GO! EASTERN OREGON MAGAZINE | INSIDE
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
154th Year • No. 11 • 16 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
County
Court
race will
be 3-way
contest
By STEVEN MITCHELL Blue
Mountain Eagle
CANYON CITY — The lineup of
candidates is set for the May 17 election
for the open seat on the Grant County
Court.
As the March 8
deadline passed, fi rst-
term Commissioner
Sam Palmer opted
not to fi le for re-elec-
tion. Palmer said he
would not be run-
Rowell
ning for another term
as he makes a bid for
the GOP nomination
to mount a general
election
challenge
to Democrat Ron
Wyden in the Senate.
Instead, Palmer
has thrown his sup-
Knepper
port behind John
Day resident John
Rowell and said that
if he were unsuc-
cessful in earning the
Senate nomination,
he would not run as
a write-in candidate
Webb
to keep his spot on
the County Court.
Rowell will face Scott Knepper of
Prairie City and Mark Webb of Mt.
Vernon in the May 17 county commis-
sioner election. Rowell and Knepper’s
names will appear on the ballot; Webb
missed the fi ling deadline and is run-
ning as a write-in candidate.
The offi ce of Grant County com-
missioner is a nonpartisan position.
If none of the candidates gets more
than 50% of the vote, the two highest
vote-getters will move on to the gen-
eral election ballot in November.
County commissioners are expected
to work 13⅓ hours a week. They are
paid $2,380 per month with full bene-
fi ts, including membership in the Public
Employee Retirement System.
John Rowell
Rowell, a Marine veteran who
served in the Vietnam War and the
First Gulf War, is retired after a career
in the lumber business. Now that he is
no longer working, he said he wants to
be involved in countywide decisions
and help fi nd solutions to Grant Coun-
ty’s issues.
Rowell’s been helping fi nd a solu-
tion to one of the county’s most salient
issues, the sometimes contentious
negotiations between John Day and
Grant County on how to fund policing
in the county.
See Court, Page A7
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
Diane Miller replaces a diesel fuel pump nozzle Thursday, March 10, 2022, at a Chevron gas station in Island City. Miller paid more than $140 to fi ll up half a tank.
Over a barrel
Gas prices soar as Russian
invasion of Ukraine continues
By ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
LA GRANDE — Gas prices are
soaring to record highs amid the Rus-
sian invasion of Ukraine, sparked by
fears that NATO countries may begin
enacting additional sanctions against
Russian crude oil.
In the United States, President Joe
Biden announced a ban on Russian
oil on March 8.
Crude oil prices briefl y skyrock-
eted to more than $130 a barrel on
March 8, the highest they’ve been
since 2008, and nearly doubling
since December.
Oregon has seen gas prices rise
to more than $4.50 a gallon, while
some areas of Portland have sold gas
as high as $6 a gallon. Diesel prices
have risen above $5 a gallon.
“I just came from Arizona, and
this is the highest price I’ve seen for
diesel,” said Diane Miller, a compet-
itive barrel racer who was traveling
home to Moses Lake, Washington,
after a three-week trip to Arizona.
Miller paid more than $140 to fi ll
up half a tank of diesel at the Chev-
ron station in Island City on March
10. She said that she’s able to aff ord
the increased costs at the pump, but
she knows several people who aren’t.
Miller said she will have to pay more
expensive diesel prices all summer
as she competes in barrel racing
competitions.
“It’s defi nitely hard on Amer-
ica,” Miller said. “It’s a bad deal, and
I don’t think it would be this way if
(President Donald) Trump would
have stayed in.”
Geopolitical risk
According to the U.S. Energy
Information Agency, the geopoliti-
cal risk related to Russia’s invasion
of Ukraine has contributed to higher
and more volatile crude oil prices.
But Russia’s oil footprint on the U.S.
market is minimal; less than 10% of
the U.S. demand for oil is fi lled by
See Gas, Page A16
Justin Davis/Blue Mountain Eagle
A placard displays gas prices at Leath-
ers Fuels in John Day on Monday,
March 14, 2022.
City rejects county policing plan
John Day council wants to
see a countywide solution
By BENNETT HALL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — The John Day
City Council has rejected Grant
County’s fee-for-service proposal
for law enforcement funding, say-
ing it wants to see a more broad-
based approach to increasing the
Sheriff ’s Offi ce budget and calling
on the County Court to come up
with a plan for doing so.
The council passed two resolu-
tions at its March 8 meeting, both
by unanimous vote:
• The fi rst resolution stated
that the city intends to return
a $375,000 federal Commu-
nity Oriented Policing Services
grant, since the city no longer
has a police department and the
funds cannot be transferred to the
county, and that the city will not
budget for police services in the
coming fiscal year but will place
some funds into a contingency
account for use in the event that
an agreement is reached with the
county for police services.
• The second resolution stated
the city’s willingness to work with
the county toward a law enforce-
ment agreement and the city’s
willingness to pay its fair share
for law enforcement services but
not to cover the full cost of add-
ing additional deputies to the Sher-
iff ’s Offi ce.
Both resolutions came after a
discussion among the council mem-
bers and County Commissioner
Sam Palmer, who has taken the lead
on the law enforcement funding
issue on the Grant County Court.
Palmer has held informal talks
with City Councilors Heather
Rookstool and Gregg Haberly,
Sheriff Todd McKinley and
community member John Row-
ell aimed at filling the gap in
law enforcement coverage cre-
ated by the suspension of the
John Day Police Department in
October.
In the face of a shrinking pop-
ulation and a stagnating tax base,
John Day struggled for years to
fund its four-man police force,
See Police, Page A16
‘No logical explanation’ in cattle mutilation
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
BEAR VALLEY — A mutilated bull
mysteriously turned up dead at a ranch in
Bear Valley last month with body parts
removed.
According to a Feb. 28 incident report
by the Oregon State Police, a rancher
called a wildlife trooper to report a bull
had been killed and mutilated on his
ranch with its testicles, scrotum, tongue
and lips precisely removed.
Sgt. Erich Timko of the Oregon State
Police Wildlife Division said the injuries
to the bull were consistent with the pat-
tern observed in similar cattle mutilation
cases.
“It’s just puzzling, Timko said. “The
best word to describe it is ‘bizarre.’”
Mat Carter, a rancher from the Crown
Cattle Co., said he reported the mutila-
tion to the Oregon State Police after dis-
covering the dead bull roughly a quar-
ter-mile to half a mile from his house.
The cause of death is unknown.
When Carter found the bull, it had
been dead for about a day and was
already decomposing. According to OSP,
the 24-hour window during which a nec-
ropsy could have been performed on the
carcass had passed.
Carter said it is hard to imagine any-
one would have come onto his property,
killed a bull and then cleanly cut off spe-
cific body parts.
Contributed Photo
See Cattle, Page A16
A mutilated cow on a ranch in Deschutes County in 2020. A
similar case occurred in Bear Valley last month.