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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 18, 2019)
A12 NEWS Blue Mountain Eagle Funding Continued from Page A1 Nine out of the 23 grants awarded are closed out and have been used to sup- port several projects in the city. The 911 grant awarded $420,000 dollars to continue operations and relocate the dispatch center. The recreational trails program grant from the Oregon Parks and Recre- ation Department provided $191,300 to carry out phase 1 of the Innovation Gateway Trail system. The feasibility study for a new pool in Grant County is ongoing until February, but a $40,000 planning grant from the OPRD has helped the city of John Day cover planning costs for a future pool. The city is expecting to close out and receive the final payments within the month from the Transpor- tation and Growth Manage- ment grant for the Innova- tion Gateway Area Plan and the Economic Development Administration grant for the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy/ Regional Economic Diversi- fication Summit plan. JOHN DAY HELPS BRING IN $12.5 MILLION IN GRANTS Brownfield Redevelopment Fund, Oregon Pine Phase 2 ESA, $9,000 Main Street Revitalization, Weaver Building Purchase, $100,000 Brownfield Redevelopment Fund, Weaver Building Abate- ment, $65,300 Business Oregon TA, WWFP Update, $20,000 OWRD TA, Wastewater Feasibility Study, $50,000 DLCD TA/Planning Grant, John Day Housing Development District, $38,500 HB 5006, 911, $420,000 Recreational Trails Program, Innovation Gateway Trail Sys- tem, $191,300 Local Economic Opportunity, CEDS/REDS, $50,000 ODOT STIP, 395S Sidewalk Enhance Project, $753,705 Special Cities Allotment, April 2019 Flooding and Street Repairs, $50,000 OEM Disaster Recovery, April 2019 Flooding and Street Repairs $550,000 HB 5006, Broadband, $1,836,000 ODOT TGM, Innovation Gateway Area Plan, $192,500 Technical Assistance, CEDS/REDS, $70,000 Special Cities Allotment, Charolais Heights Intersection, $100,000 ODOT Safe Routes to Schools, 395S Sidewalk Enhance Project, $1,136,000 CDBG Engineering, Waste Water Facility Engineering, $199,500 Main Street Revitalization, Len’s Drug Revitalization, $200,000 Ford Family Foundation, Oregon Main Street Conference, $1,000 Large Government Grant, Integrated Park System $471,927 Planning Grant, Aquatic Center Planning and Feasibility Study, $40,000 USDA ReConnect, Fiber Optic Expansion in Grant County, $6,000,000 Total, $12,544,732 Wednesday, December 18, 2019 DUI Continued from Page A1 With the legalization of recreational marijuana in July of 2015, Hutchison said, “We’ve definitely seen an uptick in people driv- ing under the influence of cannabis.” Drivers who’ve been using cannabis are often stopped for a moving viola- tion or traffic offense, then the officer while contacting the driver will notice indi- cators of impairment due to cannabis, he said. “It’s a common miscon- ception that people drive slower while under the influ- ence of cannabis,” he added. “Studies actually show a higher incidence of drivers speeding while under the influence of cannabis.” Officers see more DUI problems around the holidays. “One holiday is not nec- essarily more significant than another,” Hutchison said. “New Year’s we usu- ally do a saturation, and on Memorial Day and Super Bowl Sunday. Anytime, day or night, we find DUIs for alcohol, marijuana or con- trolled substances, mostly at night.” Officers are trained to recognize indicators of impairment caused by any of the seven drug categories: CNS depressants (downers), CNS stimulants (uppers), hallucinogens, dissociative anesthetics, narcotic analge- sics, inhalants and cannabis. An impaired driver’s blood alcohol content is measured with a breatha- lyzer at the jail. “That’s the first step to eliminate the possibility of alcohol,” Hutchison said. “If a person’s BAC is not consis- tent with the officer’s obser- vations of impairment, then the officer can ask for a urine sample. At that time the sub- ject is also given an opportu- nity to participate in a drug recognition exam.” The exam is a 12-step process, which includes checking the person’s psy- cho-physical symptoms, such as blood pressure, Contributed photo/Oregon State Police Property damage resulted from this 2018 DUI crash, to which Oregon State Police Sgt. Tom Hutchison responded. pulse, body temperature and an in-depth examination of the eyes, as different drug categories affect the eyes in various ways. The drug recognition expert will determine if there is impairment and, if so, check to see if the impairment is due to a medi- cal condition or one or more of the seven drug categories. More than half of DUI cases are either canna- bis alone or cannabis along with other drugs and canna- bis with alcohol, Hutchison said. There are a myriad of effects when drugs and alco- hol are combined. “We have a zero toler- ance — we don’t give warn- ings for DUI,” Hutchison said. “If a person is arrested for DUI, it starts a process of fines and license suspension, possible jail time and even worse. If someone is injured you can get person crimes — assault, manslaughter, negligent homicide. The risk is really great that they’re going to be affecting their life and someone else’s life sig- nificantly for quite awhile.” Grant County District Attorney Jim Carpenter said fines for the first DUI offense are $1,000. The second offense is $1,500, he said, and third is $2,000. “Any offense with a blood alcohol content higher than .15 is fined $2,000, regard- less of which offense it is,” Carpenter said. Licenses are suspended for one year for the first offense, and if a second con- viction occurs within five years of the first, the per- son’s license would be sus- Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! pended for three years. After that, the license is revoked for “lifetime.” For a person’s first offense, jail time may be 48 hours or 80 hours of commu- nity service. With a second offense, it is up to the court, Carpen- ter said — usually between 45-60 days. And for a third offense, it’s 90 days. The consequences listed here don’t take into account offenders who are eligible for a diverted sentence — where the charge is dismissed after completing certain provi- sions — or felony offenders. There could be harsher consequences if the DUI results in property damage, injuries or death, or if a child is in the vehicle at the time of offense. Alcohol offenders who want to drive, following a period of suspension, must have an ignition interlock device installed on their vehicle for a period of time, including diversions. The driver blows into the device, and the vehicle will start only if no alcohol is detected. Installation fees range from $200 for a conven- tional vehicle to $400 for a push-button start vehicle. Intoxalock, the com- pany that makes the devices, charges an $80 monthly leasing fee for them. There is also a $25 fee to recali- brate the device every 30 days — otherwise the vehi- cle could stop at any time. Another monetary cost would be potential attor- ney’s fees. As part of his job, Hutchi- son speaks at victim impact panels, which offenders are required to attend, where he shows photos of sig- nificant DUI crashes and gives the law enforcement perspective. A person who was the victim of a DUI crash travels to Canyon City regularly to speak at the panels, held at the DA’s office at the county courthouse in Canyon City, and videos of other people telling their stories are also shown. Hutchison said driv- ers usually don’t gauge their own impairment accu- rately once they’ve started drinking. “Most people will have a designated driver,” he said. This could include the Grant County People Mover or a taxi, and a lot of bars on major holidays will have someone designated to give rides to people, he said. “The law is, if a per- son is impaired to a notice- able or perceptible degree or greater than a .08 percent,” he said. “If you feel buzzed, then you shouldn’t be driv- ing, because you perceive that there is an impairment.” “Even smoking mari- juana — they find someone else to drive,” he continued. “Those consuming meth — they know that police are looking for those people that are on (those) drugs as well — a lot of them won’t drive.” He said, if people see someone suspected to be under influence, they should call 911 and report it — “you’ll be doing them a favor.” One misconception is people thinking that, since they are only a few blocks from home, they can drive safely. “From law enforce- ment’s perspective, it doesn’t matter if you only have a block to get home or 10 miles — if you’re driving while impaired, you will be arrested,” Hutchison said. “A person having a respect for others on the highway, whether they have any care for their own well-being, they should be considerate of the other people sharing the highway.” Sole Searching for Winter? 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