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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 2019)
GRANT UNION FOOTBALL WINS IN FRONT OF HOMECOMING CROWD The PAGE A10 Blue Mountain EAGLE Grant County’s newspaper since 1868 Wednesday, October 16, 2019 151st Year • No. 42 • 18 Pages • $1.50 MyEagleNews.com Oregon RAIN coming to Grant County The Eagle/Rudy Diaz Len’s Drug pharmacists Greg Armstrong, left, and Carl Amstad have more than 85 years of experience between them and were recently recognized as Veterans in Pharmacy. Venture catalyst will help connect entrepreneurs to resources Veterans in Pharmacy By Rudy Diaz Blue Mountain Eagle Armstrong, Amstad discuss changes in prescription prices, drug efficacy and technology over the years By Rudy Diaz Blue Mountain Eagle The medical field might be ever-changing, but Grant County phar- macists Carl Amstad and Greg Arm- strong remain passionate about their jobs and their enjoyment in helping other people. The two pharmacists, who work at Len’s Drug in John Day, have more than 85 years of experience and shared their observations over the years, such as increasing prices for prescriptions, improved medicine and technological changes. Armstrong said the price of medicine has changed drastically over time. “Thirty (or) 40 years ago, there wasn’t anybody who had prescription insur- ance, and back then, things were priced fairly reasonable,” Armstrong said. “It seems that when insurance became the norm, prescription drug prices went off the charts. Back in 1980, there was hardly anything that sold for a dollar a pill, or $30 a month.” He said the days of $5 prescriptions are long gone. Amstad said, in his opinion, the medi- cal field focuses more on money than on helping people nowadays. “There are a lot of people who can’t or don’t have insurance, and if they don’t have insurance, they can’t afford the prescriptions,” Amstad said. “I think the pharmaceutical companies way back when were more interested in the health of people. Nowadays it’s just the bottom dollar. The thought process has really changed.” Technology also changed, from type- writers to modern desktop computers. Armstrong said, back in the day, they put typewriter prongs on the label for the medicine bottles. They also wrote every receipt out by hand. “We progressed through the different systems down to the eight-inch floppy disk,” said Armstrong. Over the years, they have also seen See Pharmacy, Page A18 The Eagle/Rudy Diaz For people in Grant County who need help starting a business, a new resource is coming at the start of the new year. T h e Oregon Regional Accel- erator & Innovation Network is a nonprofit o rg a n i z a - Allison Field tion that goes into a com- munity and hires a venture catalyst, a local John Day e n t r e p r e - City Manager neur who Nick Green will con- nect other entrepreneurs to different resources, such as access to capi- tal education and training programs. Oregon RAIN received a one-year, $50,000 grant from The Ford Family Foundation to start a ven- ture catalyst program in Grant County. The organization asked for a two-year commit- ment to start a pilot pro- gram in John Day with a $15,000 match from the local area. The Grant County Court approved $5,000 from Economic Devel- opment to be used for the match. The city of John Day approved $10,000 from its Commu- nity Development Fund during its Oct. 8 city council meeting. Allison Field, the Grant County Economic Development director, presented the program to the Grant County Court and to the John Day City Council. She also spoke with Canyon City and Prairie City about con- tributing funds for the collaborative program. “The local venture cat- alyst will have the job to find these people (poten- tial entrepreneurs) and create this entrepreneur- ial culture in the Grant County area,” Field said. “The venture catalyst will collect data in your region and find out what kind of entrepreneur- ial culture you have and what you need — and not just, ‘Hey, let’s go out and make an incubator or maker space.’ Maybe you need more of a manufac- turing space.” The $65,000 will be used to hire one local per- son that will work under Sen. Ron Wyden answers a question from Prairie City Mayor Jim Hamsher at a town hall Oct. 7. See RAIN, Page A18 The Eagle/Rudy Diaz U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, answers questions from Grant County community members during a town hall Oct. 7 at Prairie City School. SENATOR DISCUSSES CLIMATE AND DEBT Wyden: Foreign interference expected in 2020 elections By Rudy Diaz Blue Mountain Eagle T he national debt, cli- mate issues and the 2020 election sea- son were among the topics at Sen. Ron Wyden’s town hall at Prairie City School. Wyden answered questions from students of Prairie City high school and members of the Grant County community Oct. 7. Jessica Reames, a Prairie City student, asked Wyden for his thoughts on global warming and what actions Oregon could take to address it. Wyden said the problem is real but that the state would have a difficult time making an impact by itself. “If Oregon just does it by itself, how does that position us with the rest of the country?” Wyden said. “I think we have to do this as a country.” There are 44 separate tax breaks for energy in the federal tax code, according to Wyden. He recommended getting rid of those and proposed three energy tax breaks: one for clean energy, one for clean transportation fuel and one for energy efficiency. This plan would help in work- ing with the Republican Party and create “more green for less green,” Wyden said. A community member asked about security regarding the 2020 elections. “I believe that in the 2020 election there will be interfer- ence from hostile, foreign pow- ers that will make what hap- pened in 2016 look like really small potatoes,” said Wyden, who is on the Select Senate Intelligence Committee. Wyden also discussed a bill he said would help, Protecting American Vote and Elections Act of 2019, with three compo- nents: hand-marked paper bal- lots, risk-limiting audits and a See Wyden, Page A18 The Eagle/Rudy Diaz Sen. Ron Wyden looks at the product from the torrefaction plant at Malheur Lumber in John Day after a town hall meeting Oct. 7. The Eagle/Rudy Diaz Sen. Ron Wyden answers a question from Prairie City Mayor Jim Hamsher at a town hall Oct. 7.