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NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
County to amend planning within
John Day’s urban growth boundary
“It is going to be a bit of a process,” she
said. “Not that we can’t do it. It’s just not
going to be an overnight thing,”
Palmer said he did not want to make the
process “too restrictive” and wanted to treat
each situation on a “case-by-case” basis.
“I think writing these rules or revisiting
them is totally appropriate,” he said.
However, he said he would like to see a
mechanism that allows for exceptions.
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
The city of John Day has asked Grant
County to designate the roads within the
city’s urban growth boundary public roads
to provide appropriate access for potential
landowners.
Shannon Springer, Grant County plan-
ning director, said each city in the county,
except for Prairie City, has an urban growth
boundary outside their city limits. Under
county jurisdiction and within the border
of the UGB, the unincorporated land is for
towns to expand their city limits.
Springer said the county’s planning
department, per agreements with each
city, notifies the respective city’s plan-
ning department of land-use applications
within its UGB. The cities have 15 days to
comment on proposals before the county
approves them.
John Day’s agreement, she said, has a
provision that the county designates roads
within their UGB as public roads. She said,
within the UGB, there are roads that serve
properties “that are not really anything but
private easements.”
She said the city asked the county to des-
ignate these easements as public roads to
comply with the city standards and the pro-
vision within its code.
Springer said complying with John
Day’s code would be a “legitimate request.”
She said the city and the county have
been inconsistent in abiding by their own
rules.
Springer said the city’s point is that peo-
ple need appropriate access to public roads
when dividing property and creating new
parcels for development.
Public health update
Eagle file photo
Shannon Springer, Grant County plan-
ning director, addresses Grant County
Court Nov. 18.
Springer told the court there are no par-
ticular standards regarding private ease-
ments that go from a public to a private road
within its codes.
“There are lots of things that are just pro-
vided access by easement with no particu-
lar surface, or drainage or any other kind of
standards applying. I just have an easement
to get to the property, which is probably
short-sighted in retrospect,” Springer said.
She said there are a “handful” of roads
that the county needs to fix, which would
likely not meet standards.
She said portions of the county’s codes
are not a good fit for a rural county. She said
they were borrowed and adopted from Jack-
son County.
County Commissioner Sam Palmer
said, given the booming housing market
and likely more jobs to follow, now is the
time to amend the codes.
Springer said code amendments are a
lengthy process.
Kimberly Lindsay, the county’s pub-
lic health administrator, and Dustin Wyllie,
program manager of the Community Coun-
seling Solutions Developmental Disability
program, updated the various programs.
Wyllie said the DD program has 43 peo-
ple enrolled in support services and 32 get-
ting case management through CCS. He
said people get case management through
two entities, either CCS or Eastern Oregon
Support Services.
Emergency management
The court approved and signed a coop-
erative emergency agreement with the Ore-
gon Department of Transportation Depart-
ment. Myers said Paul Gray, the county’s
emergency manager, brought the docu-
ment to the county. Myers told the court that
this would allow the county and the state to
share resources, responsibilities and person-
nel in emergencies.
Gray also sent the court an infrastruc-
ture contract from the Federal Emergency
Management Agency to sign, assuring
the county would track and document
all COVID-19-related expenses for up
to 75% in reimbursements, provided the
county documents expenses correctly.
John Day wastewater treatment plant update focused on collection system
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wastewater in John Day
might have a new way of trav-
eling in the collection system.
Jim Pex from Flagline
Engineering presented to the
John Day City Council three
alternative designs for the
collection system on Feb. 9
that addresses concerns on
the current siphon and pump
stations and lifetime costs for
the integration of a design.
Pex said, after reviews
and discussions with the city,
the siphon is problematic
because of the materials used
to construct it and the loca-
tion of the siphon being under
the river.
“Really, there’s not a great
way to maintain it if there’s
plugs or something else that
could be really problematic to
staff,” Pex said. “Ninety per-
cent of the city’s system flows
through that pipe. If there
was an issue, it would create
a lot of long lasting problems
Eagle file photo
The John Day sewer treatment
plant.
that could not be resolved
immediately.”
The first option is to reha-
bilitate the siphon line by pos-
sibly using a cast-in-place
pipe that helps with leaks. The
CIPP is a flexible liner inside
the existing pipe that would be
inflated and exposed to heat to
create a smooth surface inside
the pipe.
Pex said a problem would
be with heating the pipe due to
its location under the river and
the difficulty with heating the
CIPP with leaks in the system.
“It’s not great, but we want
to review the good and bad of
all (options),” he said.
The second alternative
would be to replace the siphon
crossing with a pump station
enforced with the new bridge
for the Hills Family Park being
implemented in the spring.
Pex said this scenario alle-
viates the concerns of access
and maintenance to the siphon
during high flow. He said a
pump station will help with
being able to control the flow
of waste.
The downside of the pump
station would be the life-
time cost along with the addi-
tional attention and mainte-
nance required for the station,
according to Pex.
The third alternative is to
make the collection system
gravity based, which would
take out the need for addi-
tional pumps and the siphon,
according to Pex.
“This alternative gives
the city 100% gravity flow
through the system and elim-
inates your pump stations
within town (with the excep-
tion of one pump that controls
the system),” Pex said.
Pex said the downside of
this option is the higher capi-
tal cost because of the amount
of pipe that would have to
be installed. Pex said, from a
lifecycle cost, it would likely
be cheaper because the costs
associated with maintaining a
pump station would be absent.
One pump station would still
be needed at the treatment
plant.
“Option two is a viable
option, and from a cost per-
spective alone and not a life-
cycle perspective, is definitely
the cheapest between option
two and three,” Pex said.
“Option three gets you away
from it (the pump stations),
and gravity always wins on
lifecycle costs.”
Pex said an early estimate
of the cost for integrating the
first package would run about
$1.7 million, alternative two
would be around $2.3 million
and alternative three could run
about $4.3 million.
“We always want to be on
the high side of our estimates
especially when we’re asking
for grant funding,” Pex said.
“Pretty much every bid tab is
going to be 10-12% over what
we think it’s going to be to
give you guys room.”
No decision was made on
which design to go with, but
the groundwork for the new
wastewater treatment plant is
still expected to begin in the
spring or summer of 2022.
County opposes
additional wild, scenic
river designations
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Grant County Court
members are penning a let-
ter of opposition to a bill in
the U.S. Senate mandating
more local streams become
designated as wild, scenic or
recreational.
The River Democracy
Act of 2021, written and
co-sponsored by Oregon
Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff
Merkley, would add 4,700
miles of rivers and streams
in Oregon to the National
Wild and Scenic Rivers sys-
tem, bringing the total length
of protected rivers in Oregon
to almost 6,900 miles, or
6.2% of the state’s 110,994
miles of streams.
The U.S. Forest Service,
or another agency named
in the bill, would develop a
management plan and deter-
mine the level of protection
for each stream.
“Our rivers and streams
are some of the most spe-
cial natural treasures Oregon
has to offer and have always
been integral to the health
and vitality of our commu-
nities and rural economies,”
said Merkley.
County Commissioner
Sam Palmer said he did a
“quick tally” and calculated
130 miles of streams and
rivers in Grant County or
the Malheur National For-
est would be affected by the
bill.
He said most of the “riv-
ers” are just streams, already
under protection by the For-
est Service.
Palmer said the bill is not
legislation for Grant County.
He said nobody asked for
feedback from anyone from
the region.
Palmer said there is oppo-
sition to the bill in Baker,
Grant, Harney and Wallowa
counties.
He said it would take
another tool from land man-
agers to manage the lands
appropriately, be it “wildfire,
recreation or anything else.”
Myers said either state or
federal agencies designate
the John Day River’s total
length as wild and scenic. He
said most streams or anything
with water running through it
is under some type of riparian
protection. He said this bill is
a “big jump.”
Palmer said there are seg-
ments of the waters that run
between private lands that
the federal agency would
monitor.
He said the proposed leg-
islation goes against every-
thing the county is work-
ing toward with the Blues
Mountains Intergovernmen-
tal Council.
“We were never brought
into these conversations early
on in this legislation,” Palmer
said.
Wyden spokesman Hank
Stern said the people from
around the state nominated
upwards of 15,000 rivers and
streams.
He said the legislation
requires that federal land
management agencies assess
the risks of wildfire in wild
and scenic river corridors and
near homes and businesses.
The land managers, he said,
must develop and implement
a “risk-reduction.”
He said the bill allows
federal land management
agencies to enter into coop-
erative
wildfire-fighting
agreements with states and
local governments.
Additionally, he said,
nothing in the legislation
precludes the ability to fight
fires in wild and scenic cor-
ridors, including the con-
struction of temporary roads
when necessary for public
safety.
“The bottom line is the
bill would not restrict access
to rivers,” he said. “In fact, it
does just the opposite. It pro-
vides additional resources
to improve access to public
lands.”
He said roughly 150
miles of the John Day River
is federally protected as a
wild and scenic river under
the federal Wild and Scenic
Rivers Act. Nothing changes
that designation, he said.
The River Democracy
Act proposes protections
for two fish-bearing tribu-
taries and hunting habitat,
according to Stern. He said
this includes 10 miles of
30-Mile Creek and 17 miles
of Bridge Creek.
“The River Democracy
Act would only affect fed-
eral land in a way that pro-
tects the natural state of the
rivers and promotes their
outstanding values, includ-
ing recreation, drinking
water, and fish and hunting
habitat,” he said.
He said the bill, accord-
ing to the outdoor and rec-
reation industry, would
support 224,000 jobs state-
wide and would generate
$15.6 billion in consumer
spending.
He said the bill would
also establish $30 million
annually in Oregon through
a federal grant program
for states and local gov-
ernments to increase water
quality, watersheds and
infrastructure.
Stern said there is lan-
guage in the bill that explic-
itly makes it clear that valid
or vested water rights will
not be affected. Addition-
ally, he said, it states Oregon
can still administer water
rights per state laws and
regulations.
Stern said the legisla-
tion spells out in its text:
“Nothing in this Act or an
amendment made by this
Act affects private property
rights.”
REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS FOR FIRE CONSULTANT
Morrow County Public Works Projects - Morrow County, Oregon
Morrow County, Oregon, requests proposals for a qualified Fire Consultant 
to provide services for Morrow County Parks. Contractors submitting qualifica-
tions shall be considered based upon the following general evaluation criteria:
1.              Fee schedule.
2.              Experience.
3.              Method of approach.
Copies of the Request for Qualifications may be obtained from Morrow County
Public Works, P.O. Box 428, 365 W Hwy 74,
Lexington, Oregon 97839, (541) 989-9500, 
spointer@co.morrow.or.us 
Complete proposals will be accepted at
the same address no later than 4:00 p.m., 
March 4, 2021. Any questions or concerns 
may be addressed to Sandi Pointer.
S226597-1
S230563-1