NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, April 7, 2021
A3
John Day looks to convert greenhouse operations to a cooperative
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
John Day’s greenhouse may
soon be a co-op.
John Day City Manager
Nick Green gave a presenta-
tion on the greenhouse to the
city council during a study ses-
sion on March 31.
Green said they recom-
mend the greenhouse con-
vert into a cooperative forma-
tion to reduce operating costs
and open up revenue opportu-
nities that are not available to
cities such as grants specifi c for
co-ops.
“It’s really more about
accessing other revenue
sources and helping the com-
munity feel like this is their
asset and not some government
project,” Green said.
Transitioning to a co-op
would not heavily impact the
current employees, but would
require a manager for the
operation.
Green said that entering a
co-op would allow the green-
house to hire additional staff at
normal wages without needing
to pay PERS and the added cost
of a government employee.
This also provides a chance
for members of the co-op to
volunteer their time to do the
harvest in exchange for pro-
duce, if they want.
“There’s options, and we
can start looking into how
we can structure the co-op to
include other users and other
groups,” Green said. “If we go
down this road, we just need
to start exploring these vari-
ous interest groups that could
participate.”
Laurabeth Wallenstein, the
ism in the summer because of
COVID-19, which they had
not anticipated.
“We’ve averaged about
$2,500 in net sales a month, and
we’re growing quite a bit more
food than that,” Green said.
Tomatoes and leafy greens
continue to be the most
requested items from the green-
house in their lineup of 24 prod-
ucts. Online, 261 customers
Eagle fi le photo have been acquired since the
A variety of produce at the John Day greenhouse can be bought start of the online website nine
online.
months ago, but Green said the
increase in customers would
project manager at the green- the co-op,” Wallenstein said. slowdown as they run out of
house, said she loves the inter- “It would help with the fund- product.
est that people have in the ing, the structural issues that
“We’re already starting to
greenhouse and the work they we have and getting a little bit lose customers because they see
do. She added that there is more help with the work.”
sold out on almost every prod-
a lot of work to be done, and
Green said, in the past uct line when they come to our
the additional help would be year, sales have been consis- website,” Green said. “That’s a
appreciated.
tently low due to the restaurant function of how much space we
“I’m totally in support of restrictions and lack of tour- have and several other factors.”
The greenhouse completed
their fi rst internship program
with Zachary Ostberg, a high
school student who started his
freshman year. Ostberg worked
with the greenhouse crew for a
month in August. Jesse Doug-
las, a junior from Grant Union,
just started his internship at the
greenhouse and works closely
with Wallenstein, learning about
hydroponic crop production.
The city also met with East-
ern Oregon University and the
Rural Engagement and Vitality
Center to partner up and create
an academic opportunity and
internships, according to Green.
Modifi cations continue to
be made at the greenhouse to
accommodate issues with cli-
mate controls, keeping bugs out
of the produce and redesign-
ing several aspects of the grow
operations for effi ciency.
DEQ creates additional hurdles for
wastewater treatment plant project
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
Eagle fi le photo
Fourth Avenue in John Day is in need of repairs after spring fl ooding in 2019.
City requesting funding from
county for Fourth Street repairs
John Day is sending the
Grant County Court a let-
ter asking for money to help
fund repairs of Fourth Street,
which leads up to the Grant
County Regional Airport.
The
Federal
Emer-
gency Management Agency
approved the scope and cost
report on March 30 for the
Fourth Street repairs and
estimated the cost to be $1.6
million.
FEMA will cover 75% of
the cost with a 25% match,
$398,281, required, accord-
ing to the letter sent from
John Day City Manager Nick
Green.
The city is requesting the
county budget $398,281 in
the coming fi scal year for the
match for construction.
The letter states that John
Day obligated $270,000 for
the initial design and con-
struction oversight and plans
to cover the fi nal design, per-
mitting and single-scope
audit for the federal cost
share.
The design for the proj-
ect is a 95-foot soldier pile
retaining wall. This design
would drive steel into the
ground until it reaches bed-
rock to where the soldier
piles are stable and a con-
crete slab could be placed on
top.
A portion of the road base
would have to be cut back,
but this design will avoid
closing the road to emer-
gency traffi c between the
hospital and airport.
“Preliminary design is
complete, and the environ-
mental permits have been
approved for the project to be
constructed within the in-wa-
Eagle fi le photo
City Manager Nick Green
stands in front of a holding
pond for John Day’s wastewa-
ter treatment plant in 2017.
water permitting documents
for two diff erent types of sys-
tems: the National Pollution
Discharge Elimination System
and the Water Pollution Con-
trol Facility. The site says that
NPDES-permitted
facilities
discharge pollutants from any
point source, such as a pipe, to
state waters. If a facility dis-
charges to land, it is a WPCF
facility.
The U.S. Supreme Court
directed the EPA to develop
new rules that defi ned when a
regulatory agency may use a
state-issued WPCF permit or
when the federal permitting
path for an NPDES permit is
required, according to a letter
submitted by Long.
To renew the permit, the
city needs to show DEQ that
the future disposal method for
the new treatment plant will not
create the functional equiva-
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The council said they
hope Grant County can cover
the match since it is the main
road used to access the Grant
County Regional Airport and
the industrial park.
Fourth Street repairs were
also discussed between the
city and county last Novem-
ber in a study session, but
no decision was made
afterward.
“The reality is that that
road is not only in the city of
John Day, but that is the arte-
rial road going to the Grant
County Regional Airport,”
Councilor Paul Smith said.
“They have a stake in the
maintenance of that road.”
S234723-1
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality is request-
ing a third groundwater site
analysis at the location of the
future wastewater treatment
plant in John Day.
The city is currently work-
ing with an expired Water Pol-
lution Control Facilities per-
mit, which needs to be renewed
for the future wastewater treat-
ment plant.
Bob Long, a consultant
from CwM-H2O, said this is
an interesting permitting chal-
lenge for the city on this project
due to a recent Supreme Court
decision from Maui, Hawaii.
“This is a brand new per-
mitting system that DEQ has
not run through their agency
yet,” Long said. “The Supreme
Court made a decision last
year, and the EPA then prop-
agated some guidance to the
states.”
Long said the Maui deci-
sion was based on a situation
on the island where the state
issued a WPCF permit, which
allows for wastewater to be
discharged to land.
“Unfortunately, they were
discharging directly to a lava
tube, which ran down to a coral
reef and acted like a pipeline,”
Long said.
The Oregon state website
defi nes two types of waste-
lent of a direct discharge to state
water, or DEQ would have to
issue an NPDES permit accord-
ing to the agenda. This would
cause a problem due to the lack
of preparatory work with the
city’s reach to the John Day
River.
The city council motioned to
award a contract not to exceed
the amount of $150,000 to
CwM to perform the site inves-
tigation to proceed with permit-
ting, provided DEQ approves
the scope of work and agrees
that this will be the last site
investigation required.
John Day City Manager
Nick Green said the water/
wastewater loan and grant can
be amended to remove the cost
of the site investigation from the
design and place the funds into
the permitting or site analysis
line item.
“We’re setting the bar very
high being the test case for
DEQ,” Green said. “This is
going to cost our ratepayers
almost $300 per account holder,
just to do this study. ... We’re
going to take almost $200,000
right out of the gate and shift it
from engineering to permitting,
but we’ve got to do to it because
our ability to spend that $5.2
dollars (from grants) hinges on
DEQ issuing a permit so we can
operate the facility. I don’t see a
way around it: I am just really
unhappy with the way this has
been handled.”
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