NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
A5
City approves resolution to fund integrated park system
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
The city of John Day
approved a resolution that
authorizes expenditures to
fund the integrated park sys-
tem at the city council meet-
ing March 10.
“It’s been several months,
probably almost a year, since
we started designing the inte-
grated park system,” said
John Day City Manager Nick
Green. “The concept is can
we build a series of trails
and bridges between existing
public spaces in John Day so
regardless of where you are,
you can get from one to the
other.”
This project was funded
by the Oregon State Parks
and Recreation Department
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
The John Day City Council listens to a question from the community about the Fourth Street
repairs March 10.
through last year’s large gov-
ernment grant program, and
the agreement was approved
on Dec. 30, 2019.
The $471,927 awarded for
the project will cover the first
piece of the integrated park
system, which covers the
lower half of the parking off
of Bridge Street, improving
two entrances and plumbing
for a future restroom, Green
said.
The match for this portion
of the project was the pur-
chase John Day-Canyon City
Parks and Recreation Dis-
trict made of the land. After
designs are finalized, con-
struction will begin after the
T-Ball tournaments or in the
summer.
“The resolution approves
us to begin spending
the money that has been
awarded,” Green said.
According to the meeting
agenda, the city has until Oct.
31, 2021, to complete the
project.
The John Day City Coun-
cil also discussed their intent
to award the Fourth Street
repairs. The city received
three bids.
The bids were evaluated
based on their team, past per-
formance and references but
not the price, Green said.
The price is determined when
going into design, he said.
The funding for the project
will be provided by the Fed-
eral Emergency Management
Agency through an agreement
administered by the state of
Oregon through the Oregon
Military Department, Office
of Emergency Management
and funds from the Small City
Allotment Program, accord-
ing to the agenda. The public
works committee met prior to
the city meeting to talk about
the bids. The committee did
not have a chance to call the
references in the bids so they
recommended checking the
references, rescoring the bids
and presenting a ranked rec-
ommendation to the council in
a future meeting.
Ray Cox of John Day
asked the council what kind
of repairs will be done for the
project.
“We are going to let the
engineers present some
options, and then we are
going to do a cost-bene-
fit and life-cycle analysis of
the options because there are
several ways they can do it,”
Green said.
There will be a special
city council meeting at a later
date to make a decision on the
bids.
Williams explains decision to step down as emergency management coordinator
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Ted Williams, the county’s
former emergency management
coordinator, said he hopes the
county’s new emergency opera-
tions center is effective.
After four years on the job,
Williams resigned after a heated
emergency Grant County Court
session March 6 that saw the
formation of a coronavirus task
force — with a sheriff’s deputy
in charge. Williams said he was
blindsided by the meeting where
the county appointed Deputy
Dave Dobler, the search and res-
cue coordinator, as incident com-
mander of the county’s response
to the new virus.
Williams said the creation of
the task force effectively replaced
the emergency management team
that was already in place, and the
opening of new operations center
— when one already existed next
door to the county health depart-
ment, the lead agency during a
health emergency — was a waste
of county resources.
Williams said the health
department — which did not have
a representative at the emergency
meeting but is listed as the lead
agency for pandemics in the coun-
ty’s emergency plan — should
have been involved in planning
Eagle file photo
Grant County Emergency Management Coordinator Ted Williams describes
emergency planning during a Grant County Court meeting in August.
for a public health crisis.
“They have to be involved
because they are the lead agency,”
he said. “How can we be sure we
are getting good information?”
Williams knows the county’s
emergency plan well because he
was hired to update it in the after-
math of the Canyon Creek Com-
plex fire in 2015. The plan was
outdated and did not list guide-
lines for catastrophic events, such
as pandemics or technological
disasters, he said, and one of his
tasks was to open an emergency
operations center, which was
housed in the emergency manage-
ment office.
To create the plan, Williams
said he worked with a variety of
agencies — from law enforce-
ment to representatives from dif-
ferent cities — to involve other
stakeholders and gather feedback.
Williams said he understands
not everything goes according
to plan in an emergency but that
it was wasted time and effort to
develop the plan and then not fol-
low it.
“You try to follow them
because we built those plans for
a reason,” he said. “They were
approved by the county court
for a reason with the expectation
that we would try to follow it as
closely as possible.”
Williams said, while it appears
the health department is taking the
lead on the coronavirus response
in the county, those health experts
should have been represented at
the emergency meeting.
Williams said the request to
create a task force, which came
at the recommendation of Sher-
iff Glenn Palmer, had more to do
with problems between his agency
and the sheriff’s office than it did
with getting in front of a public
health crisis.
Williams said the rapport
between the two departments
soured after the Rail Fire in 2016.
Williams gave a report on
the county’s response to the fire,
which he characterized as a “solu-
tion-based” meeting. In the report,
Williams said he mentioned that
the sheriff’s office did not estab-
lish roadblocks where they were
supposed to.
“That was probably our initial
issue, and it went downhill from
there,” Williams said. “I don’t
think he wanted to be account-
able, and he did not believe he felt
it was his problem to fix.”
Williams said the spirit in
which he wrote the report was to
improve the agencies and to better
coordinate the county’s response
to an emergency.
“There was always some-
thing good in a report that I wrote
— and there was — and always
something to improve on,” Wil-
liams said. “There was not any-
thing on either side that was crit-
ical in the report, and the point of
the meeting for the county depart-
ments to better serve the commu-
nity in an emergency.”
Palmer declined to comment.
Grant County Judge Scott
Myers said Williams and Palmer
did not agree on emergency man-
agement protocol.
Myers, who supervised the
emergency management coordi-
nator, said he asked Williams to
reconsider his resignation.
“I did not want to lose him,”
Myers said. “He brought attention
to detail and extensive knowl-
edge to the position. He wrote the
county’s emergency plan.”
Williams, who served in the
Idaho Military Division of the Air
National Guard and later provided
private security for high-level
executives and owned his own
consulting firm, said he is happy
with the work he did with county
and he is not sure what his next
move will be.
COPS AND COURTS
Grant County Circuit
Court
Zyna M. Richardson, 37,
pleaded guilty Feb. 20 to a
count of second-degree bur-
glary and a count of third-de-
gree criminal mischief com-
mitted on July 10. She was
sentenced to serve 20 days
in jail, 36 months of bench
probation and pay $500 in
fines. Counts of theft and
second-degree trespass were
dismissed.
Grant County Sheriff
The Grant County Sher-
iff’s Office reported the fol-
lowing for the week of
March 11:
Concealed
handgun
licenses: 9
Average inmates: 21
Bookings: 13
Releases: 12
Arrests: 3
Citations: 0
Fingerprints: 2
Civil papers: 17
Warrants processed: 2
A s s i s t a n c e / We l f a r e
check: 0
Search and Rescue: 0
Justice Court
Dog as a public nuisance:
Tabitha Graves, 23, John
Day, Jan. 19, fined $135.
Oregon State Police
March 8: Transported a
45-year-old woman from
Prairie City to the Grant
County Jail. The woman was
arrested by the Grant County
Sheriff’s Office for fourth-de-
gree domestic assault. The
woman’s 12-year-old son
was taken into protective
custody by the Department
of Human Services.
March 9: Responded to
a reported rollover crash on
Highway 395B near milepost
107. The crash occurred at
approximately 1:30 a.m. The
vehicle was traveling north-
bound on icy roads when
the driver lost control, slid-
ing across the southbound
lane of travel and going over
an embankment and rolling.
The vehicle came to a rest
on its side on Beech Creek.
The driver and his passen-
ger were given a ride from
the scene by a passerby. The
passenger was evaluated
at the hospital for possi-
ble injury. The driver never
made any effort to notify
law enforcement of the
crash. The driver was cited
for a careless driving acci-
dent and failure to report an
accident to a police officer.
Frontier Towing removed
the vehicle from the scene.
It appeared the gas tank
did not rupture, nor did any
hazardous materials spill
from the vehicle into Beech
Creek. Oregon Department
of Transportation and Ore-
gon Department of Fish and
Wildlife were notified of
the crashed vehicle in the
waterway.
March 9: Responded to a
reported crash on Highway
395C near milepost 15. The
driver was traveling north-
bound at a stated 65 mph
when he encountered slush
in the roadway. The vehicle
started to slide. The driver
was unable to recover from
the slide and hit a hard
snow bank off the north-
bound shoulder, then trav-
eled about 15 feet down the
embankment before com-
ing to a rest. The vehicle
sustained body damage but
was drivable. Frontier Tow-
ing responded and pulled the
vehicle back onto the road.
March 10: Responded
to a car versus semi crash
on Highway 26 near mile-
post 162. The car was trav-
eling eastbound behind the
semi. The semi stopped
for a school bus with red
lights activated. The driver
behind the semi was dis-
tracted by a pedestrian and
struck the rear trailer of the
semi. Vehicles sustained
damage. The driver of the
car was cited for follow-
ing too closely. OSP con-
ducted a Level 2 inspection
of the semi and found no
deficiencies. The rear trailer
of the semi did not sustain
significant enough damage
to result in the unit being
placed out of service.
March 14: Mackenzie R.
Clark, 24, of Prairie City
was arrested on a failure to
appear warrant out of Grant
County. He was transported
to the Grant County Jail
where he was lodged.
Card Shower
to honor the 50th
Anniversary of Garland
(Buzz) and Roberta
(Bobbie) Gilmore
Please celebrate by sending a
card filled with memories and
blessings to:
Buzz and Bobbie Gilmore
56951 Izee-Paulina LN
Canyon City, OR 97820
Their anniversary is March 28, 2020
S177771-1
Dear Valuable Patrons,
We are closely monitoring developments with the global
spread of Covid-19. As a non-essential service, we will
be aligning with Governor Kate Brown’s recommended
mitigation procedures (3.12.2020) and suspending most
in-person programming and meetings through April
8, 2020. Please see paintedskycenter.com for more
S178812-1
information per class or
event. We appreciate
your understanding.
Dispatch
John Day dispatch worked
149 calls during the week of
March 9-15, including:
• John Day Police
Department
March 10: Arrested Wil-
liam J. Collier Jr. of Prai-
rie City on violation of a no
contact order/harassment.
March 10: Responded for
a call for disorderly conduct.
March 10: Responded to
a noninjury motor vehicle
crash OSP handled on Ford
Road.
March 15: Responded to
a report of theft on South-
west Brent Drive.
• Oregon State Police
March 9: John Day ambu-
lance called for a motor
vehicle crash on Highway
395 near milepost 107.
March 9: Along with the
sheriff’s office, responded
to a report of a slide off near
Starr Ridge.
March 14: Advised of
hogs loose and creating a
hazard on the roadway on
Highway 26 near milepost
142.
• Grant County Sher-
iff’s Office
March 10: Received an
animal complaint on West
Bench Road.
March 12: Received a
call for a domestic dispute
on South Scenic Drive.
March 13: Assistance
was provided for campers
stuck in the snow near Slide
Creek Campground.
• John Day fire
March 11: Along with
Oregon Trail Electric Coop-
erative, responded to a tree
across a power line that
started a fire.
• John Day ambulance
March 9: Along with
Seneca
ambulance,
responded for an 11-month-
old child.
March 10: Responded
for a 66-year-old man who
had fallen.
March 11: Received a
report of a 66-year-old man
who was not breathing.
March
13:
Along
with Seneca ambulance,
responded for a 74-year-old
man with difficulty moving
and confusion on Izee Pau-
lina Lane.
March 14: Responded
for a 45-year-old woman
who wasn’t breathing on
Southwest First Street.
A MAN
WAKES
UP in the
morning
after sleeping on...
an advertised bed, in advertised
pajamas.
He will bathe in an ADVERTISED TUB, shave with an ADVERTISED RAZOR,
have a breakfast of ADVERTISED JUICE, cereal and toast, toasted in an
ADVERTISED TOASTER, put on ADVERTISED CLOTHES and glance at his
ADVERTISED WATCH. He’ll ride to work in his ADVERTISED CAR, sit at an
ADVERTISED DESK and write with an ADVERTISED PEN. Yet this person
hesitates to advertise, saying that advertising doesn’t pay. Finally, when his
non-advertised business is going under, HE’LL ADVERTISE IT FOR SALE.
Then it’s too late.
AND THEY SAY ADVERTISING DOESN’T WORK?
DON’T MAKE THIS SAME MISTAKE
Advertising is an investment, not an expense. Think about it!
Blue Mountain Eagle
MyEagleNews.com
S178830-1
Arrests and citations in
the Blue Mountain Eagle are
taken from the logs of law
enforcement agencies. Every
effort is made to report the
court disposition of arrest
cases.
Don’t get left behind, call today! Kim Kell 541-575-0710