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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (May 29, 2019)
The Blue Mountain EAGLE HOME & GARDEN PAGES A6-A9 Grant County’s newspaper since 1868 Wednesday, May 29, 2019 151st Year • No. 22 • 20 Pages • $1.00 BlueMountainEagle.com REMEMBERING THE FALLEN Contributed photo/Thomas Dekany Two rainbows shine over the fl ags placed for Memorial Day at Prairie City Cemetery. Dayville School bond passes Positions decided throughout Grant County County appoints Raschio to steering committee By Richard Hanners Blue Mountain Eagle Voters in Dayville School District 16J approved a $700,000 general obligation bond to renovate school facil- ities by 77-44. The school board unani- mously approved putting the bond to the voters on Jan. 8. The cost of the bond was esti- mated to be $168 per year for a $100,000 home. The bond will be matched by an Oregon School Capital Improvement Match grant to raise $1.4 million altogether. Needs the school board hopes to address include roof repairs to the main building, which was built in 1924, and electrical upgrades to the ele- mentary school, which was built in 1953. Structural repairs to the gym could be paid for through a seismic upgrade grant that the school board Court reacts to ideas on pool’s future By Richard Hanners Blue Mountain Eagle The Eagle/Richard Hanners A bow in the ridgeline of the Dayville School resulted from the weight of four layers of composition shingles topped with a layer of sheet metal, according to School Superintendent Kathryn Hedrick. will apply for later this year. The school district already has received a $25,000 seis- mic assessment grant. Other county election results: • Blue Mountain Hospi- tal District, director at-large: Amy Kreger 929, write-in 10 • Blue Mountain Hospital District, director position 3: Dotty Parsons 911, write-in 12 • Blue Mountain Hospital District, director position 4: Nick Stiner 908, write-in 14 • Blue Mountain Hospital District, director position 5: Levi Manitsas 931, write-in 7 • Dayville Cemetery Dis- trict, director at-large: Merle Metcalf 89, write-in 0 • Dayville School District 16J, director position 3: Tina Rhoda 77, write-in 0 • Dayville School District See Bond, Page A10 The Grant County Court requested more diversity on a steer- ing committee studying options for a future pool in John Day at their May 22 meeting. They also asked for more representation by communities outside of John Day. This was the fi rst time discussion about the pool’s future was formally brought to the court. John Day City Manager Nick Green updated the court on the pool’s history and problems, the state’s inter- est in acquiring park land around the Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site, including Gleason Pool, The Eagle/Richard Hanners John Day City Manager Nick Green listens to comments about a future pool during the Grant County Court meeting May 22. and efforts by the city to develop options for a replacement pool. Proposed district Public swimming pools don’t last a hundred years, Green said, and sale of the aging pool would provide needed money toward construction of a new pool. No decision has been reached with the state regarding the sale, he noted. The city of John Day, which owns the pool, hired consultants and acquired land to replace the city park land if it’s sold to the state, Green explained. A site at the northwest corner of the Seventh Street Com- plex has been chosen as a location for a new pool, and the city is applying for two planning grants to fur- ther develop options for a new pool. Pools have gotten very expensive, Green said, and the city didn’t want to get overextended fi nancially and be forced to close the pool in the future. The city See Pool, Page A10 Broadband coalition formalizes partnership with Ortelco Each applying for federal funding, which would connect all cities to network By Richard Hanners Blue Mountain Eagle A memorandum of understand- ing between the city of John Day and the Oregon Telephone Corpora- tion to promote broadband service in Grant County was hammered out by key offi cials May 21. John Day, as the lead agency for the Grant County Digital Network Coalition, will contribute up to $1 million toward construction of fi ber optic lines proposed in Ortelco’s USDA ReConnect grant applica- tion. The city received a $1.8 million legislative appro- priation for broad- band infrastructure in 2017. Ortelco general manager DeeDee Kruser and area Marcus manager Marcus Bott Bott attended the joint coalition and city council meeting May 21. The MOU states that the city and Ortelco “wish to work together to promote their mutual interests in extending their networks and pro- viding high speed broadband service to unserved and underserved areas” of the county. The coalition is seeking a USDA Community Connect grant to fund fi ber optic infrastructure linking Seneca to a major trunk line in Burns and to provide broadband service throughout Seneca. Under the MOU, Ortelco will apply for a ReConnect grant to fund 80 miles of fi ber optic lines from Sen- eca to John Day and DeeDee from Mt. Vernon to Kluser Long Creek, Mon- ument, Kimberly and Spray. Broadband service from John Day to Mt. Vernon would be provided through Ortelco’s existing infrastructure. Upon notice that Ortelco has been awarded the ReConnect grant, John Day and Ortelco will enter into a negotiated service agreement in which Ortelco will provide broad- band service to customers and oper- ate the network. The network will be capable of providing gigabit speed internet service, the MOU states. The specifi c terms of the service agreement, conditions of the net- work operation and how the city will be compensated for its investment will be included in the separate ser- vice agreement, the MOU states. The coalition’s board and the city council each approved an amended version of the MOU, but the city had not heard back from Ortelco, Green told the Eagle on May 22. If more changes are needed, the MOU will be brought back to the city council on May 28, he said If the coalition is awarded the Community Connect grant and Ortelco is awarded the ReConnect grant, suffi cient funding should be available to link all the cities in the county to a single broadband net- work with connections to outside trunk lines to the south, east and west.
