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NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
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.
Wyden
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voting system that is not left
open to internet access.
Carson McKay, a Prairie
City student, asked how the
Senate planned to pay off
the national debt.
“The key to paying off
the national debt is to help
legislators be willing to
take on the biggest items in
the budget, which is why I
mentioned Medicare, which
is why I mentioned the tax
breaks, the military port,”
RAIN
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Oregon RAIN and will have
access to RAIN’s resources.
The person hired will not be
Wyden said. “You cannot
reduce the national debt
unless you go to the big
items.”
Prairie City Mayor Jim
Hamsher asked Wyden if
he supported the Revitaliz-
ing Underdeveloped Rural
Areas and Lands Act and
working for the city or county
but can collaborate with the
county Economic Development
office.
The second year of the pro-
gram will require more local
investment.
if he believed it will pass
during this session.
“You will have it,”
Wyden said, indicating his
support. “This is really
a big deal in rural Ore-
gon because it affects the
tax exempt, and getting
back tax-exempt stuff for
“The first year, Ford does
most of the heavy lifting,” said
Field. “The second year, they
back off a little bit so it looks
like maybe $30,000 will come
from Ford, and then the rest will
be picked up by the cities and the
rural costs.”
After the Grant County
town hall, Wyden visited
Malheur Lumber to view
the progress on the torrefac-
tion plant.
“I think what’s strik-
ing is that folks are really
looking at what goes on in
counties as a collaboration.”
Field also said Economic
Development may contribute
more to fund the second year of
the program.
The mission of Oregon RAIN
is “to partner with Oregon com-
D.C. and they’re saying,
‘Hey! That’s important,
but we’ve got to talk about
our stuff,’” Wyden said
regarding his visit to Grant
County. “It highlights how
important it is to get out
on the ground (to visit each
county).”
munities to catalyze entre-
preneurial ecosystems, con-
nect entrepreneurs to resources
(including overlooked entrepre-
neurs), and contribute to the cre-
ation of prosperous economies,”
according to its website.
Hello Grant County,
This year’s Installation Dinner was a big success!
Approximately 120 people attended. The dinner
was excellent! Thank you Tom Winters and the
Elk’s Lodge crew for all your hard work!
Jack Southworth was entertaining and witty
as usual as our emcee. Our guest speakers, Ron
Lundbom, Cam Marlowe, Chris Labhart and Haley
Walker, shared some very interesting news about
what will be happening in the future for the City
of John Day, Blue Mountain Hospital, Kam Wah
Chung and the Grant County Regional Airport.
Achievement awards were presented to Angie
Jones from the People Mover and Mindy Winegar
from the fairgrounds and Grant County Hope 4
Paws received the Civic Award.
Our official tourist season is coming to a close
for this year. Reports from Kam Wah Chung and
the John Day Fossil Beds tell us it was a great season
with more visitors than last year!
Here at the chamber, our board president Jerry
Franklin and the board of directors have been
working hard. Jerry has been busy working on
getting a new flagpole in front of the office. The
base is in and the flagpole will be installed soon.
The budget committee presented a budget at our
September meeting, which was adopted by the
board. The marketing committee is focusing on
developing a new logo and tourism brand to market
Grant County.
Our October meeting will be held Thursday,
October 17th. The board meets at 10:30 a.m. at the
chamber office and the no-host luncheon will be
at 12 p.m. at the Outpost Pizza, Pub & Grill. The
guest speakers this month will be Beth Simonson
from Grant County Economic Development and
Shelley Whale-Murphy and Cindy Kalin from
Heart of Grant County. They will be giving a brief
presentation about the Community Development
Block Grant to build the Meredith House, a
domestic trauma service center for Heart of Grant
County and Fair Housing.
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
Pharmacist Greg Armstrong said technology has changed
during his years in the industry, where computers have
replaced typewriters and hand-written receipts.
Pharmacy
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the medicine for blood pres-
sure and diabetes greatly
improve.
Both were recognized as
Veterans in Pharmacy at the
2019 Oregon State Phar-
macy Association annual
convention this month for
their years of service to the
industry.
“I’m surprised that I was
even picked,” said Amstad.
“I wasn’t even aware until
Greg showed me. I knew I
have been doing it for that
long, but I never thought
about it.”
Armstrong said the
award makes him feel old
because it recognizes his
legacy and longevity. His
daughter Tilli Bjornberg
currently works as the phar-
macy manger at Len’s Drug.
“The main thing for me
is that I enjoy the people,”
Amstad said. “To me, that
is the most positive thing
about the pharmaceutical
industry. The interactions
with the people is what’s
worthwhile.”
We hope to see you there!
Tammy Bremner
Manager, Grant County
Chamber of Commerce
541-523-6377
541-963-6577
541-573-6377
541-576-2160