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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 2021)
A4 NEWS Blue Mountain Eagle Monument School reopens By Rudy Diaz Blue Mountain Eagle Doors at Monument School Dis- trict reopened Monday. The district worked closely with the Grant County Health Depart- ment to determine that students could return to on-site learning after two weeks of distance learning. “Being able to resume in-person instruction is very exciting,” said Monument Super- intendent Laura Thomas. “None of us went into edu- cation to sit behind computer screens Laura Thomas or instruct students over the phone. We all missed the energy and excite- ment the students bring to the atmo- sphere of the school.” Thomas said she and the Grant County Health Department looked at the case counts in the community when making the decision to reopen. “While we wanted the students back in the school as soon as pos- sible, we didn’t want to do it at the health risk of students, families, staff or the community,” Thomas said. Thomas said, when the dis- trict needed to transition to dis- tance learning, they took plans they already had, made a few adjust- ments and transitioned into a dis- tance learning model the next day. She said the transition was smooth and the whole process seemed to work great for students, families and staff members alike. “I want to thank the students, families and staff for their dedica- tion to our students’ education,” Thomas said. “Without these three groups working together, our dis- tance learning model would not have worked as well as it did. With- out the continued partnership from families, staff,and the community, we could not do all we do for the students.” Wednesday, January 27, 2021 Grant County to get repeater towers each year for the next seven years By Steven Mitchell Blue Mountain Eagle Grant County’s Office of Emer- gency Management tapped funding to erect a new radio repeater tower each year for the next seven years. Paul Gray, the county’s emergency manager, said the funding would come from Secure Rural Schools Title III, which ensures funding for wild- fire protection, firefighting and edu- cation. Gray said additional funding would come from the state’s Home- land Security grant program. He said Homeland Security grant amounts vary in proportion to population. Gray said Long Creek, which had a tower go down, will be the first city in the county to get one. He said the city had their tower go down a couple of Eagle file photo Paul Gray, Grant County emergency manager. months ago, and they were able to get it back up and running temporarily. He said the total cost for the repeater in Long Creek will be roughly $50,000. He said the repeaters should be operational for the next 20 to 50 years. “Communications is a priority in public safety,” he said. “No mat- ter if you’re in a city like Portland, or in a frontier community. I think it’s a little worse for us because you have many areas that are not neces- sarily publicly owned in a frontier community.” He said the towers would be managed under Emergency Man- agement instead of individual agen- cies. He said fire, law enforcement and other agencies would be using the towers, making sense to have the repeaters under one contract. Currently, he said, the county has two law enforcement repeater tow- ers, but six or seven sites that need one. John Day updates rates for the new year By Rudy Diaz Blue Mountain Eagle John Day’s water, sewer and system development charge rates were updated in the first John Day City Coun- cil meeting of the new year. The John Day City Coun- cil passed several resolutions on Jan. 12 that raised each rate by different amounts. The base monthly water rate was increased by $1 while the monthly sewer rate was raised $12. The total 2021 system development charges for new construction went up $87. John Day City Manager Nick Green said the 2021 rates were increased by the rate of inflation, which was contem- plated when the ordinance was adopted for SDC’s in 2019. The increase also con- The Eagle/Rudy Diaz The John Day City Council discusses sewer rates Jan. 12. siders the additional load placed on the system by new developments. “This increase is intended to reflect our increase in the cost of materials used to per- form system expansion and reimburse estimated expendi- tures to our utility accounts,” states the agenda for the meeting. Green said most residents will not pay this because this will apply for commercial developments, which tend to be less price sensitive, and people connecting from out- side the city limits to either water or sewer systems. The sewer and water rates have both steadily increased each year by a dollar for several years, but this year, the sewer rate took a bigger leap to help the city qualify for additional financial sup- port from the United States Department of Agriculture for the new wastewater treatment plant. In October, Green said the increase in rates will allow the USDA to consolidate the city’s higher-interest debt, the loans from the property pur- chase and bridge loans for the rest of the construction into a 40-year-loan with a 1% inter- est rate. “If we don’t do this, then the financing that we already negotiated would be returned and work will stop,” Green said on Jan. 12. The increase was approved by the Budget Committee in May, but sev- eral council members on Jan. 12 expressed concerns that the increase feels sudden. John Day Councilor Paul Smith said the conversation has been ongoing for the last 10 years as the rate slowly increased. Mayor Ron Lundbom said now that there is a better idea as to the dollar figure for the project, which happened last year, they know how much to raise the rates. “We have been trying to do it slowly, and if the treat- ment plant process were two more years down the road, you’d be looking at half that jump right now,” Councillor Dave Holland said. The city council also dis- cussed a resolution to update land use, development per- mit and approval fees in John Day, which were last updated in 2005. The discussion will be brought back in a future council meeting. “I don’t hear a lot of com- plaints about the fee structure, and we’re not proposing big increases either,” Green said. “I just want to talk through it and talk the pros and cons.” Did someone say refund? 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