McCracken qualifi es for National High School Finals Rodeo
The
PAGE A10
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
151st Year • No. 19 • 18 Pages • $1.00
BlueMountainEagle.com
GRANTS WILL ASSESS, REPAIR GRANT COUNTY
SCHOOLS
The Eagle/Richard Hanners
A state grant will help Len’s Drug upgrade its
storefront on Main Street.
Expanding on
Main Street
Grant award will support
Len’s Drug remodel
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
Eagle photos/Angel Carpenter
Prairie City School students enjoy lunch on Tuesday in the cafeteria, which will be upgraded with a $2.5 million seismic grant.
Four schools receive assistance,
including $2.5M for Prairie City
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
F
our Grant County schools were
recently awarded Technical
Assistance Program grants from
Oregon Department of Educa-
tion’s Offi ce of School Facilities.
Three of the grants assess deferred
maintenance issues for school build-
ings and a fourth determines if seismic
upgrades are needed.
Prairie City, Monument, Grant and
Dayville school districts received word
on March 14 they’d received the TAP
grants.
Prairie City School District was also
recently awarded a $2.5 million grant
from the state’s Seismic Rehabilitation
Grant Program.
Monument School District
for $20,000, which addresses the current
physical condition of the buildings and
determines needed renovations; a Long-
Range Facility Plan grant for $25,000
to prepare for the future; and a Seismic
Assessment grant for $25,000 to deter-
mine the condition of district buildings
to withstand a signifi cant earthquake.
A fourth TAP grant is also available,
called the Environmental Hazard Assess-
ment, which checks school buildings for
mold, radon and asbestos.
School districts can apply for match-
ing grants through the Oregon School
Capital Improvement Matching Pro-
gram in order to complete the work rec-
ommended by professionals for the
long-range, facilities and environmental
hazard assessments.
Monument received three TAP grants,
including a Facilities Assessment grant
See Grants, Page A18
Prairie City fi fth- and sixth-graders learn
Mexican folk dances Tuesday in the school
gym, which will be upgraded with a $2.5
million grant.
“THESE GRANTS GIVE US THE OPPORTUNITIES TO HAVE PROFESSION-
ALS COME IN AND DEVELOP A SOUND PLAN AND FOR US TO BUDGET
FOR THE NEAR FUTURE AND THE LONG TERM.”
Superintendent/Principal Casey Hallgarth, Prairie City School District
One of downtown John Day’s key busi-
nesses will see a facelift and expansion
sooner than later, thanks to a major grant
award from the Oregon Parks and Recre-
ation Department.
Greg and Marla Armstrong were awarded
a $200,000 Main Street Revitalization grant
through OPRD’s Oregon Heritage division.
Thirty grants totaling $5.2 million were
awarded to Oregon Main Street Network
organizations. The projects included facade
improvements, housing projects and seismic
upgrades, with grants ranging from $56,731
to $200,000.
The grant application was submitted
by John Day on behalf of the Armstrongs
after the city council approved their submis-
sion Feb. 26. The Armstrongs will provide
$448,000 for the $648,000 project, which
calls for increasing retail space by about
4,500 square feet.
The Corner Cup building, which the
Armstrongs own, likely would be removed
as the store expands west. The drug and vari-
ety store has expanded into adjacent spaces
since 1977, which created unusable areas
that will be turned into uniform retail space
during the remodel.
The project also calls for improvements
to the Main Street storefront with updated
energy-effi cient windows and insulated
walls. Marla Armstrong told the Eagle she
wasn’t sure when the project would begin, as
architects were still working on plans.
Like many small businesses, the Arm-
strongs saved up a little each year toward the
project. The state grant would enable them to
move forward more quickly, she said.
A grant application was also submit-
ted for the 1188 Brewing Company, which
completed a major interior remodel in 2018.
They had requested $90,860 with a $23,500
match to create an integrated facade cover-
ing the original location and the company’s
expansion into adjacent space to the west.
John Day City Manager Nick Green had
noted at the Feb. 26 council meeting that
OPRD likely would limit awards to no more
than $200,000 per city.
Nine of the 30 projects that were awarded
Main Street Revitalization grants offered
matches over $200,000. The largest match
was $635,300 from the city of Woodburn
for a complete renovation of its city hall
building. The second largest was $525,000
for a major remodel of the Litch Building
in Enterprise. Len’s Drug’s match was the
third largest at $448,000.
911 phone tax bill awaits fate in Revenue Committee
Legislation sponsored
by Findley would
provide more funding
for dispatch centers
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
A bill that would double the
existing 75 cent fee on phone bills
to support 911 dispatch centers
across the state has seen consid-
erable support from law enforce-
ment and emergency groups as
well as urban and rural cities and
counties.
House Bill 2449 is sponsored
by Reps. Lynn Findley, R-Vale;
John Lively, D-Springfi eld; Pam
Marsh, D-Southern Jackson
County; and Greg Smith, R-Uma-
tilla, Morrow, Gil-
liam, Sherman and
Wasco counties.
The bill also
would
reduce
administration
fees collected by
Oregon Rep.
the Department of
Lynn Findley
Revenue from 1
percent to 0.5 per-
cent and collected by the Offi ce of
Emergency Management from 4
percent to 2 percent.
Rising costs
Supporters note that the phone
tax hasn’t increased in 24 years,
which puts a strain on rural coun-
ties with small populations. In
John Day, the minimum cost of
staffi ng a 911 center year-round
in 2015 was $445,000, but the
911 tax provided $248,982, leav-
ing the city, county and other tax-
ing jurisdictions to come up with
about $196,000 to fund the dis-
patch center.
Grant County voters in Novem-
ber 2017 turned down a local
option tax proposal intended to fi ll
the funding gap by 1,503 to 1,194.
The city of John Day then received
a $420,000 special appropriation
from the state legislature to help
cover the funding gap for the next
biennium while the city looked for
a long-term solution.
A 2018 intergovernmental
agreement between the county,
eight cities, one community and
three rural fi re districts established
a new agency to operate 911 dis-
patch in Grant County under an
Intergovernmental Council. The
See 911, Page A18
The Eagle/Richard Hanners
The logo for the Grant County Emergency
Communications Agency was created by
Grant Union High School senior Avery
Hughes for her senior project.