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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 4, 2019)
GRANT UNION SPORTS PREVIEWS | Page A10 Blue Mountain The EAGLE Grant County’s newspaper since 1868 Wednesday, December 4, 2019 151st Year • No. 49 • 18 Pages • $1.50 MyEagleNews.com $6M GRANT WILL FUND MAJOR BROADBAND ROLLOUT Eagle file photo A crew runs an optical fiber cable along South Canyon Boulevard from the John Day Fire Hall to the Grant County Education Service District building on April 3. A $6 million USDA grant announced Tuesday will provide high-speed internet access to Long Creek, Monument and Seneca. High-speed internet coming to Long Creek, Monument, Seneca By Rudy Diaz Blue Mountain Eagle C hristmas came early when it was announced Tuesday that high-speed internet is coming to town — all of them in Grant County. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect Program is providing a $6 million grant to construct 89 miles of fiber optic line, connecting the cities of Long Creek, Monu- ment, Seneca and Spray to Oregon Telephone Corporation’s high-speed broadband network that already connects the other cities in the county. This will expand broadband across a 242-square-mile area, with nearly 650 poten- tial new customers — 418 households, 22 businesses, 22 farms, three schools and two fire stations — that can receive broadband access and high-speed internet services, according to information from the USDA. “Internet access is no longer an amenity; it is an essential component of daily life, as important as it was for rural communities to gain access to electricity a century ago,” said John Huffman, the state director for the USDA. See Internet, Page A18 Eagle file photo An Oregon Telephone Corporation employee holds a piece of fiber-optic cable. The company will soon offer high-speed internet access in Long Creek, Monument and Seneca, thanks to a USDA grant. Officers see increased thefts, domestic abuse this time of year Eagle file photo John Day Po- lice Depart- ment Sgt. Scott Moore By Rudy Diaz Blue Mountain Eagle PREVENTING HOLIDAY CRIME ‘Tis the season to embrace family and friends and fill up with cheer, but crimes still occur during the most wonderful time of the year. The holidays provide people with some of the best shopping deals, but with the increase of sales comes a rise in theft, according to officers at the John Day Police Department. One reason thefts rise is how easy it is this time of year. People leaving doors to their homes and cars unlocked, going Christmas shopping and leav- ing gifts in the car or leaving loose items unguarded in the back of a truck is giving a thief the perfect opportunity to steal. “We have been trying to crack down on theft by trying to change up the hours that we are on patrol or try to have conversations with residents and business owners about getting a better cam- era system,” said JDPD Officer Sam Stinnett. “If the quality in the video is so low and all that I can tell you is ‘Yeah, that’s a human’ and there are no defining characteristics, then that doesn’t really help.” Sgt. Scott Moore added that business owners should at least have a visible camera so, when peo- ple are scoping the place to see if it’s an easy tar- get, thieves would be deterred by the sight of a camera. See Crime, Page A18 Oregon Court of Appeals upholds wolf delisting By George Plaven EO Media Group Contributed photo/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service A gray wolf moves through deep snow in this file photo. The Oregon Court of Appeals has dismissed a law- suit filed by three environ- mental groups challenging the state’s decision to lift endan- gered species protections for gray wolves. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife removed wolves from the state endan- gered species list in Novem- ber 2015. Lawmakers passed House Bill 4040 during the 2016 legislative session, which ratified the agency’s findings. Cascadia Wildlands, Ore- gon Wild and the Center for Biological Diversity sued to reverse the delisting, arguing it was premature and not based on sound science. Though the case was initially dismissed, it was later reinstated by the appeals court. On Nov. 27, judges again tossed out the complaint, rul- ing that HB 4040 rendered the environmentalists’ petition moot. “In this case, the legisla- ture has ratified the delisting, thereby providing the delist- ing with the statutory effect of removing it from a rule chal- lenge,” the court wrote in its dismissal. “Consequently, a decision on our part regard- ing the petitioners’ challenge would have no practical effect, and the petition is therefore moot.” Wolves are still feder- ally protected as an endan- gered species west of high- ways 395, 78 and 95 in Oregon. The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association and Oregon Farm Bureau intervened in the law- suit to support delisting the wolves. Ranchers have long argued they need to be able to kill wolves that make a habit of preying on livestock, despite using non-lethal deterrents such as electric fences and range riders. Killing wolves is allowed under certain strict require- ments in ODFW’s Wolf Con- servation and Management Plan, which was last updated earlier this year. See Wolf, Page A18