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The
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
152nd Year • No. 4 • 18 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
Planning commission revokes variance for Riverside Home Park
Two of eight affected
units are occupied, but
the owners will have
the opportunity to bring
homes up to code
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
Contributed photo/City of John Day
In a photo of space 23 at Riverside Home Park presented to the plan-
ning commission, one of the accessory structures was propped up
by iron bars, which was not permitted by the city.
The John Day Planning Commis-
sion has revoked a variance granted
to Riverside Home Park in 2016
because of a failure to meet other
code requirements.
The Class B variance allowed Riv-
erside to place single-section manu-
factured homes that did not meet the
minimum size requirements in the
John Day City Development Code,
according to the staff report presented
to the planning commission.
With the revocation, no new homes
will be allowed that are not fully up
to code. Of the eight homes installed
under the variance, two are occupied,
but the occupants will have the oppor-
tunity to bring the homes up to code,
City Manager Nick Green said.
“The city is working with the own-
ers toward an abatement agreement
that is in the best interest of the park’s
tenants and John Day as a whole,”
Green said.
Why the variance was revoked
Variances are modifi cations to the
development code that would not
otherwise be permitted, Green said.
“The code cannot provide stan-
dards to fi t every potential develop-
ment situation, so variances allow
applicants to seek exceptions to code
standards,” said Green. “The vari-
ance process provides fl exibility
while maintaining the purpose and
intent of the code.”
Riverside was granted the vari-
ance, allowing property owners to
bring in houses smaller than speci-
fi ed by the code, because it was seen
as a way to address housing short-
ages, Green said. The units were
still required to meet other code
See Variance, Page A16
State Rep. Rachel appears
on a screen in a legislative
hearing room used to ac-
commodate overfl ow Jan.
15. The topic was a safe
gun storage proposal she
plans to introduce in the
2020 legislative session.
OREGON LAWMAKERS
UNHOLSTER
Oregon Capital Bureau/
Jake Thomas
NEW GUN
CONTROLS
Proponents say proposed
measure could reduce gun
deaths and injuries, but opponents
dislike one-size-fi ts-all approach
By Jake Thomas
Oregon Capital Bureau
O
regon’s gun owners will face penalties for not
securing their fi rearms when not in use under
a proposal that’s likely to be introduced in the
upcoming legislative session.
State Reps. Rachel Prusak, D-West Linn, and
Janeen Sollman, D-Hillsboro, shared at a legislative
hearing Wednesday, Jan. 15, their proposal that they
said would prevent gun deaths and keep fi rearms out
of the hands of children and teens.
Speaking before a joint meeting of the House and
Senate Judiciary Committees, Prusak mentioned the
2012 Clackamas Town Center shooting that left two
victims and the shooter dead. She said the guns were
stolen from a friend’s house where they were left
unsecured.
“The goal of safe storage fi rearm bill is to change
the behavior of the minority of gun owners whose
careless actions lead to death and injury of others,” she
said. “It is meant to be a protection for the teen looking
at suicide or the random person looking to steal a gun
and use it for a crime.”
If passed, the legislation would require gun own-
ers to keep their fi rearms in a locked container or room
and secured with a trigger lock when not being used.
It would also require fi rearms to be locked or secured
when transferring them to another person, with some
exceptions such as target shooting. Violations of the
law would be punishable with a $500 fi ne.
The legislation would
establish liability for injuries
to people or property com-
mitted with a fi rearm that was
transferred without fi rst secur-
ing it. It would also hold gun owners
liable for injuries caused by a minor who
accesses their unsecured fi rearms. Gun owners
also would have to report the loss or theft of a fi rearm
within 72 hours or face a potential $1,000 fi ne.
Rendering fi rearms ‘useless’
Sollman, whose district includes Hillsboro and
North Plains, said that the legislation would be her pri-
ority during the February session. She said she was
responding to concerns from constituents and an inci-
dent in her district where a sixth-grade boy took his
life with an unsecured fi rearm.
Calling the measure “common sense,” she said that
75% of gun owners already secure their fi rearms.
Dr. Ben Hoffman, an expert on child injury preven-
tion and pediatrician at Oregon Health and Science Uni-
versity, said that over 75% of suicide attempts with a
gun lead to death. He said the suicide rate has increased
nationally and is now the second leading cause of death
for kids. In Oregon, kids are more likely to kill them-
selves with guns than in other parts of the country.
“This is an epidemic, and we need to do something
about it,” he said.
He said that locking up guns decreases the risk of
self-infl icted or unintentional fi rearm injuries among
children and
teens by up to 85%.
He said that six states and the District of Columbia
have safe storage laws and 14 states impose crimi-
nal penalties on adults when children access fi rearms
unsupervised.
See Guns, Page A16
Gillam retires after 27 years of positive changes
Road department offi ce
manager recounts
successes, including
millions in grant funding
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
After 27 years of working as
the offi ce manager for the Grant
County Road Department, Kathy
Gillam will retire at the beginning
of February.
Gillam has trained and worked
with six roadmasters and raised mil-
lions of dollars in grant funding for
projects. One of her biggest accom-
plishments, she said, was the transi-
tion from the old Road Department
building in Canyon City to the new
facility on Lower Yard Road.
“It’s a little shack, I can tell you
that, and when the wind blew, it
was super cold in there, and in the
summer, it was super hot,” said Gil-
lam about the old offi ce. “That was
my deal, getting out of there and
getting another place.”
It took several years to complete
the project that started in 2004,
which included a new offi ce build-
ing, a shop with a mezzanine and a
wash bay, a truck barn and a lunch/
locker room for the Road Depart-
ment. Aside from more space for
equipment and a better building, the
new location was ideal away from
residential areas, Gillam said.
Gillam also focused on acquir-
ing grants and securing state and
federal funding for various equip-
ment and projects.
“I’m usually looking for money
before we spend it,” Gillam said.
“You have to be diligent and know
what you’re talking about and what
you’re doing before you submit
applications because you are com-
peting with a lot of other counties,
and it’s a great deal for the county.
We do get SRS (Secure Rural
Schools) funds, but why wait until
we run out of money instead of
keeping it replenished?”
Gillam said the road department
is currently looking great fi nan-
cially, but a road or bridge project
can come up at any time and cost
millions of dollars.
Maintaining roads at a proper
level is important, Gillam said,
because it minimizes the chances
of having to replace the whole road,
which costs much more than rou-
tine maintenance.
See Gillam, Page A16
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
Kathy Gillam will retire in February af-
ter 27 years as the offi ce manager for
the Grant County Road Department.