A14
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Soil
THE DELANO FILE
Continued from Page A1
NAME: Ken Delano
a master’s in business management
from Central Michigan University.
Delano credits his academic suc-
cess to his late wife, Dorene, whom
he married before shipping out to
boot camp in 1960. Delano said
Dorene took care of their five kids as
he immersed himself in his studies.
In 1981, the family took a vote
and moved back to Grant County
from Bremerton, Washington, after
Delano retired from the Navy.
After returning to Grant County,
Delano said he needed to feel like he
was working for a significant cause.
And that, he said, was what the
SWCD gave him.
After contributing in what he
described as a small way to America’s
victory in the Cold War, Delano said
the SWCD gave him the same feeling
he had in the service that he was part
of something bigger than himself.
Shaun Robertson began work-
ing with Delano in 1997, when Rob-
ertson moved back to Grant County
from Idaho to build the Warm Springs
RESIDENCE: Mt. Vernon
OCCUPATION: Retired man-
ager of the Grant County Soil
and Water Conservation District,
which he led from 1988 to 2007
ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
During Delano’s tenure, the
SWCD oversaw nearly 150 per-
manent fish-diversion projects
on private property
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
Ken Delano tinkers with a sword maker in his shop in Mt. Vernon on Monday,
Jan. 11, 2022. People close to Delano refer to him as a renaissance man for his
many talents and diverse interests.
Tribes’ John Day Basin program. The
two continued to work together on a
close professional level for the next
seven or eight years, and Robert-
son said their personal relationship
endures to this day.
“When I speak of the John Day
conservation program, I tell peo-
ple that contemporary agency and
NGO staff find their work easier
only because they are standing on
the shoulders of great pioneers and
Ken is one of the largest,” Robert-
son said, “which most people prob-
ably wouldn’t perceive because he’s
so humble and unassuming.”
EDUCATION: Delano holds a
bachelor of science in en-
gineering physics from the
University of Kansas and a
master’s in business manage-
ment from Central Michigan
University
Robertson said that Delano built
an amazingly successful program
during a time when not only was
agency-led conservation generally
unpopular but landowners cared
more about someone’s word than
how much money could be thrown at
projects.
Pit Stop
Continued from Page A1
one affiliated with the Elks Lodge.
Caughlin told them that they would
need to talk to the board.
Another area mentioned by Walker
Macy as a place for large rigs to park
was on Canton Street.
Alicia Weatherbee-Griffin, owner of
Earthly Home Natural Market across
Main Street from the Pit Stop, said that
she is concerned about foot traffic cross-
ing the street because a curve essentially
makes the intersection “a blind corner.”
Another issue merchants had with
relocating parking for larger vehicles
off Main Street was the concern that
travelers would continue to the next
town if they could not park on or near
the main drag.
“They’re not going to stop,” said
Tia Barreteuia, owner of the Outpost
Bar and Grill. “If you make the RV
people go far enough away, they’re just
not going to stop and eat at our place,
they’re going to go on.”
One suggestion that Tory Stin-
nett, Grant County’s economic devel-
opment director, had was to poten-
tially bring in the Grant County People
Mover to provide a shuttle service.
DAs
Continued from Page A1
show the number of examinees per
year steadily dropping — approxi-
mately 12 fewer attorneys each year
pass the bar based on a simple linear
regression model.
In 2020 the pandemic ushered in
a “diploma privilege,” which allowed
newly graduated law students to
bypass the bar entirely and receive
their license . But even then, only 343
attorneys were minted in Oregon that
year. It was the lowest admission num-
ber since 1972, when just 310 attorneys
passed the bar exam.
Lower numbers alone don’t make
shortages — they need to be coupled
with a higher number of lawyers retir-
ing or leaving the field. And that is
exactly what is happening. According
to a 2017 economic survey released by
the Oregon State Bar, nearly 20% of
respondents said they had planned on
retiring by 2022.
But perhaps the biggest reason why
Contributed Photo
This image shows some preliminary design concepts for the Pit Stop.
Adair said that bringing in the Peo-
ple Mover a half-mile out of town
might not work, but it could be help-
ful in other places. “I think we need to
look at the big picture and put all of it
together,” Adair said.
While no official decisions were
made regarding the Pit Stop, Adair
asked for a show of hands at the meet-
ing. It appeared as if a majority of those
in attendance were not for the food cart
idea, but some were open to the idea of
lawyers have given the cold shoulder
to Eastern Oregon attorney offices is
salaries in the rural Wild West have not
been able to compete with the metro-
politan areas.
The 2017 bar survey shows an aver-
age Oregon lawyer can expect a salary
of $105,000 per year. Eastern Oregon
attorneys will see $84,000. Portland
attorneys, however, will earn $125,000,
or nearly 20% more than the Oregon
average and roughly 50% more than
those working in Eastern Oregon.
But those averages, which cover
all attorneys, still are higher than the
advertised salary posted for many East-
ern Oregon counties.
Union County, which has one open
position, offers a starting salary of
just more than $56,000 a year . Mor-
row County, which has no deputy dis-
trict attorney at the moment, advertises
$68,400 per year with the ability to earn
up to an additional $30,000 per year
by doing county and city work. Uma-
tilla County pays up to $77,000 for an
entry-level deputy district attorney.
Wallowa County’s open position
advertises a yearly salary of just over
$52,000 for a newly minted lawyer.
Frolander said the salary for a prosecu-
tor was raised recently, but has yet to
attract any prosecutors to join the team
in Wallowa County. While the district
attorney’s office waits for applicants,
the lack of qualified staff to prosecute
cases means cases sometimes don’t
receive the attention they deserve.
“There are cases that I have
resolved for less than I wanted to,”
Frolander said, “and there have been
cases I’ve declined to prosecute due to
resources.”
Frolander also said the coronavi-
rus pandemic had created a traffic jam
of cases that has yet to clear, further
impacting the office’s ability to prose-
cute crimes.
“Prosecutors should be able to make
decisions on whether to pursue a crim-
inal action, based on the merits of the
case, rather than on the resources avail-
able,” Carpenter wrote. “However, that
is exactly the position many prosecu-
tors in Northeastern Oregon are in at
the moment. The lack of available dep-
uty prosecutors and the lack of funding
to attract the qualified applicants leave
us in the position of making resource
based decisions every day.”
Soldiering on
Morrow County District Attorney
Justin Nelson is used to working on
holidays or late into the evening. His
phone and laptop are never too far out
of reach, just in case the sheriff’s office
or the police need a search warrant
reviewed or a suspect charged.
However, he’s not used to doing it
alone.
“When it’s only two, when you
have one gone you definitely feel it,”
Nelson said.
The Morrow County District Attor-
ney’s Office held on to a full staff
through most of the pandemic, unlike
Nelson’s colleagues in Umatilla, Wal-
lowa and Grant counties. That meant
the rolling backlog of cases caused by
the court shutdowns in 2020 never had
a chance to metastasize into growing
problems, like those felt in Wallowa
County.
According to Delano, his “ace in
the hole” was that he had worked
for a handful of the landowners in
the area and had already earned their
trust.
“They knew me personally,” Del-
ano said.
Robertson noted that Delano built
credibility for every organization and
person who worked cooperatively
with the district. According to Rob-
ertson, not one of them working in
the John Day Basin today would be
where they are without the founda-
tion he constructed.
Jeff Neal, a retired fish biologist
with the Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife, said he was tasked in
the late 1980s with spearheading a
variety of fish conservation projects.
Because of Delano’s efforts on hun-
dreds of fish-passage diversion proj-
ects, Neal said, the Grant County
Soil and Water Conservation District
became the envy of the rest of the
state and beyond.
“Having the quality of the Grant
County program led by Ken Delano
ended up being a model for 100 other
counties, not just in Oregon, but
other states,” Neal said.
using the space as a multi-use area for
events such as a farmers market.
The recently built bathrooms at the
Pit Stop came by way of a $35,000
grant through Travel Oregon’s Desti-
nation Ready program for an outdoor
plaza and restroom project last year,
according to Green.
Before submitting the grant appli-
cation, the City Council considered
two different designs and opportunities
for the city-owned property but opted
to first provide restrooms, parking and
a multipurpose area, instead of an alter-
native plan for a parking lot with four
spots for food trucks.
While Travel Oregon’s press release
about the grant award mentioned a
community “pit stop” with food truck
stalls, improved parking, and new pub-
lic restrooms in John Day, the scope of
the application and funding was lim-
ited to building bathrooms, Green said.
However, he added, the council
talked about the potential for a multi-
use site, which could include food
trucks, farmers markets, or other ser-
vices in the future.
The city is continuing to gather
public input about how the space
should be used. Downtown merchants
can email their suggestions to Adair at
merchants@1188brewing.com.
“ We really went through the
COVID-19 thing fully staffed, so I
do think we were in a better position
than any of the other counties, because
while COVID affected everybody, we
weren’t also dealing with a staffing
shortage at the same time.”
But Nelson, like district attorneys
across Northeastern Oregon, is used
to the challenges and the duty that
is asked of them. Nelson noted that
despite working through every holiday
— especially now with his office short-
staffed — his troubles are eclipsed by
the officials and public he serves.
“Anytime law enforcement is
working, I have to be working too,”
Nelson said. “If there’s a single offi-
cer out there that might need to have a
search warrant reviewed, I need to be
available. If it’s a weekend and some-
one gets picked up on a warrant, I need
to be available. But I’m going home at
night. I’m with my family at night. You
know, there’s law enforcement offi-
cers out on the street, and they have it
harder than me. At the end of the day,
I’m a lucky guy.”