OCTOBER is
Breast Cancer
Awareness Month
Wednesday, October 7, 2020
152nd Year • No. 41 • 18 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
GRANT COUNTY SHERIFF
McKinley makes second bid for sheriff
Former undersheriff says sheriff’s office
should be a public office, not ‘their own club’
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
ELECTION
In his second bid to unseat incum-
bent Sheriff Glenn Palmer, Grant
County Community Corrections
Director Todd McKinley said his
campaign has been mostly “quiet and
mellow.”
“My opponent seems to be doing
most of the campaigning for me,” he
said. “Why should I get in the way of
that? He is digging his hole, and I’m
not gonna step in the way.”
McKinley said people had
approached him, fed up with how,
2020
GRANT COUNTY SHERIFF
in their opinion, Palmer has brought
negative publicity to the county.
He said a lawsuit and complaints
alleging multiple incidents of miscon-
duct by law enforcement officials in
Grant County has earned the area the
nickname “Hazzard County” after the
1980s sitcom “Dukes of Hazzard.”
The show, which followed two
“good old boys,”
cousins Bo and
Luke Duke, and
their scrapes with
the fictitious corrupt
and
incompetent
local law enforce-
Todd
ment in rural “Haz-
McKinley
zard County” mir-
rors a lot of what
people see from outside of the county,
McKinley said.
“People are tired of this county
having that kind of a stain on it,” he
said.
Having lost by such a narrow
margin in 2016 — 2,208 to 2,065
— he said he needs roughly 75 peo-
ple to change their minds to win next
month’s election.
“I think a lot more than that have
come to me just saying, ‘We’re
done,’” he said.
He said a lot of people have asked
him to keep his campaign mellow and
quiet, stating they’re going to vote for
him.
“They don’t want to have signs in
their yard because they are honestly
concerned about repercussions from
the current administration,” he said.
“And it shouldn’t be that way.”
McKinley said he has not wanted
to “bash the current administration
and the sheriff’s office.”
“There’s many people in there,
if I get elected I’m going to have to
work with, and I get to work with.
And there’s some good people there,”
he said.
Another reason why McKin-
ley said he has been low-key in his
approach to the election is that many
in the community, in his opinion,
regret voting for Palmer.
“They’re glad I’m not sitting there
with my finger in their face saying,
‘See, I told you so,’” he said. “ And
I’m not going to do that, because they
are also the citizenry I plan on serv-
ing. I’m fairly confident that I’ll pre-
vail this go-round, and there are just
enough people, like I say, who are fed
up.”
He said he might never win over
Palmer’s inner circle of supporters,
and he is fine with that reality.
He said he would serve all the
See McKinley, Page A18
Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer declines to comment
The Eagle reached out to Grant County Sher-
iff Glenn Palmer Sept. 17 to schedule an inter-
view about his campaign for reelection.
Palmer responded to the Eagle’s request
Sept. 21 with the following: “Due to the many
past articles that were not always accurate, I am
requesting all of the questions you are proposing
to ask be in writing. I will respond in writing so
that there is a record of what was asked and what
was said and what the conversation consisted
of. I will attempt to answer what I can that falls
within ethical and legal con-
fines and limitations to person-
nel and legal matters that are
pending.”
While the Eagle was pre-
paring the questions, Palmer
replied Sept. 23, stating he
Glenn Palmer changed his mind: “With
respect, I am going to say that
I decline to be interviewed by a news outlet that
has chosen on multiple occasions to misrepre-
sent facts, and twist words to fit what appears to
be personal agendas of (its) reporters. In recent
years, the BME has fallen away from trusted,
unbiased reporting relied upon by so many in the
past. In a rush to win the next investigatory news
award, it rushes to print headlines and stories
alleging misconduct by me, yet time and (again)
those complaints, investigated by a third party
agency, are proven to be false. Any Grant County
resident who wants to come to my office for a
respectful, two way conversation is welcome.”
Eagle Editor Sean Hart sent an email to
Palmer Sept. 23 inquiring about the claims of
inaccuracy: “You claim the Eagle has ‘misrepre-
sented facts’ on multiple occasions and that we
‘twist words.’ Accuracy is very important to us,
and if you believe we have published something
inaccurate or out of context, we’d like to know
what it is so we can correct it. Please let us know
what you’re referring to, and we will address it
ASAP.”
Palmer has not responded as of Oct. 6.
Surviving breast cancer
Moore shares her journey from diagnosis to thriving 10 years later
By Ruthie Moore
I
f you were to read only the
first sentence of my story, this
is what I would want you to
take from my breast cancer
journey: Early detection is the
best protection! That being said, I
will now tell you my story.
One in every eight women will
get breast cancer
during their lives,
and every three
minutes a woman
in the United States
is diagnosed with
breast cancer. On
Oct. 19, 2010, at
3:21 p.m., I was the Ruthie Moore
woman who would
become one of those statistics. I was
sitting at my desk at work when the
phone call came. and I would hear
the words, “Unfortunately, Mrs.
Moore, your results came back pos-
itive.” I had prepared myself for this
conversation, playing out both a pos-
itive and negative diagnosis, but
I had not prepared myself for the
instant numbness I was feeling. A
numbness that I would learn to live
with for months to come.
Back up my story a bit — I was
always good at having an annual
Contributed photo
Local breast cancer survivors pose for a photo: from left, Jackie Haff, LaRue Pryse, Tami Kowing, Carole Garrison, Etoile
Benge, Arleta Porter, Ruthie Moore and Jane Moore. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
mammogram. Cancer of any kind
was not prevalent in my family, with
just one aunt having had breast can-
cer, but I always felt the need to get
that much-dreaded annual squeeze.
At the time of my diagnosis, I was
actually feeling healthier than I had
felt in years, starting a healthy diet
and walking regimen at the begin-
ning of that year. No aches, no pains,
no suspicions of any kind to make me
believe that the mammogram I was
receiving on Sept. 30, 2010, would
be any different than all of my others.
The day after my mammogram,
I would receive a call from my doc-
tor’s nurse telling me that my mam-
mogram was abnormal and that I
would need additional tests. I was in
shock. I never expected this at all! I
did take some comfort in knowing
that, with only 15 months between
my mammograms, I knew that no
matter what was lingering in my
breast, was caught early.
The next six months of my life
looked like this: Doctor appoint-
ments galore — I am so thankful for
such caring, knowledgeable medi-
cal people, both local and in Bend,
who traveled my cancer journey with
me. Also along for my cancer roller
coaster ride were beautiful family
members and friends who provided
me with the greatest support team.
Dr. Thomas would explain to me
that I would have to make a choice
between a lumpectomy and radia-
tion or a mastectomy. After much
research, knowing that my cancer
was caught so early, I chose to have
a lumpectomy where I would then
spend a very long week waiting for
results, yet a week like no other — it
was filled with so much earthly love
and so much heavenly peace.
I would learn at that appointment
the details of my cancer: stage one
invasive breast cancer, with a tumor
8 centimeters in size with clear mar-
gins. I was also hormone receptor
positive, and no cancer was found
in my lymph nodes. In the cancer
world, that is a very good diagnosis.
I would then find myself sitting in
an oncologist waiting room, which
was truly the most surreal of all the
surreal moments I experienced. As
I waited my turn, I hear a woman
See Cancer, Page A18
Officials uncertain about COVID-19 expenditure discrepancy
$35,000 in county court
labor reimbursement
remains in question
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Confusion remains regarding
$35,000 received by Grant County in
reimbursement for COVID-19 count
court labor expenditures.
Grant County officials appear to
have requested reimbursement for 12
weeks of county court wages for the
11-week reimbursement period while
also requesting reimbursement for the
county judge’s full 40 hours per week,
even though he only logged 46.5 hours
of COVID-19-related hours in the
11-week period.
The Eagle submitted a public
Eagle file photo
From left, Grant County Commissioner Sam Palmer, County Judge Scott Myers
and Commissioner Jim Hamsher during a June session of county court.
records request for documentation
related to the county court labor reim-
bursement on July 16. As of press time,
no documentation has been provided.
Grant County requested reim-
bursement through the CARES Act
for $35,268 in county court COVID-
19 labor costs from March 1 to May
15, but that number does not match
the hours for which the commissioners
said they were being reimbursed.
Witt O’Brien’s — the company the
county contracted with to submit reim-
bursement documents — removed the
entire county court labor cost entry
from an updated version of a summary
of final costs.
In the original “Summary of Costs”
document provided by Witt O’Brien’s
on July 14, county court labor costs
are listed as $35,268 — an explanatory
document stating, “Figure provided by
(former COVID-19 Emergency Oper-
ations Center finance employee) Jodi
Cook, no backup.”
In an updated version of the docu-
ment provided by Witt O’Brien’s on
Sept. 1, the county court’s labor costs
were omitted under labor and payroll
fees, and the total is $35,268 less than
the original.
County Commissioner Jim Ham-
sher, the court’s EOC liaison, and
Cook both said documents the EOC
submitted for county court labor costs
included documentation, however.
“There is no missing documen-
tation,” Cook said. “The incompe-
tence displayed after the core team left
should not reflect on the impeccable
See County, Page A18