A18
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Budget
Continued from Page A1
financial support for the
Grant County Economic
Development Office.
The city contributes to the
Grant County Emergency
Communications
Agency
for 911 dispatch at $10 per
police or fire call and pays
12.8 percent of the operating
deficit left after accounting
for state phone tax revenue.
The city is also in the first
year of a two-year operat-
ing agreement with Grant
School District 3 to provide a
school resource officer. The
district pays $45,000 and the
city pays about $55,000 for
this service, which enables
the city to provide a fourth
police officer at about 45
percent reduced cost, Green
said.
Ron Smith plans to retire
as John Day fire chief this
year, and the city plans to
create a new position to
replace him. The budget
calls for a combined public
works and fire chief posi-
tion to keep costs affordable,
Green said.
Swimming pool
One of the most talked
about changes in the city is
the possible sale of Gleason
Pool and construction of a
new pool. The city has been
“very rational and deliber-
ate” about the process, Green
said, establishing a steer-
ing committee and spending
more than six months assess-
ing options.
“We recognize the pool
is near and dear to the hearts
of a lot of people in the com-
munity,” Green said. “This is
also a very frugal area. We
like to own assets far and
beyond their typical lifespan
but do not like to pay taxes to
maintain those assets.”
The city sees the sale of
the city park next to the Kam
Wah Chung State Heritage
Site and Gleason Pool “as
a strategic opportunity and
one we are going to take seri-
ously,” Green said. The city’s
responsibility is to John Day
taxpayers who will end up
paying for the pool’s main-
tenance after 2020 if it’s not
replaced, he said.
Green said the city’s goal
is to establish a county service
district for residents within a
reasonable driving distance
of the pool. The new district
could issue operating lev-
ies or capital improvement
bonds and spread the pool’s
cost among all its users, rather
than just John Day.
Revenue and debt
With the transfer of 911
dispatch service to a new
independent agency, city
staff was reduced by 30 per-
cent to 12 full-time and three
part-time employees, Green
said. With assistance from
the Local Government Per-
sonnel Institute, most staff
received salary adjustments
that made John Day salaries
more competitive while pro-
viding staff with more room
for career growth, he said.
Green said he will present
ideas for new revenue sources
in the coming months. One
idea is to implement a tran-
sient room tax for John Day
that could be used to promote
recreation, tourism and eco-
nomic development.
Another idea is to sell city
land that is not in produc-
tive use at fair market value,
including a portion of the
industrial park next to the air-
port and a portion of the for-
mer Oregon Pine mill prop-
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
erty. The city will also look
at building and operating a
campground.
In terms of the city’s over-
all financial position, Green
noted the city “has been
operating at an incredibly
fast pace in terms of fund-
raising.” Not every fund has
been performing the way the
city would like, he said, but
the city’s overall financial
position is improving.
“We are making smart
investments, and we have
been proactive in evaluating
our decisions and re-evalu-
ating them when conditions
change,” he said.
Following
consolida-
tion of several loans through
Washington Federal, the city
now has four outstanding
debt obligations: $550,000
through 2030 in fire sta-
tion bonds, $493,000 with
27 payments remaining for
the purchase of the Oregon
Pine property, $2.1 million to
Washington Federal through
2022 and $57,000 in accrued
compensated absences.
Payments on the $350,000
Business Oregon loan to
build three greenhouses may
not start until the next fiscal
year, Green said.
ITEMS OF NOTE
Specific proposed budget items of note include:
• Electrical costs increase 10 percent across the board
• Insurance costs increase 15 percent across the board
• $379,380 cost for police personnel
• $73,484 cost for fire personnel
• $20,000 cost to remodel police offices after 911 dispatch move
• Chlorine/phosphates for water system increase 10 percent
• $115,000 set aside for water meter change-out
• $585,000 in revenue from water sales
• Heating costs for sewer increase 10 percent
• $570,000 in revenue for sewer service
• $72,036 in revenue from Canyon City for sewer service
• $83,192 cost for greenhouse personnel
• $65,900 cost for materials and services for greenhouse
• $14,500 cost for propane for greenhouse
• $43,250 in revenue from sale of greenhouse greens
• $43,250 in revenue from sale of greenhouse vine produce
• $276,612 net working capital balance available for street fund
• $162,000 in revenue for street fund from federal forest pay-
ment
• $75,000 cost to improve and re-deck bridge at Oregon Pine
• $200,000 cost to improve Charolais Heights intersection
• $22,280 set aside for fire truck replacement
• $100,000 carried forward for improvements to the shop at the
Oregon Pine site, as the old city shop will be torn down along
with the sewer treatment plant
Wolf
Continued from Page A1
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
Grant Union High School drama club members and directors Kathy Sherwood, far left, and
Angela Smith, far right, gather at the close of ‘The Complete Tale of the American Civil War
(Abridged)’ on April 10 at the school. Front row, from left, Fallen Bolman, Athena Tipton,
Sammi Buckhaults, Emilie Updegrave, Sierra Cates and Maria Kerr; back row, Sherwood,
Cierra Wyllie, Ellie Justice, Erika Dickens, Katie Johnson, Alyssa Hoffman, Logan Namitz, Will
Carpenter, Ashleigh Ostberg and Smith.
Play
Continued from Page A1
Sherwood said several
actors took on new roles
at the last minute, due to
“unforeseen circumstances”
and performed with great
skill.
“They worked so hard,
and we are very proud,” she
said.
The play was their final
performance of the school
year. The club also pre-
sented
Shakespeare’s
“Twelfth Night” in January.
Smith said the high
school actors are looking
forward to their annual trip
to Ashland, April 25-27, to
attend three plays.
The group will see
Shakespeare’s “As You
Like It,” the musical “Hair-
spray” and “Mother Road,”
a continuation of Stein-
beck’s “Grapes of Wrath.”
“We’re excited to pro-
vide our high school drama
club students with the
opportunity to experience
exceptional theater,” Smith
said.
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Wild, Defenders of Wild-
life, Cascadia Wildlands
and the Center for Biolog-
ical Diversity — pulled out
of the talks, describing the
negotiations as flawed and
skewed in favor of killing
wolves rather than priori-
tizing nonlethal forms of
deterrence.
Steve Pedery, conser-
vation director for Ore-
Contributed photo/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
gon Wild, said the group A new draft state wolf management plan has been released.
remains concerned about
the draft plan, and criti- carnivore and furbearer pro-
Sristi Kamal, Oregon
cized Gov. Kate Brown in a gram coordinator, said wolf senior representative for
management is a polarizing Defenders of Wildlife, said
statement.
“With this wolf plan, topic that makes finding a the plan does not represent a
Brown continues to ignore consensus difficult.
consensus or compromise.
science and the public
“But regardless of peo-
“It’s been over three
while keeping Oregon on ple’s views on wolves, the years since the wolf plan
an uninterrupted march to wolf population in Ore- was due for an update, and
wolf hunting and trapping,” gon is growing in size, the each iteration has gotten
number of packs and packs worse for wolves,” Kamal
Pedery said.
According to ODFW, reproducing, while expand- said. “The latest updates
the plan does not call for ing its range,” Broman said. to the plan — which make
Jerome Rosa, executive it easier to kill wolves in
any controlled wolf hunts,
and any such proposal director of the Oregon Cat- response to livestock pre-
would require commission tlemen’s Association, said dations and declines in
approval through a separate ranchers are glad to see the ungulate populations — are
planning and hunt develop- draft plan is up for review, the predetermined outcome
ment process.
and look forward to the of a process that only fur-
thers the agency’s agenda.”
Derek Broman, ODFW process.
Don’t get left behind, call today! Kim Kell 541-575-0710