A6
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
John Day supports allowing voters to decide on aquatic center
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
The details on the proposed
aquatic center are out, but the
conversation during a recent
John Day City Council meet-
ing focused on voting and what
would happen if cities decided
to vote against establishing a
new county service district.
The John Day City Council
passed a resolution on June 9
to support Grant County initi-
ating a ballot measure to estab-
lish a county service district for
the purpose of providing and
operating a new public swim-
ming pool for the residents of
central Grant County.
While John Day passed the
resolution, Mt. Vernon city
council voted against a similar
resolution during a meeting in
April.
One of the factors in Mt.
Vernon’s decision was a sur-
vey the city sent out to 200 res-
idents, according Mt. Vernon
Mayor Kenny Delano, where
30% sent a response back to the
city with 81% of respondents
saying they would not want to
participate in the pool venture,
according to City Recorder
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
The John Day City Council and audience on June 9.
Tami Kowing in April.
The survey focused on the
proposed aquatic taxing dis-
trict, which would encompass
Prairie City, Mt. Vernon, Can-
yon City, Seneca and their rural
fire districts. Delano confirmed
that the city council is staying
firm on their decision.
“We’ve had some discus-
sions (since the vote), but we
didn’t think it was necessary
to revisit that decision,” Del-
ano said. “The hospital bond
is expiring, but to place a nev-
er-ending tax burden along
with the bond, the citizens I’ve
talked with don’t want that. If
they want to do that, they’re
going to have to go about it and
redraw those district lines.”
John Day Mayor Ron
Lundbom said he asked several
of his employees from Mt. Ver-
non what they did with their
ballots. One said he left it in
his pickup and doesn’t vote on
surveys anyway, and the other
employee said he will vote
when it’s time to vote on an
actual ballot.
Lundbom added that it
would have been nice to have
gone to Mt. Vernon and present
the numbers to them with the
final draft of the report because
he feels there are misunder-
standings going around.
“I don’t think 40% of peo-
ple responding to a survey is an
accurate response, and whether
80% of those people said no,
that’s still not the majority of
the 200 people in Mt. Vernon
that got the ballot,” Lundbom
said.
Lundbom asked how this
would affect the tax rate, and
if the rate would go up if other
cities like Mt. Vernon said no
to supporting the proposed
plan.
“No, if they opt out, they’re
out, and the financials don’t
work anymore,” said John Day
City Manager Nick Green.
The city council then talked
about giving people in the
county a chance to vote if they
support or disagree with the
pool.
“I think it should be put on
the ballot, no questions asked,
and it’s up to the people to
vote on it,” said Councilor
Gregg Habberly. “It’s not the
city council or the county tell-
ing them they’re gonna pay it
if the citizens didn’t get to vote
on it.”
Delano explained why vot-
ing also played a factor in turn-
ing down the resolution. He
said that Mt. Vernon could eas-
ily be outvoted by John Day
residents alone to be a part of
a project that many Mt. Vernon
residents are not interested in.
Dusty Williams of John
Day also asked during the June
9 John Day City Council meet-
ing if the ballot were to move
forward with Mt. Vernon not
wanting to be a part of the dis-
trict, wouldn’t John Day out-
vote them and force them to be
a part of the district.
Green said there are more
voters outside of John Day
in the initiative than there are
within the city.
“John Day would not carry
the vote,” Green said. “There
are more people in Prairie City
and Canyon City combined
than there are in John Day, and
when you add Mt. Vernon, Sen-
eca and all the area in between,
there’s quite a few more people
outside the city than within it.”
Grant County Commis-
sioner Sam Palmer was at
the June 9 meeting and said
he did some community out-
reach for feedback on how he
should vote or approach the
situation.
“The question I pose to
business owners, property
owners, taxpayers is the gover-
nor imposed a lot of new taxes
on taxpayers, I take that into
account, but I think it’s every-
body’s right to vote on some-
thing,” Palmer said. “I’m lean-
ing towards the camp of voting
to put it on the ballot if it comes
to us.”
The John Day Swim Team
plans to attend the Canyon City
City Council meeting on June
23, past press time. Their goal
is for Canyon City to pass a
resolution stating they support
Grant County initiating the for-
mation of an aquatics district
by placing it as a ballot mea-
sure for the voters to decide in
the November election.
“We want an opportunity
to campaign and vote,” reads
a message on the John Day
Swim Team Facebook page.
Grant Union shop and gym projects nearing completion
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
While school’s out for
the summer, work continues
for several projects at Grant
Union Junior-Senior High
School.
The gym and the new
automotive shop continue to
see progress as both projects
look to be finished prior to the
new school year.
The gym is looking at an
addition of new flooring and
bleachers for visitors and stu-
dents to enjoy.
Grant Union Principal
Ryan Gerry said the bleach-
ers have been in the works for
several years because the cur-
rent bleachers were installed
in 1974.
“They recognized the need
for an update with the bleach-
ers system we currently had
in place,” Gerry said.
Two years ago the floor
was re-sanded, and last sum-
mer, while seismic upgrade
work was underway on the
gym and other areas of the
building, the entire floor was
damaged when a rain storm
came throughr. Repairs were
made on the damaged areas
prior to the 2019 basketball
season, but now the floor
is being replaced through
insurance.
“We took the opportunity
to pair them both up at the
same time, and if we’re going
to get a new floor, this is the
time to get new bleachers as
well,” Gerry said. “We’re
really excited for the opportu-
nity to get it all done in one
Eagle file photo
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
Grant School District Superintendent Bret Uptmor said Humbolt
Elementary will need $5 million in repairs.
The Grant Union High School gym floor and bleachers are almost complete.
fell swoop.”
While COVID-19 shifted
education to distance learn-
ing and left school build-
ings closed with less traffic
than before, the silver lin-
ing was that it did allow the
time frame of this project be
bumped up while saving the
district money.
With the closure, the dis-
trict didn’t have to pay to
have the bleachers removed,
which saved quite a bit of
money, according to Gerry.
Hiring out to have the bleach-
ers removed would have cost
about $50,000.
They were able to have the
district’s maintenance staff
help get the bleaches out and
remove the floor.
“The whole COVID situ-
ation has not been great, but
this has allowed for some
projects to take place, and so
we were able to remove the
floor and the bleachers on our
own,” Gerry said.
Currently, Hicks Broth-
ers Wood Floors of Meridian,
Idaho, are installing the floor
and finishing the sanding.
They will also work on paint-
ing and striping of the line.
In the first part of August,
Nor-Pac Seating Inc. will be
putting in the bleachers, and
the facility should be ready
by the start of the school
year. The new bleachers will
be ADA compliant, and each
section will have four walk-
ing aisles with handrails,
according to Gerry.
The funds for the new
shop came from High School
Success — funds from Mea-
sure 98 — to build this facil-
ity to provide more space for
the growing career and tech-
nical education automotive
program at Grant Union.
This project started in
October, and the plan is to
have it ready to go for the
start of the 2020 school year.
“This is really going
to free up our metal shop,
because right now, we’re run-
ning our metals program with
Mr. (Wayne) Suchorski and
Mr. (Jason) Miller’s automo-
tive classes out of the same
building,” Gerry said. “This
will free up a lot of room for
our students and allow each
program to flourish.”
Electrical work, adding
three-bay garage doors, com-
pleting the firewall, adding
a restroom and moving the
equipment are some of the
last things to complete the
project, according to Gerry.
“We put a lot of energy
into these projects, and we’re
excited for the completion
and the unveiling of these
projects for our students and
community,” Gerry said.
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Grant School District
will look into building
new high school
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Grant School District
board members plan to
address its facilities needs in
the fall, which include look-
ing into building a new high
school and making major
repairs at Humbolt Elemen-
tary, Superintendent Bret
Uptmor said.
The cost to replace Grant
Union High School would
be $45 million, while major
improvements at Humbolt
would be $5 million, Uptmor
said.
BLRB Architects, a firm
certified by the Oregon
Department of Education to
conduct the district’s assess-
ment, wrapped up the evalu-
ation May 19.
The facility assessment
was conducted on the dis-
trict’s four buildings through
the ODE’s $20,000 Technical
Assistance Program facilities
assessment and long-range
planning grant.
ODE awarded the district
the grant last year to assess
the physical condition and
determine the level of defi-
ciencies and provide an esti-
mate for repair or replace-
ment costs of the district’s
schools and administrative
office.
The study found several
critical problems that need
to be addressed, according to
BLRB’s assessment.
Uptmor said a committee
made up district staff, com-
munity members and other
stakeholders decided that
the best use of the funds is
to look into replacing Grant
Union High School.
“Is there a definitive plan?
I would say no,” he said.
“The board will review the
BLRB assessment and plan-
ning information, and with
guidance from the document,
the board will begin the next
phase and making decision
on next steps.”
Uptmor said the school
district is included in a flood
plan with John Day.
“We will need to include
that in our discussion as
well,” he said.
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