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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 30, 2020)
NEWS MyEagleNews.com Action plans established for tourism in John Day By Rudy Diaz Blue Mountain Eagle A virtual two-day summit in John Day established possible action plans to accomplish various tour- ism goals in the city. The Recreation Economy for Rural Communities program, which is a program sponsored by the Envi- ronmental Protection Agency, held the summit Sept. 21-22. Local stakeholders and federal partners participated in discus- sions and workshops focused on the goals for tourism in John Day and possible actions to accomplish them. Holly Fowler from Northbound Ventures and Meryl Harrell from Meryl Harrell Consulting hosted the summit and presented to the John Day City Council the key points. “EPA does this because it advances their mission of building healthy places, protecting human health, and this is a way for com- munities to achieve the type of place where they want to live and thrive,” said Harrell. Harrell said the steering com- mittee came together to identify goals for the workshop that would feed into the action planning. The goals shared during their presentation were: promoting John Day’s Main Street and the gate- ways near public land and commu- nities with a focus on new brand- ing and new promoting in the city; accelerating and incubating busi- nesses in John Day to expand ser- vices that connect to outer rec- reation; galvanizing community support and participation in John Day’s recreational economy; and expanding outdoor recreation opportunities for everyone in John Day. For promoting John Day’s Main Street as a gateway and new brand- ing for the city, the steering com- mittee thought a cohesive brand- ing and communication strategy needed to be worked on, according to Fowler. “To do that they wanted to make sure there was a stakeholder group that was broad and diverse help- ing shape that (branding) and then there were concrete infrastructure ideas around information kiosks in key locations,” Fowler said. The Eagle/Rudy Diaz John Day City Councilor Shannon Adair, left, City Manager Nick Green, center, and Mayor Lundbom during the city council meeting Sept. 22. Holly Fowler from Northbound Ventures and Meryl Harrell from Meryl Harrell Consulting presented to the council online. “And then the idea is to have dis- tant entrance and exit markers for town.” For accelerating and incubating businesses, there were four actions the steering committee came up with. Harrell said the first action was creating a plan to use the Iron Triangle shop near government road, which was recently acquired by the city, as an outdoor recre- ation business incubator. “With the idea that sometimes when you’re starting a business, space can be a premium, and that’s a high startup cost,” Harrell said, “why not provide this space as a way to drive down those early costs and at the same time facili- tate a network of businesses that can support one another?” The space could also be used as storage for outdoor recreational businesses and rentals. Other action items were to host a community roundtable to con- tinue to identify gaps in services, amenities and businesses that community members want to see; re-evaluate the use of lodging tax funds and organize a partnership to provide more business training support. For galvanizing community support and participation in rec- reation economy, one action idea was to have a community coordi- nator position tasked with outreach and making sure community mem- bers will have opportunities to pro- vide feedback for planning or deci- sion making. For expanding outdoor recre- ation opportunities, Fowler said some of the key actions are to pro- vide a regional trail master plan with the many developing trails in John Day, a recreation map and building an aquatic center. “We understand that there is some history here, but the leading sentiment (from the steering com- mittee) was we can’t raise a gen- eration of outdoor water enthusiast and be a river community if kids don’t know how to swim,” Harrell said. Meryl said there will be three more calls and sessions to work together to refine and add more details for the action plans, which will give the city tangible next steps to accomplish. “The master plan would really help shape all of those policy changes that need to happen and give more weight to each one,” City Manager Nick Green said. “We talked specifically about ATVs (at the summit), and it’s great that we can open up highway corridors, and we need to do that, but we also want to have guys that can do rent- als and guided tours.” Harrell said this is the inaugu- ral year of this program with 170 applications submitted from com- munities around the nation with 10 communities chosen. “It was very competitive, and only 10 communities received this assistance, and John Day is right in there,” Meryl said. Green said no dollar value is associated with the program, but the city is receiving help from a planning team to consider chal- lenges and opportunities for the recreational activities prioritized and develop an action plan. Wednesday, September 30, 2020 John Day greenhouse sees progress online 40% discount while restaurants and retailers get a 20% discount. Green said that the website The John Day greenhouse contin- receives about 20 unique visitors ues to grow its online roots. per day, and almost 8% become John Day City Manager Nick customers. “This is the one that I would say Green presented a report that showed the greenhouse’s first 90 days on we’re the most proud of, customer the e-Commerce platform, and retention,” Green said. “Year-to-date broke down the $13,115 gross sales there are 176 people that purchased ($11,522 net sales after discounts through the platform, and two-thirds applied) and statistics on the website are repeat customers. That’s a stable customer base for a start-up venture.” traffic. Green said the greenhouse site has Online, the greenhouse man- aged to sell 1,504 leafy greens, also received more traffic than other 1,396 cucumbers, 708 pounds (or city sites as well. “This has become a great tourism pints) of tomatoes, 510 fresh herbs and market- and an assort- ment of fruits, ing platform salad packs for us, and we and miscella- have not even neous items attempted to market out- at the John side of Grant Day Farm- er’s Market, County,” Green said. according to The Eagle/Rudy Diaz The green- the agenda for A variety of produce at the John Day green- house also the meeting. W h i l e house can be bought online through their c o m p l e t e d their first leafy greens website. internship pro- is the item gram with Zach- most sold based on volume, slicer tomatoes have ary Ostberg, a high school student brought in the most amount of gross who started his freshmen year this sales. year. Ostberg worked with the green- The three-bay hydroponic green- house crew for a month in August. house, which was financed by a He worked about 20 hours a $350,000 Special Public Works Fund week and would help a greenhouse loan from Business Oregon, now pro- employee with seed propagation, vides 18 products such as a variety of transplanting, fertilizing, pest man- cucumbers, tomatoes, cantaloupes agement and getting orders ready for customers. and lettuce. “When I got there I enjoyed it, and The first challenge the greenhouse faced in 2020 was the shift in cus- it was really fun,” Ostberg said. tomers of the greenhouse in March Another problem the greenhouse due to COVID-19. had to solve was an infiltration of “Our go-to market strategy was aphids, bugs that sap nutrient liquids business-to-business sales, primar- from plants, which affected the let- ily through the grocery store, so we tuce production. wanted to sell through Chester’s The city eradicated the crops that (Thriftway) and then to our restau- had been infiltrated, reseeded and had rants,” Green said. “By March our to start over with some of the crop. restaurant customers had pretty much “We had a crew come in and been wiped out. They were forced to reseal every potential penetration, close due to COVID.” put up new bug netting and tripled In April, the city began testing the amount of bug traps,” Green said. direct-to-consumer sales, according The city also used Neem Oil, an to Green. The decision was made in organic pesticide, to help eradicate May to sell directly through the web- the bugs. site johndaygreenhouse.com. “We figured it out and they were They city still does busi- completely eradicated,” Green said. ness-to-business sales to local “Hard lesson to learn, and we learned restaurants and grocery stores while it the hard way, but I think we’re back running the e-commerce. Busi- on track and the lettuce should be ness-to-business customers receive a back online again.” By Rudy Diaz Blue Mountain Eagle Redeemer Lutheran Church Come Worship with us at John Day Valley Mennonite Church 24/7 Inspirational Christian Broadcasting Meeting every Sunday at Mt. Vernon Grange Hall Tune into KSPL 98.1 FM Sunday School ...............................9:30 a.m. Sunday Morning Worship ............10:50 a.m. For more information, call 541 620-0340 Pastor Leland Smucker Everyone Welcome • 541-932-2861 P rairie B aptist C hurch 238 N. McHaley St., Prairie City Sunday School (all ages) .......9:00 a.m. Sunday Morning Worship .10:30 a.m. Awana (Oct.-Apr.) ................3:00 p.m. Youth Group .........................5:30 p.m. St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church Corner of S Canyon Blvd and SW 2 nd Mon. - Fri. Mass - 12:05 pm Saturday Mass - 5:00 pm Sunday Mass - 9:00 am Holy Days Mass: Noon & 6 pm Confession: Saturday 4:00-4:45 pm Anytime by appointment 541-974-8638 St. Anne Monument - 2nd & 4th Sundays at 12:30 pm Office Hours Monday - Friday 9 am - 12 Noon Sunday Worship • 9AM 2 Corinthians 5:17 Every Sunday in the L.C. Community Center (Corner of Second & Allen) Contact Paster Ed Studtmann at 541-421-3888 • Begins at 4:00pm FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH Sunday School ...................... 9:30 a.m. Sunday Morning Worship .. 10:50 a.m. Sunday Morning Worship .. 10:50 a.m. No Mid-week Services Pastor Jesse Gosnell 300 W. Main, John Day 541-575-1355 627 SE Hillcrest, John Day st 1 Sunday Worship/Communion ..................10am 3 rd Sunday Worship/Communion/Potluck ...4:30pm 2 nd , 4 th & 5 th Sunday Worship .........................10am Wednesday Evening Bible Study .....................6pm For information: 541-575-2348 MT. VERNON PRESBYTERIAN Community Church SUNDAY SERVICE..............9 am SUNDAY SERVICE ...........9 am 541-932-4800 EVERYONE WELCOME (541) 575-1326 johndayUMC@gmail.com 126 NW Canton, John Day Food Pantry Friday 3-4PM Like us on Facebook! FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH 541-820-3696 www.prairie-baptist-church.com Pastor David Hoeffner Pastor Keith DeHart JOHN DAY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH A7 Sunday School ..................... 9:45 am Sunday Worship ...................... 11 am Fox Community Church ............. 3 pm Sunday Evening Bible Talk ......... 6 pm Saturday Men’s Study ............... 6 pm Full Gospel- Come Grow With Us 541-575-1202 Church 311 NE Dayton St, John Day Pastor Al Altnow Cornerstone Christian Fellowship 139 N.E. D AYTON S TREET , J OHN D AY 541-575-2180 Sunday Worship Service 10 am Sunday Youth Group 3 pm Thursday Celebrate Recovery 6 pm Pastor Levi Manitsas cornerstonejohnday@gmail.com ccfjd.org CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE Sunday School .......................... 9:30 am Sunday Worship Service......... 10:45 am Sunday Evening Service ...........6:00 pm Children & Teen Activities SMALL GROUPS CALL FOR MORE INFO Weekdays: Sonshine Christian School St. Thomas Episocopal Church Join us on Facebook live Sunday 10am Like us on Facebook! Pastor Randy Johnson 521 E. Main • John Day • 541-575-1895 www.johndaynazarene.com 59357 Hwy 26 Mt. Vernon Seventh-Day Adventist Church SATURDAY SERVICES Celebration of Worship JOHN DAY 110 Valley View Dr. 541-575-1216 Head Elder ..........................541-575-2914 Bible Classes (all ages) .................9:30 am Worship ...........................................11 am LONG CREEK E. Main Street 541-421-3033 Head Elder .................................421-3468 Bible Classes (all ages) ......................2 pm Worship .............................................3 pm Jr./Sr. High Youth Connection Sundays 5:30pm Youth: 0-6th Grade Midweek Service Thursdays 6:30pm Youth: 0-6th Grade Wednesdays at 6:30pm Overcomer’s Outreach Mondays at 6pm at LWCC A Christ-Centered, 12-Step Recovery Support Group Pastor Sharon Miller 541-932-4910 www.livingwordcc.com S204810-1
