NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
A3
City council updated on John Day projects
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
Anyone following John
Day news knows the city
is working hard to promote
economic
development
through a long list of proj-
ects, most of which require
significant grant funding.
City Manager Nick
Green updated the coun-
cil on this list at the request
of Mayor Ron Lundbom
at the July 9 council meet-
ing. Six projects are in the
“close out” phase, nine are
in the “process” phase and
six more are awaiting noti-
fication of grant award deci-
sions, Green said.
Closing projects
• Garden produce is
growing in the city’s com-
mercial greenhouses, but
glass panels need to be
installed for the showroom
and additional exhaust fans
will be installed later in July.
The city will make the final
payment to EuroMex upon
acceptance of the facility,
Green said.
• While a countywide
broadband effort will con-
tinue for many more years,
final engineering and accep-
tance for an optical fiber
that was run from the net-
work’s hub in the fire hall
to the Grant County Educa-
tion Service District build-
ing was completed June 27.
• Transition of 911 emer-
gency dispatch service from
the city to an independent
agency is mostly completed.
Final payments to Centu-
ryLink must go through the
state Office of Emergency
Management.
• The final draft of an eco-
nomic opportunity assess-
ment by Johnson Economics
was submitted June 28 and
needs to be adopted by the
council in August.
• The final deliverables
for a Comprehensive Eco-
nomic Development Strat-
egy by EcoNorthwest are
due by the end of July. The
project will be adopted by
the council in August.
• The final area plan
drafted under a $174,150
state Transportation Growth
Management
grant
is
expected by the end of July,
with formal adoption by the
council in August.
Projects in process
• Stakeholders for a new
public pool met with the
Grant County Court and
the Special District Associ-
ation of Oregon’s advisory
committee in June. Pending
grant decisions by the Ore-
gon Department of Parks
and Recreation, planning
will continue in earnest in
Contributed photo
John Day agricultural project leader Matt Manitsas,
center front, leads a tour of John Day’s new commercial
greenhouses during the Regional Economic Diversification
Summit in John Day on June 11.
October and a ballot mea-
sure for public funding will
be prepared for the May
2020 election. Negotiations
for the sale of city park land
near the Kam Wah Chung
State Historic Site and the
Gleason Pool are ongoing.
• Initial survey work for
the engineering of a new
wastewater treatment plant
is completed. Phase 1 of pre-
liminary design engineering
should be completed in Sep-
tember, with Phase 2 com-
pleted by December and
Phase 3 completed by Sep-
tember 2020.
• A federal disaster dec-
laration was made July 9 for
damages during this spring’s
flooding. Requests for pub-
lic assistance are due by
Aug. 9.
• Property line adjust-
ments are being processed
between the city and neigh-
bors of the former Oregon
Pine mill site and for prop-
erty owners on Boulder
Lane along the future Davis
Creek trail system.
• Bids for construction
of Phase 1 of the John Day
River trail system were
approved June 25. Construc-
tion is scheduled to begin in
July and be completed by
August.
• Funding and an inter-
governmental
agreement
with the county for the Cha-
rolais Heights intersec-
tion project were approved
in June. Project design and
engineering continues. Con-
struction is expected in late
2019 or spring 2020 pend-
ing an award decision for a
large federal BUILD grant
the city will submit in July.
• Funding and contracts
have been approved for a
Main Street Revitalization
grant for the Len’s Drug
remodeling project. Further
progress is in the hands of
the store’s owners.
• Bids were received for
purchase of the city-owned
Weaver Building on June
25. The council will meet in
executive session July 23 to
review the proposals.
• The bid for a fiber cable
run from the fire hall down
Canyon Boulevard to First
Avenue North and on to city
hall was awarded and awaits
final acceptance.
Pending projects
• Awarding of a $653,453
integrated park system and
pool planning grant through
the Oregon Department of
Parks and Recreation could
be decided in September,
with notice to proceed made
in October.
• A decision on a federal
ReConnect grant application
submitted by Oregon Tele-
phone Corp. that could fund
running fiber cable across
northwest Grant County
could be made in August.
The city has committed $1
million to back this grant
application in a partnership
with Ortelco.
• A decision on a $3 mil-
lion federal Community
Connect grant to run fiber
cable from major trunk line
in Burns to Seneca could be
made in November. Together
with the ReConnect grant,
the funding chould bring
broadband to Grant Coun-
ty’s eight cities.
• The deadline to submit
an application for a large
federal BUILD grant for
new road construction in
John Day was July 15. An
award decision will be made
in December.
• Scoping for improve-
ments to the planer shed at
the former Oregon Pine mill
site was approved by the
council in June. Applica-
tions for funding from the
Ford Family Foundation are
due by this fall.
• Applications for a
brownfield
redevelop-
ment grant from the federal
Environmental Protection
Agency for improvements
to a portion of the former
Oregon Pine mill site can be
submitted in 2020.
Grant County approved for federal disaster assistance
Spring flood
damages in six
counties estimated
at $8.2 million
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
Eagle file photo
Sand bags were stationed at the Nugget Street bridge on April 19 as Canyon Creek threatened
to run over its banks. Nugget Street has since reopened.
Several areas in East-
ern Oregon received record
to near-record rainfall over
a 48-hour period that coin-
cided with snowmelt and
caused rivers, creeks and
streams to overflow their
banks.
Several
SNO-
TEL gauges in the moun-
tains recorded 6-12 inches
of snowmelt runoff during
April.
In Grant County, the John
Day River backed up at Pic-
ture Gorge, flooding ranches
counties filed a joint prelim-
inary damage assessment
with the Federal Emergency
Management Administra-
tion. The total came to $8.2
million.
Sens. Ron Wyden and
Jeff Merkley and Reps. Greg
Walden and Peter DeFazio
wrote to Trump in support of
Gov. Kate Brown’s request
for a presidential major
disaster declaration for the
counties.
Estimated
damages
included $5.3 million for
roads and bridges; $1.3 mil-
lion for utilities; $534,125 for
emergency protective mea-
sures; $425,000 for water
control facilities; $317,840
for parks; $154,675 for
debris removal; and $15,000
for public buildings.
In addition, the Oregon
Department of Transporta-
tion requested emergency
relief through the Federal
Highway
Administration
for damage to major trans-
portation networks. The
ODOT estimate totaled $3.7
million.
Monday - Thursday
7am- 6pm
Friday 8am - 5pm
Mendy Sharpe FNP
Apppointments
available
128879
A federal disaster dec-
laration for six counties in
Oregon opens up the oppor-
tunity for federal assistance
to supplement state and
local recovery efforts.
President Donald Trump
issued the declaration on
July 9. The declaration
applies to Grant, Curry,
Douglas, Linn, Umatilla and
Wheeler counties for areas
affected by severe storms,
flooding, landslides and
mudslides from April 6-21.
A federal disaster dec-
laration allows local gov-
ernments to be eligible for
loans, insurance relief and
other assistance.
According to a report by
Daniel Stoelb, of the Oregon
Office of Emergency Man-
agement, an unusually wet
period occurred over Ore-
gon during the April time
period, driven by powerful
west-southwest winds laden
with Pacific moisture.
for several miles east. High-
way 26 shoulders in Picture
Gorge were eroded by the
flooding river.
Floodwater from the
South Fork of the John Day
River covered portions of
Dayville, and the John Day
River overflowed its banks
all the way to Mt. Vernon.
Runoff
from
lands
burned during the 2015
Canyon Creek Complex fire
engorged Canyon Creek,
damaging the Inland Street
and Nugget Street bridges in
Canyon City.
Groundwater rose up into
the boiler room at Grant
Union Junior-Senior High
School, and shoulders along
Highway 395 south of Can-
yon City were eroded.
The powerful current
in Canyon Creek eroded a
23-foot high embankment
below Fourth Avenue South-
west in John Day, endanger-
ing one of the main routes
to Grant County Regional
Airport.
The six Oregon coun-
ties and the cities in those
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W W W. E X P O.O R E G O N D VA .C O M
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2019- 2020 School Year!
Join our team of teachers!
We are looking for fun, creative, and passionate
early childhood educators. Teacher Assistants and
substitute positions are available.
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