A8
Blue Mountain Eagle
NEWS
Wednesday, August 5, 2020
Community HEALTH BEAT
County purchasing
robo-flaggers
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Quality Healthcare Close to Home
170 Ford Road, John Day • 541-575-1311 • www.bluemountainhospital.org
The Grant County Road
Department will soon begin
using an automated flagging
device, often referred to as
robo-flaggers.
“With automated flaggers,
you have another tool,” Grant
County Roadmaster Alan
Hickerson said. “It’s not going
to replace flaggers completely.”
Grant County Judge Scott
Myers said the total cost for
a set of automated flaggers is
$28,000.
The court also approved
the road department for a $700
expenditure to purchase an
electrostatic sprayer.
County Commissioner Sam
Palmer said the county could
get reimbursed for the cost
under the Coronavirus Aid,
Relief, and Economic Secu-
rity Act.
“We have to spend that
money by the end of Decem-
ber, or we have to send it
back,” he said.
In other county news:
• The court moved to des-
ignate 911 dispatchers as first
responders. Myers said the
county’s legal counsel found
no issues with the wording of
the resolution that Palmer had
concerns about.
• The court approved and
adopted the Natural Hazard
Mitigation plan.
• The court moved to pur-
chase a new ballot machine for
roughly $50,000. Myers said
the county would need it before
November, and the county had
the expenditure in the budget
for five years.
• The court moved to
appoint Thom Seals to the Nat-
ural Resource Advisory Com-
mittee with his appointment to
expire on Dec. 31, 2021.
• The court approved the
purchase of a new server for
the Grant County Sheriff’s
Office. Wade Waddel of the
sheriff’s office said the Edu-
cation Service District would
assist with the installation.
• The court approved the
signing of a memorandum
of understanding to install
repeater sites in Monument for
Grant County Amateur Radio
Emergency Service.
• The court reviewed and
supported a $5,000 expenditure
for rent at the Grant County
Regional Airport for the Emer-
gency Operations Center.
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
The John Day City Council members listened to hotel operators
in John Day during the discussions on the Transient Room Tax.
John Day hotel operators weigh
in on room tax discussions
City plans to add
additional occupancy
tax or supersede
county tax
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
August is National Immunization Month
August is National Immunization Awareness month. The world has come a long way since
immunizations were developed. In 1796 Edward Jenner inoculated his 13-year-old son with cowpox,
and demonstrated immunity to small pox. The small pox immunization was developed. A disease that
once ravaged the world killed an estimated 3 million people was eradicated. The concept is that if we
expose our immune system to inactive forms of viruses and bacteria, it can then effectively fight off the
illness before it takes hold and makes us sick. Once immune from these illnesses we are not vectors that
can transmit the illnesses to others. Diseases that once plagued the world such as polio, measles, tetnus
and rubella have nearly been eradicated. This has been because even individuals that are and were
healthy stepped up to protect not only themselves, but their communities.
We have the power to protect ourselves, our families and our community against serious
illness. Immunizations save lives. Even though healthy individuals are less prone to serious
consequences of some illnesses, we as a community can protect infants, the elderly and individuals are
who more susceptible to diseases by getting immunized ourselves. Diseases are less likely to take hold
and spread in a community as more individuals are immunized and do not serve as vectors to transmit
illness to others.
I have lived in Grant County for just over 11 years. I have loved being a part of the
community. Shortly after I arrived an announcement was made that a white supremist group was
considering relocating here. I was impressed by how quickly the community seemed to mobilize and
make a statement that they were not welcome here. My friend and colleague Dr. Thomas wore a yellow
ribbon on his stethoscope for years afterward which was a statement that started with that community
response to a group that would compromise the way people are treated and cared for in Grant
County. Since that time, I have been impressed with how quickly the community gathers to help when
one of its members fall ill or acquires some unexpected medical bills. Benefit dinners and auctions
always seem to be swiftly organized to provide financial as well as emotional support. I think it is fair to
say that in Grant County we take care of our own. I hope you will join me in protecting those among
whom we live and work by choosing to be immunized.
Dr. Zachary Bailey, MD
Blue Mountain
Care Center
Resident of the Month
Gordon Sindt
Gordon Sindt was born on May 20, 1938 in Whitefish, Montana to Lucille Motichka and Jack
Sindt. He has a brother and 4 sisters and they were raised in the Portland, Oregon area.
Gordon has never been married but has a lot a nieces and nephews. He worked for a graphic arts
place called ABDICKS and owned a bar called Dingheiser Tavern; after he sold that, he bought another
bar and then had to foreclose on Dingheiser so he went between the two bars until he eventually sold
them both.
He has traveled to Cairo, Egypt, England, Australia and Scotland. He specifically went to
Castletown, Scotland to visit his grandmothers’ birthplace. He has been all over Turkey, Istanbul,
Ankara, Amasya and Sinop.
Gordon enlisted in the US Airforce in Portland, Oregon and was sent to Sheppards Airforce Base in
Texas, then to Travis Airforce Base in San Francisco, California. He was then sent to Diyarbakir, Turkey
and from there to McCord Airforce Base in Washington; at which point he was honorably discharged.
Gordon loves to take walks, he would walk from SE Portland, Oregon across the river into
Washington Park. When he was younger, he had two bicycles - one was a Columbia with skinny
tires and the other was a Schwinn with wide tires. He rode all over Portland with his friends, Mike
and Rick. One time, they rode to Camas, Washington just to see what the smell was and it was a
papermill. Another time, they all were riding their bikes down Mount Tabor and he didn’t slow down
for a hairpin corner like his friends did and crashed into the men and women’s outhouses. He broke his
bike and got hurt. Joe Kuhal gave him a ride home on his bike.
Gordon came to the Blue Mountain Care Center on January 5, 2018.
S200794-1
Discussions on the Tran-
sient Room Tax in John Day
continued on July 28 as hotel
operators voiced their thoughts
on the two options the city is
evaluating: to have a city TRT
in addition to the county’s TRT,
or to have a city TRT in lieu of
the county’s TRT.
John Day City Manager
Nick Green said gaining resi-
dents and a stable growth rate
were important. He said that
the best effort to do that is
through outdoor recreation and
promoting tourism along with
the city’s culture.
“In order to do that, we’ve
got to have a source of invest-
ment capital to put into tourism
and tourism-related facilities,”
Green said.
He added projects like the
new hotel and event center and
outdoor pavilion would be eli-
gible for TRT funding.
He said the city has done
the best it can with the revenue
sources currently available, but
for their strategy to succeed,
they need deliberate invest-
ments in tourism.
Maulin Patel, from Amer-
ica’s Best Value Inn and Best
Western John Day Inn, said that
they were supportive of using
occupancy taxes to fund travel
and tourism-related activities
in John Day, but he shared his
concern about higher tax rates
for occupants.
“We feel like adding an
additional tax would divert
customers to lower tax paying
districts near John Day, specifi-
cally in the Burns/Hines area,”
Patel said.
He said, when people are
planning a trip, they’re looking
at the total cost of the travel,
including taxes. Patel said he
would highly suggest that the
city council adopt option two
to avoid raising TRT taxes on
their operations.
Harsh Patel from Dreamers
Lodge said he talked with cus-
tomers about how they would
feel about John Day having a
higher TRT rate and how that
would impact them visiting
John Day.
“A lot of them said that
John Day was a stop-by town,
as in they go from Bend to
Boise and just want a place to
stay,” Harsh Patel said. “They
did say Burns would be an
alternative.”
Councilor Elliot Sky asked
if there were any studies avail-
able on the impacts of raising
TRT rates and if it negatively
affects somebody coming to a
hotel in John Day. He said it
was hard for him to believe that
somebody would turn around
and drive 75 minutes south to
Burns to save 4% on their hotel
bill.
Greg Astley, from the Ore-
gon Restaurant and Lodging
Association, said there was
nothing specific, but anecdot-
ally, in Beaverton when they
increased their TRT by 4% for
the center of the arts, they were
right in line with Portland rates.
Some of the hotel operators
in the Beaverton area said that
business travelers still stayed
in the city, but when looking
at larger groups, like a tour-
ist group or a Little League
regional tournament, travelers
begin to look at the TRT rates
because it adds up.
“When you’re talking about
a couple dozen of rooms over
a period of a couple nights or a
week, it can have an impact on
that,” Astley said.
Councilor Dave Holland
said he still finds it hard to
believe somebody would drive
over 70 miles for the increase
in TRT rates. He said people
will book a room or when they
pull in and don’t like the room
rate they can go down the street
and find another hotel with a
rate that might be $20 less. He
said he doesn’t see the tax rate
being a bigger issue than the
overall room rate.
Maulin Patel said he thinks
putting more investment into
Main Street and re-evaluating
how the TRT is used would be
more beneficial than adding an
additional tax.
He also noted that the
growth of the TRT funds pro-
vided in the information for
the work session was based on
hotels charging higher rates.
“From what we’ve seen
since my father built it in 1985,
we’ve seen about the same
number of people stay in our
hotel, and two months of the
year we’re busy and the rest
is completely dead,” Maulin
Patel said. “So, trying to find
types of activities that would
bring people more than two
months of the year would help
support our economy.”
No decision can be made
in a study session, but Green
plans to bring up the matter at
the next council meeting.