GO! EASTERN OREGON MAGAZINE | INSIDE
Wednesday, February 2, 2022
154th Year • No. 5 • 18 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
BACK IN THE SADDLE
After getting canceled
by COVID in 2020, Cycle
Oregon will roll into
Grant County this fall
By BENNETT HALL
Blue Mountain Eagle
O
ne of Oregon’s
premier
out-
door recreation
events will be
coming to Grant
and Wheeler counties this fall,
bringing more than 1,000 visi-
tors and significant economic
impacts to the area.
The Portland-based non-
profit Cycle Oregon announced
last week that it will stage its
biggest ride of the year in the
area this September. Dubbed
“Ride the Painted Hills,” the
event will run Sept. 10-17,
starting and finishing in John
Day and taking in some of
the region’s most spectacular
scenery.
The ride was initially sup-
posed to happen in Septem-
ber 2020, but the organization
called it off as it became clear
that the COVID-19 pandemic
was going to be around for a
while. A handful of scaled-
down events were held in
2021, but this year the group
is ready to hit the road full
force.
“We’re just really excited
about going out in 2022,”
Cycle
Oregon
Executive
Director Steve Schulz told the
Eagle.
Contributed Photo/Cycle Oregon
Cycle Oregon is coming to Grant County
in September after being forced to cancel
a planned ride in 2020 due to COVID-19.
Blue Mountain Eagle, File
Grant Union
eighth-graders,
including Jay
Goldblatt and Eli
Humbird, hand
out high-fi ves and
fi st bumps to the
cyclists on the home
stretch of Cycle
Oregon, which came
through the county
in September 2013.
An Oregon tradition
Since 1988, Cycle Oregon
has brought together cycling
enthusiasts once a year for
group rides in various parts of
the state. The first installment,
which attracted around 1,000
participants, was a six-day,
350-mile jaunt from Salem to
Brookings.
The idea caught on, and
one annual ride has grown into
a four-course menu for seri-
ous cyclists. In addition to the
weeklong Classic, Cycle Ore-
gon also offers a pair of two-
day options, the Weekender and
the Gravel (being held this year
in Corvallis and Toledo, respec-
tively) and the one-day Joy-
ride, a women-only pedal in the
Independence area.
All rides are supported,
with meals, camping facili-
ties, showers and restrooms
provided, and there’s a “sag
wagon” available to pick up
riders who get injured, suffer
mechanical breakdowns or just
run out of gas. A festive atmo-
sphere surrounds the rides,
often with live music and local
beer and wine.
There’s also a public ser-
vice component: Classic par-
ticipants are encouraged to take
part in public service projects in
See Cycle, Page A18
City goes public with county police off er
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
CANYON CITY — Grant County
offi cials made a private counterof-
fer to John Day’s police funding pro-
posal last week, but the city manager
made the issue public by putting it on
the agenda for a special session of the
City Council on Tuesday, Feb. 1.
When the council voted unani-
mously to suspend the city’s cash-
strapped police department in Octo-
ber, it also directed City Manager
Nick Green to make a proposal to the
Grant County Court: the city would
hand over all its property tax reve-
nues, $300,000 a year, to the county
for law enforcement services. In
exchange, the city wanted $300,000
a year from the county road fund for
street construction to spur housing
development.
County Judge Scott Myers said
he wanted the county attorney to
review the proposal before putting it
on the agenda.
In mid-December, County Com-
missioner Sam Palmer and City Coun-
cilor Gregg Haberly initiated informal
discussions with Sheriff Todd McKin-
ley, whose department has assumed
responsibility for law enforcement in
the city limits.
To date, the matter still has not been
deliberated by the county commission-
ers in open session.
However, on Jan. 21, the county’s
legal counsel emailed the city’s attor-
ney a formal proposal laying out the
conditions under which the Sheriff ’s
Offi ce would provide law enforcement
services for the city.
Rather than let the lawyers hash
out the details in private, Green called
for a public discussion between city
and county offi cials to go over the
deal’s particulars.
In a Thursday, Jan. 27, email copied
to the Eagle, Green told John Day’s city
councilors that it appears the county had
not discussed the proposed agreement
publicly during a county court session.
Green proclaimed the proposed
agreement and correspondence between
the city and county’s respective attor-
ney’s is now a “public document.”
Dominic Carollo, the county’s legal
counsel, sent John Day’s lawyer Jeremy
Green two proposals. One assumes the
city will be able to transfer a $375,000
federal Community Oriented Policing
Services grant to the county; the other
assumes that doesn’t happen.
According to the proposed agree-
ment, if the COPS grant is not trans-
ferable, the cost for three deputies to
patrol,the city would be an estimated
$371,000 a year. This off er, according to
Carollo, would be the minimum contri-
bution required for that level of service.
If the COPS grant is transferable and
assuming the grant pays out $375,000
over three to four years, the city’s mini-
mum cost would be $282,400 per year.
There is no mention of any county
road funds coming to the city.
In the agenda packet for the Feb. 1
City Council meeting, the city man-
ager complains that the County Court
has “consistently declined to meet as a
quorum to discuss the police transition
or (Secure Rural Schools) funding for
street improvements.”
Last spring, the city requested a
work session with the court to discuss
using county road funds to spur home
building in the city. At the time, County
Judge Scott Myers told Green that the
county would need to consult with
See Police, Page A18
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
County Judge Scott Myers during
the Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2022 ses-
sion of county court.
Smith steps down from council seat
By BENNETT HALL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — Paul
Smith has resigned from the
John Day City Council after
a nine-year run, citing health
and personal issues.
The council will appoint a
replacement to fi ll out the 11
months remaining on Smith’s
term, and his Position 7 seat
will be up for election on the
November ballot.
Smith submitted his let-
ter of resignation on Jan. 13,
eff ective immediately. His
departure, and the process
for fi lling his empty seat, was
discussed at the Jan. 25 City
Council meeting.
Applications for the posi-
tion will be accepted until
Rudy Diaz/Blue Mountain Eagle, File
Associate planner Daisy Goebel and John Day City Councilor
Paul Smith, center, answer questions during a celebration of the
completion of the Innovation Gateway area plan at the Grant
County Regional Airport in this photo from February 2020.
4 p.m. Feb. 17. The remain-
ing councilors and the mayor
will review the applications
and appoint someone to fi ll
Smith’s seat at their Feb. 22
meeting. Application forms
are available at City Hall, 450
E. Main. St.
Smith was appointed to
the John Day City Council in
February 2013 .
Now 63, Smith is retired
from a career as an educa-
tor and counselor but plans
to remain active in the com-
munity, including work with
Thadd’s Place and hospice,
he told the Eagle in an inter-
view last week.
He also talked about his
time on the City Council, his
reasons for resigning and his
hopes for the future of John
Day.
At the time he came on
board, Smith said, the coun-
cil’s top priority was getting
a new fi re hall built. It was
a goal Smith supported, and
the council got a bond passed
to construct a new building.
From the beginning, how-
ever, Smith was focused on
another major infrastructure
project: building a replace-
ment for the city’s crumbling
wastewater treatment plant,
which was already more than
a half-century old. In fact,
he said, his grandfather —
then the mayor of John Day
— had helped get the cur-
rent sewer plant built in the
1950s.
“I said, ‘Hey, guys, we
can’t bury our heads in the
sand. We need to address
this,’” Smith recalled.
While a good deal of prog-
ress has been made on that
project since then, it remains
unfi nished, with the city cur-
rently trading letters with the
Oregon Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality about
potential permitting issues.
See Smith, Page A18