NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
A3
Lawmakers restore funding for
county fairs during special session
Funding will not
be cut in half as
previously discussed
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
John Day City Manager Nick Green expresses his frustration
at the lack of support from the state when it comes to coro-
navirus relief.
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
City investing virus relief funding
into broadband, organizations
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
Eagle file photo
Raney Anderson was the Grand Champion for Market Steer at the Grant County Fair in 2019. With
her is buyer Russ Young for Iron Triangle.
“WE DON’T JUST TAKE THE $25,000 THAT EACH
FAIR GETS AND SPEND IT. FAIRS GENERATE
FURTHER BUSINESS ACTIVITY WITH THAT MONEY,
FROM THE EVENTS THEY PUT ON
TO THE FAIRGROUNDS’ RENTALS.”
—Bart Noll, Oregon Fairs Association chairman
R-Vale, said he and several
other lawmakers worked hard
to maintain the funding.
“They are an extremely
critical resource for all of
Oregon,” Findley said of
county fairs. “There’s a lot
of good rural legislators, and
it was pretty widespread that
they do play a major role in
communities.”
Noll said the testimony
during the special session
reflected how essential fairs
are to Oregon.
“So many people thought
that it was important that they
took time out of their day to
get signed up to testify,” Noll
said. “They got online during
the meeting. They prepared
their testimony and deliv-
ered it to the subcommittee.
It is a substantial investment
in time and energy to do the
testimony, and there were a
lot of us there so it was very
encouraging.”
The Legislature, after
months of work, balanced
the budget in a one-day spe-
cial session and shored up
a $1 billion budget shortfall
that erupted as result from the
COVID-19 global pandemic.
On July 16 the Joint
Ways and Means Committee
released their budget re-bal-
ance plan, which included,
among other things, the $1
million cut in lottery revenue
to the county fair’s account.
Noll said the announce-
ment took him by surprise
because the OFA had been
assured the funding would be
in the budget proposal. Noll
said each county fair receives
a “modest amount.”
Grant County Fairgrounds
Manager Mindy Winegar said
the potential cut would have
been “pretty devastating” for
the county.
Winegar said she knew of
three Grant County residents
who wrote their elected rep-
resentatives, including Donna
Palmer, Mary Ellen Brooks
and Courtney Montague.
“I’m from Grant County,
total population of about
7,000 people, and the county
fair is the one thing that brings
us all together once a year,”
Palmer wrote. “Although we
get support from the few busi-
nesses in our county, there is
just not enough resources to
make up the gap that would be
left if you were to cut the cur-
rent dollars we receive. Please
help us continue to bring our
county citizens together for
our Grant County Fair.”
Complaint against school board member unfounded
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Grant School District 3 school
board voted that a complaint against a
board member was unfounded during a
school board meeting on Aug. 19.
A complaint was filed against board
member Jake Taylor by Kristi Moore, the
former dean of students at Grant Union
High School, after noticing that Taylor
shared a post via Facebook.
The post shared on Facebook was
written by Shaun Robertson, a parent of a
student, and the post criticized Moore for
her work as the Grant Union girl’s varsity
basketball coach and the school’s lack of
response for his complaint. Taylor shared
the post and then responded to a friend
who commented on his share.
“I understand fully how ‘things’ work
inside school districts and behind closed
doors,” Taylor said in his response on Face-
book. “I simply believe that employees
should not only be qualified for whatever
position they are hired for, but also should
do their job as required by the district.”
Board Chair Chris Cronin said the eth-
ics policy alleged to have been violated
is board member ethics code number 22.
Code number 22 states that, when
using social media websites, board mem-
bers will treat and refer to other board
member, staff, students and the public
with respect.
During the discussion, board member
Tracy Wyllie asked for clarification from
Taylor regarding the post for better under-
standing since she felt the comments from
him were not kind nor with respect.
Taylor said he read through the post,
and it was all about what he was involved
in for the last year and a half that directly
involved his daughter.
“I may or may not have agreed with
everything in the post, but I shared it so
other people could read it if they had any
other questions directly related to that
post,” Taylor said. “That was not my writ-
ing. Another person wrote the post, but
as I have learned, if you like anything on
Facebook, you inherit everything that was
within it.”
He said he has liked a lot of things
on Facebook that he probably would not
agree with 100%.
“I was very much involved with
what that post was about and I’m not
going to be a hypocritical and say I feel
this way one day and feel a different way
a different day,” Taylor said.
He clarified that the comment he made
on how things work inside school dis-
tricts and behind closed doors had noth-
ing to do with being a school board mem-
ber because all their meetings are public.
“As far as the social media part ... I
was completely unaware that you inherit
all of the content 100%,” Taylor said. “As
far as a training on social, I’m 100% for
that.”
Cronin said one of the things she
learned about social media is that when
a post is shared there needs to be some-
thing saying that you do not completely
endorse the post.
“One of the areas that I have learned
on my time on the board is that once you
become a board member you become a
public official and your role becomes dif-
ferent than when you were a patron or par-
ent,” Cronin said. “You are a public offi-
cial at all times. It’s a learning experience
for all of us, and it’s a difficult thing.”
The school board voted to find the
complaint unfounded and no further
action is required.
TOM CHRISTENSEN
CHRISTENSEN
TOM
Frustrations of a lack of
support from the state and
discussions on being pro-
active during a pandemic
dominated the conversa-
tion during a John Day City
Council meeting Aug. 11.
During the meeting,
John Day City Manager
Nick Green talked about the
state providing $52,000 in
COVID-19 relief funds to
the city and how low it is in
comparison to the need of
relief from the pandemic.
“These amounts are
ridiculously low,” states
the agenda for the meet-
ing. “The State has re-di-
rected critical funding for
education and coronavirus
recovery from local gov-
ernments to special interest
groups, while denying fund-
ing applications for basic
infrastructure needed to ful-
fill their constantly chang-
ing guidelines on what is
and is not ‘allowed.’”
The lack of broadband
access needed for online
education and responding
to 24 executive orders from
March 8 to the end of June
affecting policy framework
were two problems Green
cited in explaining why
$52,000 was little help
“When we found out
that the entirety of our relief
from coronavirus in the city
of John Day amounts to
$52,000, it got my ire up,”
Green said. “The thought
that I had in my mind was
what exactly do you expect
us to do with $52,000 when
we don’t have broadband
to our elementary school or
many residents, and you just
turned down our application
for funding to correct that.”
Green submitted an
application to Business Ore-
gon for $2 million in broad-
band grants, which would
help finish the broadband
project in John Day and at
Humbolt Elementary, but the
application was turned down
with no explanation given.
Green said the city needs
to take proactive measures,
and he said Sen. Lynn Find-
ley is in full agreement with
the city’s position.
Oregon received about
$1.63 billion in coronavirus
relief funds. Under the fed-
eral directive, some local
governments received their
allocations directly with
about $247 million sent to
Portland, and to Washing-
ton and Multnomah coun-
ties. Other local govern-
ments were to receive $625
million.
However, the Legisla-
ture and Gov. Brown have
controlled the process with
about $200 million put into
a state-run account in which
local governments could
apply for allocations.
On July 14, legislative
leaders allocated $200 mil-
lion of the relief money to
special interest groups. On
Aug. 17, legislative leaders
approved a plan to use fed-
eral funds to buy $105 mil-
lion of personal protective
equipment, despite objec-
tions from over half of all
lawmakers.
Many lawmakers were
against the plan on Aug.
17 and wanted funds to
go directly to local gov-
ernments to spend on
their COVID-19 priori-
ties instead of having the
agenda dictated by the
state.
Green said one of the
reasons the state is hold-
ing onto funds is because
they haven’t seen John Day
spend the money yet.
“I’d like to spend our
money tomorrow and then
send them a letter at the end
of the day and say money’s
gone,” Green said. “The
other issue is that we’re still
in this reactionary mind-
set where you pay people
to not work... The reality is
that you need to put people
to work.”
He said there will always
be people critical with how
the city will spend their
relief funds, but a solid
implementation of the funds
would be in small infra-
structure projects.
The
city
council
approved $15,000 to go to
Commstructures
Profes-
sional Services to design
the broadband extension to
Humbolt Elementary, which
will make this project ready
for building. This project
will provide Humbolt with
faster internet speeds to
carry out online education
from the school building.
The
city
council
approved $2,500 to the John
Day Farmer’s Market after
manager Stephanie LeQuieu
said that the county will not
be funding the market after
October.
The city council then
approved up to $2,500 to
support 4-H students at the
fair livestock auction by
adding $20 to each animal
auctioned.
Steel on the inside where it matters most.
CONSTRUCTION
Debbie Ausmus
245 South Canyon Blvd.
John Day, OR 97845
OPEN WED. & THUR.
9 am - 5 pm
(541) 410-0557 • (541) 575-0192
CCB# 106077
Shops
541-575-1113
debbie.ausmus@
countryfinancial.com
S199328-1
855 • 668 • 7211
Monday - Thursday
7am-
6pm
Monday
- Thursday
7am-
6pm
Friday
8am
- 5pm
Friday Sharpe
8am - 5pm
Mendy
FNP
S199327-1
139101
S199329-1
Mendy
Sharpe FNP
Apppointments
available
541-963-6577
541-573-6377
541-576-2160
Industrial
Sandy, OR
S199192-1
S199330-1
541-523-6377
Commercial
www.WSBNW.com
24 hrs/7 days wk
REMODELS • NEW CONSTRUCTION • POLE BUILDINGS
CONCRETE EXCAVATION • SHEET ROCK • SIDING
ROOFING • FENCES • DECKS • TELESCOPING FORKLIFT SERVICES
Garages
Serving Eastern Oregon since 1959!
Pharmacy • Hallmark Cards • Gifts • Liquor Store
Heppner
Condon
Boardman
(541) 676-9158
(541) 256-1200
(541) 481-9474
www.MurraysDrug.com
S202167-1
Members of the Ore-
gon County Fair board per-
suaded lawmakers not to cut
$1 million in funding in hear-
ings before both the Joint
Ways and Means Committee
and the General Government
subcommittee.
County fairs across the
state will not see the 50% cut
in state funding they were
expecting.
Bart Noll, chairman of the
Oregon Fairs Association,
said about eight to 10 people
from across the state, includ-
ing county commissioner,
fair managers and county fair
board members testified
before both the committee
and subcommittee.
“We had an excellent
response, excellent atten-
dance and an exceptional
testimony at that subcom-
mittee hearing,” Noll said.
That, he said, played a
significant role in securing
the funding.
Noll said OFA made the
case that fairs bring a return on
the state’s $1 million in lottery
funding. He said each county
fair receives $25,000 and
leverages the money to gen-
erate various income streams
and provide a benefit to the
residents of their respective
communities.
“We don’t just take the
$25,000 that each fair gets and
spend it,” he said. “Fairs gen-
erate further business activ-
ity with that money, from the
events they put on to the fair-
grounds’ rentals.”
With the number of fairs
forced to shut down this year
due to COVID-19, he said he
would have been question-
ing whether some fairs would
have been able to open back
up again in 2021.
State Sen. Lynn Findley,