PROSPECTOR SOFTBALL TEAM RANKED FIRST IN STATE
The
PAGE B1
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
County
approves
Second
Amendment
protection
resolution
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Grant County Court took
a stance on protecting gun rights
by unanimously approving a
Second Amendment preserva-
tion resolution at their April 24
meeting.
Unlike Second Amendment
measures in other Oregon coun-
ties, the Grant County measure
does not create civil penalties
for businesses or offi cials that
infringe on the right to bear arms.
Commissioner Jim Ham-
sher said the court chose to take
the step as a resolution and not
an ordinance because there may
be some legal issues, and he’d
rather see other counties bear the
brunt of defending the language
in court.
Hamsher said he wants every-
thing the court does from now
on to be capable of withstanding
legal challenges in court. Ordi-
nances that cannot withstand
legal challenge don’t do any-
thing for the county’s residents,
he said.
He said he expects to see sim-
ilar Second Amendment ordi-
nances in Oregon to be chal-
lenged. If an ordinance is
successfully challenged in court,
a complex repeal process must
take place, he said.
Commissioner Sam Palmer
said Second Amendment pres-
ervation ordinances across Ore-
gon were likely written so that
if one is challenged, they’re all
challenged.
The point of passing the res-
olution was to let the people of
Grant County know that the court
supports their Second Amend-
ment rights, Hamsher said.
The four-page resolution rec-
ognizes the language of the U.S.
Constitution’s Second Amend-
ment and Oregon Constitution’s
Article 1 Section 27, both of
which recognize the right of citi-
zens to keep and bear arms.
The resolution states that “the
criminal misuse of fi rearms is
due to criminals that do not obey
laws and thus is not a reason to
deny the Constitutional right to
keep and bear arms by law-abid-
ing citizens.”
Furthermore, “the Grant
County Court recognizes that
the fi rst and last protectors of the
United States Constitution are
the people of the United States.”
The resolution cites U.S.
Supreme Court rulings in District
See Court, Page A12
151st Year • No. 18 • 20 Pages • $1.00
BlueMountainEagle.com
Harvey urges Grant County to follow
Baker County’s lead on coordination
Supporters saw progress
with Forest Plan
Revision withdrawal
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
Baker County and its commis-
sion chairman, Bill Harvey, made a
mark in public lands management
in 2015 when it established a posi-
tion demanding that federal and
state agencies coordinate with local
governments.
Harvey, who fi rst learned about
the coordination requirement from
Idaho attorney Fred Kelly Grant,
now helps other counties learn how
to successfully negotiate public land
management through the coordina-
tion process.
Harvey delivered this message in
a sometimes emotional meeting at
the Grant County Regional Airport
on April 25.
According to Grant and Harvey,
coordination is a congressionally
authorized process requiring agen-
cies meet in a gov-
ernment-to-govern-
ment dialogue in
order to reach con-
sistency
between
local and state or
federal land manage-
ment planning.
Bill Harvey
Harvey
noted,
when he fi rst came
to Baker County in the early 1970s,
six timber mills operated. There are
none now, he said. The county saw
good forest management and had
good roads and good schools back
then, he said.
What changed, he asked: Did the
county run out of trees or the abil-
ity to manage forests? No, it was a
change in philosophy by govern-
ment, he said, and the change came
from people who don’t live here.
In terms of wildfi re hazards, the
forests get worse every year, Har-
vey said. It’s not because of climate
change, he said, but increasing fuel
loading caused by forest manage-
ment policies.
See Harvey, Page A12
Eagle photos/Richard Hanners
The latest addition at the Kam Wah Chung Heritage Site is a cast-iron monitor once used for hydraulic placer mining in Grant County.
Another BIG YEAR forecast
for KAM WAH CHUNG
New additions, archaeological fi nds add to allure
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
T
he Kam Wah Chung State Heritage
Site is on track to add 1,000 more vis-
itors each year, with about 9,000 vis-
itors expected this year, curator Don
Merritt said.
While this might be good news for the local
tourist economy, it’s mixed news for the Ore-
gon Parks & Recreation Department, which
is concerned about wear and tear on the small
historical general store and herbal medicine
shop. Plans are being made for a new inter-
pretive center to help deal with the burgeon-
ing visitor numbers, but its construction could
depend on the results of archaeological sur-
veys in the surrounding area that was once
John Day’s Chinatown.
Meanwhile, documentaries about Kam
Wah Chung that will appear on the Chinese
and North American versions of the Discov-
ery Channel sometime this fall, along with
promotional efforts by Prof. Zhonzhen Zhao,
who stars in the Chinese production and sits on
the Chinese tourism board, are expected to sig-
nifi cantly boost tourist numbers in 2020, Mer-
ritt said.
Don Merritt,
curator at the
Kam Wah Chung
State Heritage
Site in John Day,
with a scrapbook
containing local
Chinese history.
It was made
by Charlie and
Cecille Lewis
and was recently
donated to the
museum.
See Forecast, Page A12
Coalition joins Ortelco for broadband grant
Successful grants could
provide broadband to every
incorporated city in the county
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
A maturing public-private partnership between
Oregon Telephone Corp. and the Grant County
Digital Network Coalition may be the answer to
acquiring the funding needed to increase broad-
band access in Grant County.
The coalition’s board recently approved the idea
of submitting a joint grant application with Ortelco
as a way to strengthen its position after failing to
secure a $3 million federal grant last year.
The coalition will submit another application
for a $3 million Community Connect grant through
the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but the grant
area has been changed to the Burns to Seneca area,
including running fi ber throughout the small city.
The coalition had also planned to apply for a
USDA ReConnect grant to run fi ber from Seneca
to John Day, while Ortelco had planned to apply
for a ReConnect grant to run fi ber from Mt. Vernon
The Eagle/Richard Hanners
From left, John Day City Manager Nick Green
and Ortelco General Manager DeeDee Kluser
listen to discussion about broadband grant
applications during the Grant County Court’s
April 24 meeting.
to Long Creek and possibly Monument.
The plan is now to join forces for a combined
ReConnect grant with the goal of obtaining $8 mil-
lion, John Day City Manager Nick Green said. If
successful, that would be enough to run fi ber from
Seneca to John Day and from Mt. Vernon as far as
Kimberly and Spray.
If the Community Connect application is also
successful, the $11 million in total grant funding
could be enough to construct two more fi ber trunk
lines into Grant County in addition to Ortelco’s
line from the east — one from the major fi ber line
in Burns and another from Ortelco’s infrastructure
in Central Oregon.
That would not only increase internet capacity
and redundancy but also ensure broadband access
to every incorporated city in the county.
The coalition’s contribution to the required
match would come from the $1.8 million state
appropriation the city of John Day received in
2017. The coalition has spent some of that funding
on planning and engineering as well as for running
fi ber from the hub in the John Day Fire Hall to the
Grant Education Service District offi ce and from
the Seneca School to the Seneca City Hall.
Ortelco would be the primary internet provider
for the countywide network — running fi ber to
homes and businesses and handling service calls
and billing.
See Grant, Page A12