NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Shooting with
iron sights
A
wise man told me at a
very young age, “you
can only shoot as good
as you can see.” Hence, most
of my serious hunting rifles
are equipped with some sort
of telescopic sight. A few,
however, are equipped with
the simpler, more rudimentary
iron sights.
There are two basic types
of iron sights, the open sight
(buckhorn
is another
moniker)
and the peep
sight. The
open sight
requires lin-
ing up the
Dale Valade
front sight
into the cen-
ter of a v-shaped notch in the
barrel-mounted rear sight, and
then once you’re on target,
you let fly. The peep sight is
a bit easier as you must only
“peep” through an aperture
in the receiver mounted rear
sight and then superimpose
the front sight against your
target.
Iron sights could be lik-
ened to vehicles equipped
with a manual transmission. If
you learn first how to drive a
“stick shift,” then learning to
drive an automatic is no big
deal. However, the inverse is
seldom true; those who learn
to shoot with a scope first typ-
ically have difficulty learn-
ing to shoot irons, as a rule.
All factory rifles used to come
standard with iron sights. If
you wanted a telescopic sight,
it was an aftermarket acqui-
sition to get your rifle drilled,
tapped and outfitted for such
use. Today, the inverse is true
as very few factory hunt-
ing rifles come outfitted with
open sights while nearly all
are ready out of the box to
have a scope mounted.
Most average folks con-
sider iron sights to be a close-
range setup at best. This sim-
ply isn’t so. Ask any of the
black powder cartridge rifle
shooters (who regularly ring
steel out to 1,000 yards with
peep sights) if they think
irons are only for the brush.
While I’m nowhere near
that same level of marksman
with iron sights, I do have a
similar classic taste. My first
.22 still wears only buckhorn
sights, and a few family heir-
looms are likewise oriented.
One such, a very old Win-
chester Model 1894 in .25-35
WCF is one of my very favor-
ite rifles featuring open sights.
I’ve taken multiple coyotes
with iron-sighted lever guns
over the years but have yet to
take a deer or elk with a rifle
thusly outfitted. It’s definitely
on my hunting bucket list.
Per my opening state-
ment, I will easily concede
that telescopic sights make
hitting long distance targets
much easier as a rule simply
because you can see those tar-
gets better with magnifica-
tion. However, if your rifle
is equipped with quality iron
sights, you’re hardly hand-
icapped to only super close
ranges. Practice is a must for
any good shooting, but mas-
tery is possible. So before you
go and hock the family heir-
looms for a 6.5 Creedmoor
with a Nightforce 5-25x scope
to shoot deer out of your
ground blind at 100 yards, at
least give the old iron sights a
try. You may be surprised!
Do you use iron sights?
Write us at shootingthebree-
zebme@gmail.com!
Dale Valade is a local
country gent with a love for
the outdoors, handloading,
hunting and shooting.
A9
Prairie City School now offering full-day preschool
$180,000 grant will fund
full-time teacher and aide
for 15 students
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
Thanks to a grant from the Oregon
Department of Education, Prairie City
School will be able to provide an all-
day preschool program starting this
school year.
Funding for the grant is being pro-
vided through the Preschool Promise
Program.
Prairie City Superintendent Casey
Hallgarth said, when he submitted the
grant, he was not sure if the program
was going to be funded due to cuts
happening in the state, but the program
received funding.
While Prairie City previously pro-
vided a half-day preschool program,
the $180,000 awarded from the grant
will fund all-day preschool for 15 stu-
dents and pay for a full-time teacher
Eagle file photo
Prairie City School District Superin-
tendent/Principal Casey Hallgarth.
and aide.
The stipulation with the grant is that
the school needs to hire somebody who
has a bachelor’s degree, according to
Hallgarth.
“We’re looking for someone that
has teaching experience, especially in
the preschool area,” Hallgarth said.
Jill Wright, who is the current
preschool instructor and cheerlead-
ing coach, does not have a bachelor’s
degree, but has 25 year’s worth of
experience and will continue to work
as the preschool moves to full time.
“Our vision here at Prairie City is
that we want to combine someone
that’s going to work well with Jill, and
they’re pretty much going to co-teach
the class,” Hallgath said.
As long as the child is 3-4 years
old, parents can apply for the program
from anywhere in Grant County.
Hallgarth said some of the ben-
efits of transitioning to a full-time
preschool class is having higher
enrollment numbers for the growing
school, helping kids develop a rou-
tine and giving teachers more time to
identify how some of the kids learn.
“Going full-day preschool is
going to help us identify quicker the
kids that learn quicker, or for the kids
that are struggling, we can start iden-
tifying there struggles and help them
out sooner,” Hallgarth said.
Hallgarth said this is important
because state testing begins in the
third grade. He added that this will
give an opportunity to gather data
and compare how students are doing
and compare the testing between
part-time and full-day preschool
students.
Another benefit for the full-day
preschool students is the chance to
participate in more assemblies and
embrace the culture at Prairie City
School. The preschool program is
planned to be taught on campus, and
Hallgarth said the school is working
hard to provide a safe learning envi-
ronment for their students.
“When we reopen, we are going to
be an on-site school, but our goal is
to bring back as many normalcy and
routines as we can and do it in the saf-
est manner,” Hallgarth said. “We’re
hiring extra staff to clean, and our
goal is to work with the community.”
Call Prairie City School at 541-
820-3314 if interested in signing up
for the class. Additional information
can be found on pcsd4.com and reg-
istration can be found on https://5il.
co/isfi.
Report recommends expanding fairgrounds camping
New RV and tent
sites could double
camping revenue
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
An update was given on
a report providing ways the
Grant County Fairgrounds
could expand and remain
profitable.
The report presented during
the John Day City Council on
July 28, co-developed by con-
sulting firm EcoNorthwest and
landscape architecture firm
Walker Macy, recommends
expanding the fairgrounds by
increasing the number of rec-
reational vehicle camping
sites from 25 to 34, which is
a 36% expansion, according to
the report.
The new RV sites would be
located adjacent to the exist-
ing RV park and occupy part
of the orchard area. It also rec-
ommends the creation of 27
new tent camping sites along
with two new bathroom build-
ings for the camping areas.
“Nine doesn’t sound like a
lot, but it is about a third more
than what we have today,”
said John Day City Manager
Nick Green. “They also came
up with some really cool site
plans for how they can max-
imize the value of the fair-
grounds property.”
While the feasibility anal-
ysis from the report considers
only the new sites, the report
proposed different ideas such
as multiple river access points,
two potential locations for
walk-in tent camping and a
3-acre flexible event site.
Fair Manager Mindy Win-
egar said the designs have
brought up more ideas in con-
tinuing discussions on improv-
ing the fairgrounds. She hoped
the team would have worked
more on Keerins Hall and the
rental house, but said the over-
all report was a good concept.
“It (the report) wasn’t a
complete master plan,” said
Winegar. “It was more of
ideas. It wasn’t taking the
whole grounds. If we were
going to take the whole
grounds and look at every
single bit of it, it would have
been more like $75,000, not
$30,000, for them to look at
it.”
Councilor Elliot Sky asked
Winegar how she felt about
the conclusion of the final
price tag versus the revenue it
would generate and the like-
lihood of going through with
the design.
Winegar said she could not
answer that question yet since
the county court and the fair
board have not seen the report
yet.
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
Grant County Fairgrounds Manager Mindy Winegar discusses fairgrounds design plans at a John
Day City Council meeting.
“It’s a sticker shock a lit-
tle bit, but it’s doable,” Win-
egar said.
The report states that
the operating costs for the
existing campground in the
annual budget projection
is $77,973 for 2019-2020.
The projected operating
expenses for the expanded
camping facilities would
be an additional $51,604,
creating a total operating
cost of $129,577.
While the operating cost
would go up, the report proj-
ects an increase in revenue
to cover the rise in cost.
“Recent Fairgrounds rev-
enue data associated with
the RV park show that, over
the past few years, gross rev-
enues have averaged about
$72,000 per year,” accord-
ing to the report. The report
projects that the expan-
sion of the RV and tent sites
could potentially provide up
to $209,000 annually.
John Day Mayor Ron
Lundbom said he hopes that
the county will implement
some of the ideas presented
in the report.
“We’ll have to remind
the county what they agreed
to when we do this ... that
they would implement some
of the changes that were
brought up,” Lundbom said.
This joint design project
was an investment between
the city of John Day and
Grant County, and the report
will be discussed again
during a Grant County Court
session.
In other city news:
• The John Day City
Council voted to approve a
resolution adopting the 2020
Grant County Multi-Ju-
risdictional Natural Haz-
ard Mitigation Plan. Adopt-
ing the plan will give the
opportunity to pursue FEMA
funding for natural hazard
mitigation.
• The city council moved
to approve the city manager
to sign a construction agree-
ment with Iron Triangle for
$54,857 for the Seventh
Street Phase 1 parking lot.
• John Day city councilors
shared their thoughts on the
fallout from the pool plans.
Members of the city council
focused on the importance of
voting and how the citizens
in the county lost a chance to
vote.
“All citizens in Grant
County should vote on that
and the Oregon move to
Idaho border,” Councilor
Greg Habberly said. “It’s up
to the citizens. It’s not up
to the council, the mayor. It
should be up to the citizens
of Grant County.”
Thank You
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For Supporting All Our Communities.
Bank of Eastern Oregon
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Thank You
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75
Years
S198720-1
SHOOTING
THE BREEZE
Wednesday, August 5, 2020
SINCE 1945
Member FDIC
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