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