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.