve the change, Oregon would switch to daylight saving time in March 2021 and stay there. “I just think it’s a smart thing to do, and I think people are just grumpy and tired of changing the clock,” said state Rep. Bill Post, R-Keizer, who is sponsoring the bill along with state Sen. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, Rep. John Lively, D-Springfi eld, and Rep. Mike Nearman, R-Independence. Public testimony backs up Post. Aloha resident Jonas Acres said, as a software engineer, changing between times makes his job much harder and can lead to errors. For example, he noted, the change to standard time in November means that one hour in the early morning is repeated every year. Most Oregonians are asleep by then, but for businesses and services that never sleep — Acres used hospital emergency rooms as an example — having two 1 a.m. hours can be a nightmare when tracking vital data. Those timekeeping issues can be very serious, even life-threatening, in some fi elds, Acres said. “We need to patch DST out of the current society,” Acres said. “SB 320 will let clocks do their jobs, tick- ing happily from one hour to the next in the monotonic progression ordained by heaven and the laws of thermodynamics.” Some submitting written testi- mony urged lawmakers to abandon daylight saving time and make stan- dard time year-round instead. “I am in the fourth generation of a family affl icted by SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), and it is already See DST, Page A18
