NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Forest
Continued from Page A1
A draft version of the
plans was unveiled in 2014
and received so much back-
lash the local Forest Service
offices decided to re-engage
with the public over mul-
tiple years to develop new
alternatives.
Lumber companies wor-
ried the amount of timber
harvest allowed under the
plans would be insufficient
to maintain existing mills;
ranchers worried about
restrictions on grazing; local
cities and counties worried
about the buildup of forest
fuels driving larger, more
destructive wildfires; and
residents worried about the
closing of more roads, lim-
iting forest access.
Environmental groups,
too, worried about the
increasing fragmentation
of forest habitat for vulner-
able wildlife species, such
Concepts
Continued from Page A1
Hill Family City Park, a trail
system at the Davis Creek
Park, downtown John Day,
the Seventh Street Com-
plex and the Grant County
Fairgrounds.
Many of the designs are
conceptual at this point.
Potential features could
include a botanical garden
in the area near the yellow
sawmill building that peri-
odically floods, a new camp-
ground at the site of the exist-
ing wastewater treatment
plant once it’s removed,
parking and open space for
an event site at the former
planer building and even
beaches constructed at sev-
eral locations along the river.
Greenhouse business
Matt Craigie, a proj-
ect manager at ECONorth-
west in Portland, outlined
some of the study topics for
a comprehensive economic
development strategy. The
CEDS will be a roadmap of
actions to achieve economic
goals, he said, a playbook of
actions and tactics for lead-
ers to use for the next five
years.
The three study areas
as wolves, birds and endan-
gered fish.
The latest “preferred
alternative” for the Blue
Mountains Forest Plans
called for thinning up to 33
percent of dry upland for-
ests to improve health and
resiliency, creating up to
1,173 new jobs in forest
products, livestock and rec-
reation, and $59.5 million
in added income.
The plans would have
also doubled timber har-
vest across the three for-
ests from a recent average
of 101 million board feet to
205 million board feet, and
identified 242,800 animal
unit months of livestock
grazing.
An animal unit month, or
AUM, describes the amount
of forage one cow and her
calf, one horse or five sheep
or goats would eat during a
month.
Still, the plans received
approximately 350 formal
objections, and more than
ECONorthwest and other
consultants will look at for
the CEDS are commercial
greenhouses, housing stock
and marketing and branding
for tourism, he said.
Export-oriented hydro-
ponic businesses are com-
plex but possible, Craigie
said. They have a high fail-
ure rate, but that risk could
be reduced. High costs typ-
ically include labor and
energy, but in the case of
John Day, the nearest export
markets are three hours
away, which drives up trans-
portation costs, he said.
In addition to addressing
those issues, the consultants
will look at how to market
produce and whether Ore-
gon State University can use
the future greenhouses for
research and education. The
greenhouses now under con-
struction at the Innovation
Gateway project site will
produce vegetables for local
consumption.
Craigie said the local
housing supply is con-
strained to some degree by
floodplain regulations and
steep hills, but more import-
ant is the need for develop-
ing expensive infrastructure
to serve new building lots.
The consultants will con-
tinue to study those issues,
he said.
300 people voiced concerns
during each of five commu-
nity meetings in November
and December.
French said the plans do
not “fully account for the
unique social and economic
needs of local communities
in the area.”
“The resulting plans are
very difficult to understand,
and I am concerned that
there will be ongoing con-
fusion and disagreement as
to how each revised plan is
to be implemented,” French
said.
In the coming months,
the Forest Service will
reach out again to partners
to figure out next steps for
management plans in the
three forests. Casamassa,
the regional forester based
in Portland, said he is confi-
dent they can find common
ground for long-term sus-
tainable management.
“I look forward to join-
ing local and state officials,
partners, tribes and mem-
Plant
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the facility, Green said. Con-
struction could begin in
spring 2020.
Plant hurdles
The Anderson Perry
engineering firm in La
Grande has been studying
the project for 12 years,
senior engineer Brett Moore
said. The deteriorating con-
dition of the aging facility
and newer, more stringent
environmental regulations
add to the difficulties.
A significant geographic
hurdle is the steep terrain
that confines the cities of
John Day and Canyon City,
but there are also numer-
ous bureaucratic hurdles, he
noted.
The new plant will pro-
duce more Class A reclaimed
water than can be uti-
lized by the city, especially
during winter. There were
concerns that dumping the
warmer treated water into
the river could adversely
impact the total maximum
daily load for temperature,
Moore explained.
A recent court decision
on TMDLs, however, has
created confusion for the
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
bers of the public to explore
how we can best work
together in shared stew-
ardship to pursue common
objectives,”
Casamassa
said.
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden,
R-Oregon, praised the
Trump administration for
listening to concerns raised
by people in forested com-
munities. Walden said a
common refrain from the
public at meetings was that
the government was not
listening.
“Despite repeated efforts
to provide input, local
elected officials and the
people they represent have
repeatedly felt ignored by
the process and proposals
the Forest Service put for-
ward,” he said. “While it is
unfortunate to have to begin
again, I’m hopeful we can
move forward in a man-
ner that ensures the needs
of our local communities
are finally being heard and
reflected in the plan.”
state and federal agencies
that will determine regu-
lations for the new plant,
Moore said. In a nutshell,
the agencies currently lack
the information and frame-
work to make a decision
on the new plant’s opera-
tion, he said. A temporary
agreement has been reached
allowing the city to dump
the Class A reclaimed water
into the existing lagoons,
Moore said.
Moore also described
a state law requiring new
treatment plants be sized
by official population esti-
mates, which for John Day
and Canyon City are nega-
tive. Asking a city to make
a large investment in a plant
that will not accommodate
growth is unrealistic, he
said, and Anderson Perry
continues to debate this
issue with state officials.
River project
It will take about two
years before the wastewa-
ter treatment plant is oper-
ating. That’s enough time
to complete design and per-
mitting work for a plan to
rework decades of gold
mine dredging disturbance
and restore the John Day
River to a more natural con-
dition, according to Gardner
Johnston, a hydrologist with
Hello Grant County,
DST
Continued from Page A1
hard enough to get up on gray
winter mornings,” Newberg
resident Carol Kelley testi-
fied. “I hate to think of sun-
rise times an hour later all
winter long than they are
currently. Plus as an educa-
tor, I don’t like the idea of
schoolchildren walking to
school in darkness through-
out our four to five months
of fall and winter before
lighter mornings return.”
Thatcher said that her
staff crunched the num-
bers for locations through-
out Oregon and found that,
if daylight saving time were
adopted for the whole year,
the latest sunrise in Oregon
— on the winter solstice —
would come around 9 a.m.
on the north coast.
Despite its name, stan-
dard time is only in effect
from November to March
— less than half the year.
Inter-Fluve of Hood River.
Johnston presented an
aerial photo illustrating
the extent of dredge tail-
ings covering much of the
John Day city area in 1939.
He said he was unable to
find earlier photos or maps
showing the original river
channel, but he believes a
normal meandering river
was left in a straightened
ditch when the miners
finished.
That kind of channel
does not allow for the sea-
sonal flooding needed
by riparian habitat and
lacked the deep pools and
shade needed by fish. The
goal is to return sinuos-
ity to the river and create a
lower elevation floodplain
along the north side of the
river.
That area would flood
seasonally but remain dry in
summertime for trails and
recreation.
Benefits would include
reduced flood impacts to
urban areas, new floodplain
surfaces that would better
mimic natural river condi-
tions while providing mul-
tiple recreational uses, con-
structed wetlands that could
be used for city stormwater
treatment, improved access
for fishing or recreation and
enhanced values for neigh-
boring properties.
Channel designs
Local resident John Mor-
ris asked if the slower-mov-
ing river water would
get hotter in summertime
without shade, and Mark
Croghan, a hydrologist with
Who is ready for spring? Well, I know I
am! I am really enjoying this 50 degree
sunny day! Almost all of the snow is
gone.
Speaking of snow, did you see our
Snowman Contest on our Facebook
page? We had 10 fabulous entries! First
place ($100 in Grant County Greenbacks)
went to Eliza and Presley Harper, second
($50 in Greenbacks) went to Meredith
Thomas and third ($25 in Greenbacks)
went to Jamison and Graham Connor.
Other contestants were Owen
Armstrong, Noah Cobb, Sydney,
Brandon and Bailey McCracken, Quinn
Cherry, Joelene Floyd, Blake Sandor, and
Cornerstone Youth. Thanks for
participating! If you haven’t picked up
your prize, please come to the Chamber
office and get it. We have something for
everyone who participated.
We will be having some photo contests
coming up, so start taking pictures! Some
of the categories are: hiking, biking,
sunsets, water, landscape and fun! If you
haven’t liked our page on Facebook,
type in Grant County, Oregon Chamber
of Commerce and like us now!
Our March Chamber meeting and no-
host luncheon will be Thursday, March
21st. The board meets at 10:30 a.m. at
the Chamber office for their business
meeting and the luncheon is at noon at
the Outpost. This month’s speaker will be
Peggy Murphy, Curator of the Grant
County Historical Museum. She will be
sharing information about the Passport to
Fun during Spring Break and what’s been
happening at the Grant County Historical
Museum.
We would like to welcome Stacie Bailey,
Financial Advisor with Edward Jones,
Riverside Home Park, and Come Ride
with Us Maps as new Chamber members.
We would like to welcome Benny Santos,
the new owner of the John Day Dairy
Queen, to Grant County; stop in and say
hello to Benny.
Our billboard has been installed, so if
you’re in the Ontario area, be sure and
look for it.
Did you hear that Parmalee is going to
be the Headliner for the 110th Grant
County Fair August 16th? You can buy
your tickets now at Eventbrite.com. Great
job to fair manager Mindy Winegar!
Thanks to that switch,
during the winter, the sun
rises earlier in the morning,
but it sets earlier as well.
Aileen Kaye, a Turner
resident, told senators that
keeping daylight saving
time all year would make
life easier for her.
“I just would love more
daylight in the evenings,”
Kaye said. “We have
horses, and they can stay
out later. We can clean their
stalls in the daylight. It’s
wonderful.”
Marilyn Grendele wrote
to the committee, for elderly
Oregonians like her, “more
daylight in the evening frees
us to go out and not fear
driving home in the dark.”
Rebecca Gladstone of
Eugene said she just wants
to see a uniform time — for
the whole year, and for the
whole West Coast, including
Washington, California and
British Columbia — whether
it’s standard time or daylight
time.
the Bureau of Reclamation,
asked about the stability of
the new constructed chan-
nel during floods.
Johnston explained that
channel design and reveg-
etation would address tem-
perature issues. He also
acknowledged that the proj-
ect was in an urban area
and not a headwaters area,
where a river could run
wild. The project also will
be designed to maintain the
functionality of the diver-
sion dam near the former
Oregon Pine sawmill build-
ing, he said.
Inter-Fluve came up with
the river restoration pro-
posal based on the Oxbow
project they had done on
the Middle Fork of the
John Day River, Green told
the Eagle. The river resto-
ration project would be paid
for with external non-city
funds, with estimates rang-
ing from $2.5-3 million,
depending on the scope of
the project, he said.
Once approved, con-
struction of 3,000 feet of
meandering channel could
be completed in one season
or in phases, Johnston said.
Green noted that unusual
objects have been used for
rip-rapping the river, includ-
ing an automobile body.
Future
work
could
include study and permit-
ting for integrating rehabili-
tation of the sewage lagoons
into the restoration project,
a geotechnical study of the
stability of subsurface gold
dredging areas and a hydro-
logic engineering feasibility
study.
Monday - Thursday
7am- 6pm
Friday 8am - 5pm
Mendy Sharpe FNP
Apppointments
available
106279
A18
Tammy Bremner
Manager, Grant County Chamber
of Commerce
100004
110108