A6
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
John Day Farmers Market in full swing
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
The John Day Farmers Market
is in full swing this summer, with
two new local vendors joining the
spaced-out, masked event Satur-
days from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Vendors and visitors alike took
precautions to comply with the gov-
ernor’s COVID-19 restrictions July
4.
Manager Stephanie LeQuieu
said the market is an excellent way
for entrepreneurs looking for inex-
pensive retail space. The cost to rent
a booth is $10.
She said, while food vendors
need to meet minimum federal and
state guidelines, the city does not
require them to have a business
license.
Fruit vendor Austin Cates, a
junior who had been looking for a
job, and Roni Hickerson decided to
sell cherries, plums and other fruit
that grows on their property.
“We figured it would be a good
way to get rid of our cherries, and
(Cates) needed to get a job,” Hick-
erson said.
Hickerson said it takes a couple
of hours per night to pick cherries
and plums on their property.
Vendors Natosha Mcleod, Trista
Cox and Katie Cox, otherwise
known as “Stylin NTK,” said they
were a group of “bored moms” who
decided to start selling their hand-
made jewelry, fresh eggs and car
air fresheners at the farmers market
this year.
Mcleod said so far three of them
have enjoyed the endeavor.
LeQuieu said, while it has been
slower this year, people generally
have an overall awareness of the
value of buying food locally.
“A farmers market really brings
your local artisans in one place,”
she said.
Planning commission approves
Dollar General site design
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
Eagle photos/Steven Mitchell
A mother with her baby purchases produce Saturday at the John Day Farmers Market. The
market will be operating every Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. until Oct. 17.
Bundles of kale at
the Harrison Ranch
booth Saturday
at the John Day
Farmers Market.
Dollar General moved
one step closer to begin-
ning construction with the
approval of their application
from the John Day Planning
Commission.
The planning commission
reviewed the staff report, held
a public hearing, asked ques-
tions and voted to give their
recommendation to approve
the application June 30.
The Zaremba group, on
behalf of Dollar General,
submitted the application to
construct a 9,100-square foot
store in front of Napa Auto
Parts, across the highway, in
between Timbers Bistro and
the John Day Trailer Park, at
700 W. Main St.
The Type III site design
review application states that
the project will include one
freestanding sign, parking
and landscaping improve-
ments with 36 parking
spaces, including two ADA
spaces, and a 36-foot-wide
driveway with a new access
approach to U.S. Highway
26.
Mary Ann Wervy, the
senior vice president of retail
development at Zaremba,
said Zaremba is the preferred
developer for Dollar General
and has received approval
from Dollar General to move
forward with the store in
John Day.
“We’re doing our due dil-
igence now with respect to
soils and environmental,”
Wervy said. “You’ll prob-
ably see somebody on the
site ... doing some testing for
us, and we’re here to seek
approval and move into full
construction drawing after
we receive your approval.”
Neale Ledgerwood from
the planning commission
asked what was going to be
done on the entrance into the
parking lot. City Manager
Nick Green said what has
been proposed is to decon-
struct or decommission the
entrance that is the closest to
Timbers on the west end and
relocate that so it’s essen-
tially across from the road
that goes to JD Rents and
Power Equipment.
The approach on the par-
cel between the John Day
Trailer Park and the Dol-
lar General will also move
closer to the Dollar General
by 10-15 feet.
Tim Unterwegner from
the planning commission
asked if they planned to fill
in the ground to bring the site
above the floodplain. Eric
Ferguson, the Dollar Gen-
eral engineer, said they cur-
rently designed to have the
finished floor 1.2 feet above
the floodplain.
The commission voted
to approve the site design
review on the condition that
Zaremba submit the land-
scaping plans, the outdoor
lighting specifications, the
floodplain development per-
mit and Oregon Department
of Transportation’s approval
for the traffic impact analysis.
Zaremba plans to submit
these items with their final
plans, which will be subject
to review by planning staff.
Transient room tax discussion continues during chamber meeting
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Grant County Cham-
ber of Commerce met June 18
and continued the conversation
on the transient room tax with
representatives from the city
of John Day. The chamber also
discussed relief for member-
ship fees for those in need and
a logo being developed that can
be used by the county and city.
When the conversation
began on the TRT, Cham-
ber Manager Tammy Bremner
shared during the meeting some
of the details of the conversa-
tion she had with John Day City
Manager Nick Green on May
27.
In the conversation, Green
told Bremner that he was going
to suggest to the city council
that they implement a city TRT
in addition to the county’s TRT
that goes to the chamber —
instead of implementing a city
TRT tax in place of the coun-
ty’s, she said.
“He did come in to see me,
and it didn’t sound like we were
going to meet again because he
was going to recommend to you
that the city have their own tax,
and at that time he said he was
going to suggest 4% because
he didn’t feel that 12% (the 8%
county rate plus a new 4% city
rate) would be too high for the
entire county,” Bremner said.
Bremner said Green told her
she could share that plan with
the chamber board.
“I was just going to inform
the board that we will just con-
tinue the way we always had,”
Bremner said.
John Day Mayor Ron Lund-
bom and City Councilor Shan-
non Adair were both present at
the chamber meeting on June
18 and said they were unaware
of the details in the conversation
between Green and Bremner
but added that they anticipate
having another work session on
the TRT.
Lundbom said he would
like the opportunity to con-
tinue the work session with the
chamber because the focus can
be on Ordinance No. 2012-04
since the previous meeting was
focused on outdated informa-
tion from an older ordinance.
“I would like to work
together, and I like the logo
happening here,” Adair said.
“I thought that from the begin-
ning that all of our, whether it’s
county, city, chamber, parks
and rec, we should be working
together to promote our area
and the businesses need to be
involved in that (TRT) discus-
sion too.”
Adair said the city never
intended to exclude the cham-
ber from all of the TRT funding.
Bremner said it was one of
the options presented during the
previous work session. Adair
said, while the option was pre-
sented, it did not mean it was
discussed or agreed upon prior
to the meeting and is not the
direction the city wants to go.
Lundbom added that other
taxes and ideas have been pre-
sented and recommended
before for extra revenue but
have also been turned down.
Representatives from the
city and chamber agreed they
were looking forward to an
opportunity to meet again and
work together. A date has not
been assigned yet for the next
work session.
Also at the meeting, cham-
ber board member Scotta Cal-
lister shared her concern about
members choosing to not renew
their membership because of
financial hardship from the
COVID-19 pandemic. She sug-
gested offering a discount or
allowing members to pay what
they can afford.
“I can live with that,” Frank-
lin said. “It gives them the
opportunity to do what they
want. If they want to pay the
whole thing, they can, and if
they don’t or can’t, they can
contribute whatever they want.”
The chamber voted to send a
note with renewal bills, stating
members can pay what they can
afford. The project to develop a
new Grant County logo is also
moving forward.
“We’ve been working for
months on creating a logo that
will be for Grant County and
not just for the Chamber of
Commerce, and we’re hoping
it will be usable and adaptable
by all the individual communi-
ties for use in their promotional
material,” Callister said. “It’ll
reflect our values, communities
and the spirit of Grant County.”
Board member Didgette
McCracken said the project is
75% completed.
Attributes and values deter-
mined by a survey were used in
helping create the logo.
“I think this will be ben-
eficial for the whole county
because we will have a symbol
that people can identify when
they think of Grant County,”
Franklin said. “So if each indi-
vidual community uses that
symbol in their own way, at
least it’s going to be identifiable
to the community as a whole.”
No Matter
how big or small your trophy was
or if you just want to share a hunting adventure,
send or drop off your best
hunting photos or stories
to
195 N Canyon Blvd., John Day, OR 97845 • kim@bmeagle.com
Your photos could be published in this year’s EAGLE HUNTING JOURNAL
Please have them to the Eagle by August 8.
S195775-1
S189136-1