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Wednesday, January 19, 2022
154th Year • No. 3 • 16 Pages • $1.50
John Day,
merchants
tussle over
Pit Stop
MAN OF THE
SOIL
Ken Delano honored for his years
of service to soil and water district
By STEVEN MITCHELL Blue
Mountain Eagle
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
ABOVE: Ken Delano, the former manager of the Grant County Soil
and Water Conservation District, served in the Navy for more than
20 years before retiring and moving back to Grant County in 1981.
BELOW LEFT: Delano shows an award he earned over his nearly
20-year career with the district.
“He just had a
way of taking
the ego out (of
projects). (He
said) ‘I don’t
care who takes
credit — let’s just
get this project
done.’”
— Pat Voigt,
Grant County Soil and Water
Conservation District Board chair
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
A
Mt. Vernon man was honored on Fri-
day, Jan. 17, for his nearly 20 years
of service as the Grant County Soil
and Water Conservation District’s
manager.
From now on, the building at 721
S. Canyon Blvd. in John Day that houses the dis-
trict’s offi ces will be known as the Kenneth H.
Delano Agricultural Service Center.
Ken Delano brought an operational culture to
the Soil and Water Conservation District that is
still in place within the organization 14 years after
Delano retired, according to the district’s current
manager, Kyle Sullivan.
SWCD Board Chair Pat Voigt said the organi-
zation is considered a “well-oiled machine,” and
those familiar with the district know that Delano
was the one who designed and built that machine.
“He just had a way of taking the ego out (of
projects),” Voigt said. “(He said) ‘I don’t care who
takes credit — let’s just get this project done.’”
Delano was more than just a good adminis-
trator, Voigt added. He was considered a “renais-
sance man” by those closest to him for his abil-
ity to use engineering and computers during his
workday and then head home to raise, train and
drive Belgian draft horses on his 150 acres of
MyEagleNews.com
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
Former Grant County Soil and Water Conservation District Manager Ken Delano thanks district offi -
cials for dedicating the building in his name on Friday, Jan. 14, 2022.
property near Clyde Holliday State Park.
Voigt said the SWCD also wanted to honor
Delano’s service to his country.
Before joining the district, Delano served in
the Navy for more than two decades.
Delano said he dropped out of high school at
17 to enlist in the Navy but ended up advancing
his education in the service. By the time he retired,
he had a bachelor of science degree in engineer-
ing physics from the University of Kansas and
See Soil, Page A14
JOHN DAY — City offi cials met
with downtown business owners on
Wednesday, Jan. 12, to talk about
what should be done with a parcel
of city-owned land on the southwest
corner of Main and Canton streets,
dubbed the “Pit Stop.”
In what is becoming a hot-but-
ton issue, some see the property as a
space for food carts, bike lockers, and
possibly a farmers market to promote
tourism. Others oppose the food cart
idea and want the site used as parking
for oversized vehicles.
The only thing built on the parcel
so far is a small restroom structure,
but representatives of Walker Macy,
a consulting fi rm hired by the city,
presented conceptual drawings at the
meeting that depicted the Pit Stop as
a gathering place with a limited park-
ing area and a range of amenities
from outdoor seating to kitchen areas.
John Day City Councilor Shannon
Adair, who also owns 1188 Brewing
Co., said that as a business owner she
is concerned about having an open
space of pavement that does not fea-
ture anything else.
One idea the city has considered is
setting up modular kitchen spaces at
the site, which could be rented to food
cart operators or other businesses that
want to try out new products.
City Councilor Heather Rook-
stool said she liked the idea of hav-
ing a place for people to gather where
they do not have to sit in a restaurant.
Rookstool said what is sitting sour
with some people in the community
is the thought of the city either mak-
ing a profi t off food trucks or giv-
ing services free to one vendor and
not giving other local businesses the
same access.
Kim Randleas, a former restaurant
owner, said she felt like it was a “slap
in the face” to business owners.
“We (restaurant owners) spent a
lot of money getting stoves and equip-
ment,” Randleas said, “so competing
with the government is impossible.”
In response to those who were
concerned about a lack of parking in
downtown John Day, especially for
oversize vehicles, Walker Macy rep-
resentatives mentioned several pos-
sible locations, including the Elks
Lodge parking lot.
But Charlie Caughlin, the exalted
ruler of the local lodge, said nobody
from the city had approached him or
other leaders of the group about mak-
ing the lodge’s parking lot available
for public use.
Adair and City Manager Nick
Green said they had spoken to some-
See Pit Stop, Page A14
Eastern Oregon district attorneys face staff shortage
By ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
LA GRANDE — Coun-
ties across Eastern Oregon have
struggled over the past few
years to hire attorneys to pros-
ecute criminal charges, and offi -
cials believe a variety of fac-
tors, including uncompetitive
salaries, have contributed to the
vacant positions.
Wallowa County is bereft of
a deputy district attorney for its
already strained staff .
Morrow County has just its
district attorney to handle cases,
while the Grant County DA has
just one part-time deputy.
Umatilla County has just
fi ve prosecutors — including
the district attorney — instead
of the normal 10 attorneys.
Union County seems to have
fared better, but even its offi ce
is down one deputy district
attorney.
Only Baker County has a
fully staff ed prosecution team.
Every other county in North-
east Oregon has positions open
for deputy attorneys. Those
positions have been hard to fi ll,
and in some cases have been left
open for at least three years.
Grant County District Attor-
ney Jim Carpenter has had an
open position since 2018 —
except for a brief period when
a prosecutor fresh out of college
worked for a short stint before
leaving to become a local pub-
lic defender.
“Following his departure, I
had no confi dence that I would
be able to fi nd a replacement,”
Richard Hanners/Blue Mountain Eagle, File
Grant County District Attorney Jim Carpenter talks to the Grant
County Court on Sept. 12, 2018, about the loss of grant funding
for a deputy district attorney, victim intervention specialist and
special investigator.
Carpenter wrote in an email,
“especially knowing that areas
such as Deschutes and Mult-
nomah, which pay much bet-
ter than northeastern counties
can, had numerous openings
and I would not be able to
compete with them for quality
applicants.”
Today Carpenter has one
deputy DA, but the position is
less than half-time.
Likewise, Wallowa County
District Attorney Rebecca Fro-
lander has had an open position
for three years.
“From 2018 up until we
revamped the position in the fall
of 2018, I received two appli-
cations,” Frolander said, “but
before I could even get them
interviewed they took jobs
across the state.”
The paper chase
Data from the Oregon State
Bar during the past decade
See DAs, Page A14