NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
A7
John Day presses on with projects
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
Many John Day projects
continue to move forward with
minimal delays despite the
COVID-19 outbreak.
City Manager Nick Green
presented an update to the John
Day City Council on April 14
on the many ongoing city proj-
ects and their different stages of
development, with additional
information provided in the
meeting agenda.
Street, sidewalk, bridge
and trail improvements
• 395 sidewalk extension:
Oregon Department of Trans-
portation is refining their design
criteria to extend sidewalks
north on Highway 395 based on
feedback from property owners.
They will hold a public hearing
this summer before finalizing
the design and going into con-
struction in 2021.
This project is fully funded,
and all of the city’s match was
paid in advance. No additional
charges are expected, accord-
ing to the agenda. However, a
portion of the project could be
subcontracted through the city,
which would reduce the overall
project cost, and ODOT would
reimburse the city for these
expenses.
• Fourth Street repairs:
GHD was the high scorer of the
three design and engineering
bids submitted for the project to
repair flood damage on Fourth
Street. Work was supposed to
commence in April, but the proj-
ect award was delayed slightly
due to COVID-19, according
to the agenda. The intent is to
award the contract this month
and have the team begin work
when the contract is awarded.
• Charolais Heights inter-
section improvements: City
staff began clearing the trees
from a lot in preparation for the
safer intersection project. The
Small City Allotment agree-
ment with Oregon Depart-
ment of Transportation awarded
$100,000 for the project. The
city is working with Sisul engi-
neering to solicit quotes for the
project.
The city will do the regrad-
ing and utility relocation this
year, and if the project needs
to be phased, construction will
begin next year on the street
improvements, according to the
agenda.
Based on the estimated cost
of the Fourth Street repairs,
the city might not be able to
complete the full project this
fiscal year because repair-
ing flood-damaged roads
have priority over intersection
improvements.
• Oregon Pine bridge
improvements: This project
to fix the bridge to the Oregon
Pine property is temporarily on
hold, pending the outcome of
the 2020 BUILD grant, which
includes bridge improvements
in the scope. This will be a part
of the BUILD application.
“We’ve done a lot of addi-
tional analysis such as a trans-
portation impact study, some
preliminary plats and updated
assessment of our bridge con-
dition and our traffic impact
that we didn’t have a year ago,”
Green said.
• 2020 BUILD grant that
would help fund projects for
the Seventh Street Extension,
Charolais Heights and Third
Street Extension bridge: John
Day made it to the final selec-
tion round in 2019 but was not
awarded the multimillion-dollar
federal BUILD grant. However,
the city is submitting another
application in 2020 with addi-
tional data.
The additional data includes
a traffic impact assessment for
this project and additional engi-
neering and planning details. A
proposed hotel and new com-
mercial developments are other
new additions to the applica-
tion, which will help increase
the overall impact of the project.
The city also received support
letters from senators, according
to Green.
“We are going to be able
to show quite a bit of busi-
ness expansion even in light of
what we’re experiencing with
the things we’ve done,” Green
said. “I think our application
Contributed image
The site concept for the John Day Innovation Gateway.
gets stronger next year, I think
the amount of available funding
goes up and hopefully that gets
us to victory.”
The city’s overall goal with
this application is to complete
the local street network to allow
for new residential, commer-
cial and industrial development.
Applications for the BUILD
grant are due May 18.
Innovation Gateway &
Riverfront Recreation
projects
• Hotel and event center site
development: The integrated
planning team for an effort to
build a new hotel is complet-
ing their work for the EDA Eco-
nomic Adjustment Assistance
grant, which will be finalized
and submitted this month.
• Wastewater treatment
plant: The city is working
through the contracting process
to bring Kennedy Jenks and
Flagline Engineering onto the
design team to complete the nec-
essary analysis to receive USDA
Rural Development funding for
a new wastewater facility.
The city asked engineer-
ing firm Anderson Perry to stop
work on the design and procure-
ment of the membrane bioreac-
tor in order to let the financing
and the permitting process catch
up to the engineering. Green
mentioned how the three big pil-
lars in this project are engineer-
ing, financing and permitting.
“We need them to come
together at the same time. We
don’t want a 100% design
before we have the funding
ready to commit for procure-
ment and before we have a per-
mit to operate it,” Green said.
“Rather than have them con-
tinue to incur cost for the city
on design, I asked them to stop
work while we address these
questions from the USDA.”
• Aquatics center: The plan-
ning team is nearly complete
with their work on the final draft
of a proposal for a new aquatics
center. Designs, taxing district
information and details on the
proposal were released during
the City Council meeting on
April 15.
During June and July, lis-
tening sessions will be held in
the communities that would be
affected, and action committees
will then present the final plan to
be recommended to the county,
Green said.
• Integrated park system:
The city has worked on tree
thinning and hazardous tree
removal, which was performed
throughout the Hill Family Park
this month and is nearing com-
pletion. City staff also updated
signage at the Davis Creek Park,
and the city is designing parking
for the west end of the Seventh
Street Complex as part of this
project.
The next phase will be final-
izing the design and begin-
ning construction for the new
bridge between the Hill Fam-
ily Park and the future Seventh
Street Extension, which will be
included in the 2020 BUILD
grant, according to the agenda.
• Greenhouse: Productivity
increases at the greenhouse, and
market surveys with customers
will provide how they like the
product line and evaluate price
and demand for each product.
“Right now we’re producing
between 200 and 300 heads of
lettuce weekly and about 200 of
our cherry tomatoes, and that’s
off of one row,” Green said.
“About a third of our vine crops
are under production, another
third are planted and growing
and another third will come later
this year.”
The city is working closely
with Chester’s Thriftway to
optimize both volume and pric-
ing of lettuce from the green-
house in their store. The city
will present a summary of their
findings to the council at the
April 28 council meeting.
Downtown/Main Street
improvements
• Downtown parking
improvements: The city will
finalize design and bid pack-
ages for downtown parking to
be included in the 2020 BUILD
grant, which are based on prior
designs approved by the city
council.
• Len’s Drug renova-
tion: Len’s Drug has received
approval through the planning
commission to begin construc-
tion of their proposed site design
package.
Housing
• Weaver building: Tyler
Sheedy purchased the Weaver
building northwest of the inter-
sections of highways 26 and 395
on Nov. 27. All development
agreements have been signed.
Development timeline is driven
by the Sheedys, and improve-
ments are expected to be com-
plete within five years.
• Phase 2 of Ironwood
Estates: The city continues to
coordinate for street improve-
ments to allow for the expan-
sion of housing in Ironwood
Estates, according to the agenda.
These street improvements were
included in the 2019 BUILD
grant and may be included in the
2020 BUILD grant.
• Mahogany Ridge: Mahog-
any Ridge Properties acquired
Strawberry View Estates,
and the owners are working
with city engineers to develop
designs that could be included
in the 2020 BUILD grant. These
designs will be reviewed by the
city council prior to submission.
• Code enforcement: The
city will continue to pursue code
enforcement for housing and
floodplain development viola-
tions, while also working with
developers to help them under-
stand the importance of apply-
ing for permits before they
begin construction, according to
the agenda.
The agenda added that this
is particularly important for
the FEMA special flood haz-
ard areas and the landslide haz-
ard areas in the community as
these land use designations are
regulated at the local, state and
federal levels and are subject to
state and federal audits.
Intergovernmental
Projects
• Broadband expansion:
The city continues to work with
internet service providers and the
state broadband office to expand
broadband coverage in the area.
The EDA grant includes a full
fiber buildout to each premise in
John Day and to the remaining
public facilities that are not con-
nected to the Grant County Digi-
tal Network today.
• Oregon RAIN: Stepha-
nie LeQuieu was hired as the
rural venture catalyst for Oregon
RAIN in the region. She has been
working with local businesses
and entrepreneurs to give support
and information for help.
• County fairgrounds proj-
ect: EcoNorthwest completed
a draft of the fairgrounds mar-
ket assessment in March. This
assessment will be refined
based on stakeholder feedback,
according to the agenda. The
site concept work has begun to
align the market assessment and
the fairgrounds’ strategy with
potential land use changes and
developments at the property.
• Kam Wah Chung State
Heritage Site: The city is coor-
dinating closely with the Ore-
gon State Parks & Recreation
Department to develop plans for
a new interpretive center.
OREGON'S 2ND
OREGON'S 2ND
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
REPUBLICAN
DEMOCRATIC
CANDIDATE FORUM
CANDIDATE FORUM
Get to know the Republican candidates
for U.S. Congress without leaving home.
Get to know the Democratic candidates
for U.S. Congress without leaving home.
Primary election is May 19
Primary election is May 19
Forums will be video recorded without audience
due to COVID-19 concerns.
Forums will be video recorded without audience
due to COVID-19 concerns.
Streaming live on this newspaper’s
Facebook page:
Streaming live on this newspaper’s
Facebook page:
Saturday May 2, 2020 • 5 p.m. & 7 p.m.
Friday, May 1, 2020 • 6:30
Watch after the event on this
newspaper’s website or on EOAlive.tv
Watch after the event on this
newspaper’s website or on EOAlive.tv
Submit your questions in advance by email to:
CD2forum@eomediagroup.com
or on Facebook Live during the event.
Submit your questions in advance by email to:
CD2forum@eomediagroup.com
or on Facebook Live during the event.
Moderated by Chris Rush - Regional Publisher,
EO Media Group
Moderated by Chris Rush - Regional Publisher,
EO Media Group
Live stream and video by EO Alive TV
Live stream and video by EO Alive TV
• A forum for the Democratic candidates
will be held on May 1 •
• A forum for the Republican candidates
will be held on May 2 •
S183626-1