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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (July 3, 2019)
Wednesday, July 3, 2019 151st Year • No. 27 • 18 Pages • $1.00 MyEagleNews.com Happy Independence Day FOURTH OF JULY EVENTS PLANNED ACROSS COUNTY | PAGE A3 The Blue Mountain EAGLE Grant County’s newspaper since 1868 The Eagle/Angel Carpenter BMW riders weave their way through curves on County Road 65. The turnoff from Highway 395, south of Canyon City, is also called Canyon Creek Lane. BMW riders rally, take in Grant County sights Motorcyclists make big donations locally By Angel Carpenter Blue Mountain Eagle BMW motorcyclists buzzed into town Thursday, gathering for the 41st Chief Joseph Rally at the Grant County Fairgrounds in John Day. The fairgrounds was the jump-off point for several scenic tours during the June 27-30 event sponsored by BMW Riders of Oregon. Bruce Choy of Redwood City, Califor- nia, who arrived Thursday afternoon, said it was his sixth time attending the event. He said the Silicon Valley is congested for a reason, and he enjoys leaving the traffic behind for the rally. His favorite route, he said, is simply driving his BMW R1150R from north- ern California to Burns, Seneca and on to John Day. “For two hours, I’d be riding and not see one vehicle,” he said. He recalled seeing a bicyclist in the Silvies Valley and waving, because it was the first human he’d passed in a while. The Eagle/Richard Hanners The Eagle/Richard Hanners Riders on their way to Logan Valley were greeted with bluebird skies during the BMW Riders of Oregon’s Chief Joseph Rally at the Grant County Fairgrounds in John Day on June 27-30. This year’s event was headed up by BMWRO President Alice LeBarron of Bend. She said 371 riders had preregistered for the rally, and she expected others to sign up at the gate. LeBarron said her first Chief Joseph event was in 1997 in Heppner, then she started attending regularly in 2012. What’s the best thing about the rally in John Day? “I hear it over and over: The com- munity is so welcoming,” she said. “We really enjoy coming here.” The BMW riders are well known for raising funds for local nonprofit organizations. Last year, they donated more than $20,000 to local organiza- tions. LeBarron said this year, they plan on donating all the proceeds of their 50/50 raffle to Juniper Arts Coun- cil in honor of the late John Fiedor of Dayville. Many of the motorcyclists enjoyed Court’s pro tem policy draws heated debate Mixed views expressed on how to appoint, compensate fill-ins Trip organizer Jay Bennett lays out riding plans during the BMW Riders of Oregon’s Chief Joseph Rally at the Grant County Fairgrounds in John Day on June 27-30. Fiedor’s tours in years past through the John Day Fossil Beds National Monu- ment, called “Geology Rocks!” as he led the group in his Corvair and gave an overview of the geological features seen in the National Monument’s Sheep Rock Unit. “I know the people just really enjoyed him as a person, and each year he donated the proceeds from the tour to the Juniper Arts Council,” LeBarron said. Opponents of cap and trade effectively pit urban and rural against each other Perception HB 2020 took from ruralites played significant role in bill dying By Aubrey Wieber, Claire Withycombe and Mark Miller By Richard Hanners Blue Mountain Eagle Oregon Capital Bureau Discussion about the legal process used to temporarily replace a county judge and whether court members should be compen- sated for extra work drew bitter and divisive comments during the Grant County Court’s June 26 meeting. At one point, Judge Scott Myers warned Judy Kerr, who initially raised the first issue with a letter to the court, that she could be evicted from the meeting and not allowed to return without an invitation. Both issues arose after Myers was unable to attend county court meetings in March and April because of serious health problems, hospitalization and surgery that coincided with countywide flood impacts. He also missed several budget committee meetings. The Eagle/Richard Hanners Grant County Judge Scott Myers addresses the issue of substituting a court member during a serious illness during the court’s June 26 meeting. Pro tem judge State statute currently calls for the gov- ernor’s office to appoint a temporary or pro tem county judge if the elected judge is incapacitated or unable to perform the See Court, Page A18 See Rally, Page A18 The debate on climate change appears to have deepened the gap between the liberal politics of Port- land and Eugene and the conservative politics of rural areas with natural resource and agricultural economies. The impacts of the fight over doomed House Bill 2020 aren’t fully clear yet. Legislators finished their work Sunday and head home to constituents with deeply divergent views of whether Oregon ought to limit carbon emissions. Cap-and-trade advocates said lawmakers and indus- try skillfully exploited the rural-urban divide, whip- ping up resentment in tradi- tionally conservative parts of the state and turning the climate issue into a light- ning rod. One of HB 2020’s chief architects, Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, said he tried to mitigate rural concerns. “Great care has been put into shielding rural Orego- nians from negative impacts from the bill, while creating investments that will breathe new life into their local economies,” Dembrow said. See Bill, Page A18
