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.