GO! EASTERN OREGON MAGAZINE | INSIDE
Wednesday, October 20, 2021
153rd Year • No. 42 • 16 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
CLOSING THE
Steven Mitchell/Eagle fi le photo
Grant County Judge Scott Myers during
a May session of the County Court. My-
ers told audience members during the
Wednesday, Oct. 13, session of the court
that in-person attendees are now re-
quired to mask up, with no exceptions.
COP SHOP
County will
now require
masks
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
CANYON CITY — After months
of not enforcing the state mask man-
date at public meetings, the Grant
County Court will now require in-per-
son attendees to mask up when attend-
ing court sessions.
County Judge Scott Myers said
Oregon Occupational Safety and
Health warned the county it could
get slapped with a $5,000 fi ne after
observing a Sept. 22 Facebook Live
video stream of a County Court meet-
ing that showed most people not
wearing masks.
Aaron Corvin, a public infor-
mation offi cer with Oregon OSHA,
said in an email that the agency had
received a confi dential complaint on
Sept. 22 regarding a session of the
Grant County Court.
“Holding a public meeting with no
masks or face coverings,” the com-
plaint alleged. “This is streaming live
on the Blue Mountain Eagle Face-
book page.”
Corvin said no similar complaints
had been fi led this year involving
Grant County.
In August, amid a sharp rise in
COVID-19 cases, Gov. Kate Brown
announced that masks, face shields
or other face coverings would once
again be required in indoor public
spaces.
Nonetheless, some audience mem-
bers at the Oct. 13 session pushed
back on the face-covering require-
ment. Myers told them they would
need to mask up or leave the court-
room, adding there would be no
exceptions.
Prairie City resident Frances Pres-
ton told Myers she would pay the
$5,000 fi ne and that the court should
not back down to Oregon OSHA.
Myers told Preston that he would
not allow disruptions to the meeting
and that she would have to wear a
mask or leave the courthouse. Preston
ultimately put a mask on.
Meanwhile, county residents John
Rowell and Charlene Morris contin-
ued to defy the judge’s order.
In a fi ery exchange, Rowell asked
Myers what he would do if he did not
Bennett Hall/Blue Mountain Eagle
Grant County Sheriff Todd McKinley. Once the John Day Police Department closes up shop at the end of the month, the primary responsibility for law
enforcement in the city will fall on the Grant County Sheriff ’s Offi ce — which McKinley said is already stretched too thin.
John Day is suspending its
police department. Now what?
By BENNETT HALL
Blue Mountain Eagle
L
aw enforcement in John Day will
look a whole lot diff erent in the
future, but for now, nobody seems
to know exactly what shape it will
take.
On Oct. 12, the John Day City Council voted
unanimously to suspend the city’s police depart-
ment at midnight Oct. 31 (see related story, Page
A3).
But the need to get everything ready for the
shutdown meant the city’s offi cers would have
to switch from patrol duties to other activities,
and they took their last calls from the county’s
911 dispatch center on Thursday, Oct. 14.
The council’s decision accelerated a process
that has been discussed for years but that began
in earnest last spring.
On April 6, in his annual budget message,
City Manager Nick Green informed the council
that the city did not have enough general fund
revenues to cover the department’s costs for the
coming fi scal year.
He presented charts
showing that the depart-
ment had been running
a defi cit for years, with
expenses outpacing bud-
geted revenues by more
than $300,000 annually.
After years of using fund
EO Media transfers from other parts
John Day Police of the budget to prop up
Chief Mike Durr
the police department, he
said, the city had no more
reserves to draw on.
Green presented the council with a stark
choice: Either transfer local law enforcement
functions to the Grant County Sheriff ’s Offi ce by
Sept. 1, or hold a special election for a fi ve-year
operating levy to help cover the department’s
budget shortfall.
The council voted to put a levy on the ballot
for Aug. 17, asking John Day residents to pay
up to 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation
on their property tax bill, which would equate
to $100 a year for the owner of a $200,000
property.
City offi cials set about trying to persuade
local residents to vote for the measure but faced
vocal opposition from critics of the city’s spend-
ing priorities — including a number of people
who live outside the city limits, as well as former
Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer.
In the end, the measure received 284 votes
in favor vs. 169 votes against but didn’t pass
because of the special election’s double major-
ity requirement. Only 453 of the city’s 1,168 eli-
gible voters cast a ballot, according to County
Clerk Brenda Percy, 132 short of the 50%-plus-
one, or 585 ballots, needed for the result to count.
In a last-ditch eff ort to keep the department
afl oat, the city applied for a three-year federal
policing grant of $125,000 a year. Grant awards
were supposed to be announced in October, but
after the announcement date was pushed back
indefi nitely, the City Council voted to suspend
police operations at the end of this month.
See Police, Page A16
See Mandate, Page A16
Roughly 40-60% of local covered workers vaccinated
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
The vaccination deadline for
health care workers, K-12 educators
and certain state employees in Grant
County arrived Monday, Oct. 18.
When Gov. Kate Brown issued
the sweeping order this sum-
mer, her announcement was clear:
Show proof of vaccination against
COVID-19 on or before Oct. 18 or
lose your job.
Since then, however, labor unions
have worked on ironing out condi-
tions of employment, thousands of
workers have requested exemptions,
and the state has granted new exten-
sions for certain employees.
Although defi nitive statistics are
hard to come by, vaccination rates
for covered employees in Grant
County appeared to be running
cine documentation, so the hos-
pital anticipated that number to
increase before the end of the day
on Monday.
Rigby said just over 30% have
opted for vaccination exceptions
along medical or religious lines,
adding that the number should
increase as the hospital contin-
Eagle fi le photo ues to receive employee exception
A vial of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. requests before the deadline.
Rigby said the hospital antici-
between about 40 and 60% based on pates losing fewer than 10 employ-
available information.
ees but emphasized that employees
can still submit vaccine exception
Health care
paperwork until the 5 p.m. Mon-
As of Friday, Oct. 15, 60% of day deadline.
Blue Mountain Hospital’s staff
Kimberly
Lindsay,
Grant
had been vaccinated, according County public health administra-
to Var Rigby, director of human tor, was out sick Monday and was
resources at the hospital. How- unavailable to comment on how
ever, Rigby added that some of the her department might be impacted
staff had not yet submitted vac- by the vaccine mandate deadline.
School districts
Casey Hallgarth, Prairie City
School District superintendent, said
about 42% of his staff had been vac-
cinated and that 58% had opted for
medical or religious exceptions.
“We have a directive from Gov.
Brown, and we have to follow it,”
Hallgarth said. “Some of our staff are
for and some are against, but at the
end of the day, we have to comply to
keep our jobs.”
Hallgarth said there were several
conversations with the staff and com-
munity about the man date, and his
sense was that the majority felt get-
ting the jab should be a choice.
“Some people are upset because
they are being forced to do some-
thing they might not believe in,” Hall-
garth said. “And I think that is OK,
See Vaccine, Page A16