DOCTORS’ DAY | INSIDE
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
154th Year • No. 13 • 12 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
POISED FOR
Blue Mountain Eagle, File
This fi le photo from Aug. 15, 2019, shows the current John
Day wastewater treatment plant. The city hopes to start work
on a new plant this summer.
GROWTH
Wastewater
project
moves ahead
Work could start
this summer on
new John Day
sewer plant
By BENNETT HALL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — Prelim-
inary construction could
begin as soon as this summer
on a long-awaited wastewa-
ter treatment plant in John
Day.
The city’s current sewer
plant, located on the north
side of the John Day River
near the western end of Sev-
enth Street, serves about
2,400 residential, business
and institutional custom-
ers within the urban growth
boundaries of John Day and
Canyon City.
Built in 1949, the plant
received its last major
upgrade in 1978 and is in a
state of disrepair. The facil-
ity’s state operating permit
expired in 1978 and cannot
be renewed under current
regulatory guidelines.
Plans have been in the
works for more than a decade
to build a replacement plant,
but progress has been slow.
One of the last remain-
ing hurdles before work can
begin is a permit from the
Oregon Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality to dispose
of the treated wastewater,
either by benefi cial reuse or
by discharging it into under-
ground infi ltration basins.
DEQ has sent the city’s per-
mit application out for what
the agency calls “global
review,” with public com-
ment due by April 11 (see
information box with this
story).
“That’s the last round of
review,” City Manager Nick
Green said. “On the permitting
side, we’re at the fi nish line.”
The city is gearing up to
solicit bids for the “pack-
age plant,” the prefabricated
sewage treatment plant that
would be the heart of the new
facility.
If the wastewater dis-
charge permit is approved,
Green said, work could begin
this summer on the access
road to the new plant, which
would be located in the north-
west corner of the Innova-
tion Gateway district, about a
mile west of the current plant
near Northwest Seventh and
Bridge streets. Groundbreak-
ing on the plant itself is pro-
jected for this fall.
“Our plan is to have the
entire project fi nished by the
end of 2024,” Green said.
The latest budget estimate
for the project is $17.5 mil-
lion. Of that total, the city has
$6.5 million in grant funding
and has preliminary approval
for an additional $11 million
See Sewer, Page A12
HAVE YOUR SAY
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is
soliciting public comments on a water quality permit
for the city’s proposed new wastewater treatment plant.
For more information on the proposed permit, go to
https://tinyurl.com/aut8rnbu.
Comments can be submitted to Patty Isaak by email at
patty.isaak@deq.oregon.gov or by mail at Water Quality
permit Coordinator, Oregon DEQ, 800 SE Emigrant
Ave., Suite 330, Pendleton, OR 97801.
The deadline is 5 p.m. April 11.
Pinnacle Architecture/Contributed Image
This conceptual drawing shows Option 2, one of two designs being considered for the new interpretive center at the Kam Wah
Chung State Heritage Site. Park managers say they are “heavily leaning” toward this option.
Oregon plans to invest
millions in major expansion
of Kam Wah Chung
to notice the deterioration of things like the epi-
grams on the walls, paper products and vari-
ous artifacts within the apothecary and general
ne of Grant County’s best store. A master plan created to address these
known tourist destinations is set deteriorations ultimately led to the conclusion
for a multimillion-dollar reno- that an expansion was necessary.
vation and expansion that will
Park manager Dennis Bradley says that fol-
better showcase the rich his- lowing the master plan’s creation in 2004, var-
tory of Chinese immi-
ious parcels of land
grants in the region
adjacent to the Kam
and provide a boost to
Wah Chung site on
the local economy.
Northwest
Canton
The Kam Wah
Street were identifi ed
Chung State Heri-
as being ideal fi ts for
tage Site in John Day
the expansion.
is centered around a
“We identifi ed fi ve
19th century stone
properties within the
structure that was
master plan that were
originally a trading
suited to the expan-
post. The building
sion of the interpre-
Justin Davis/Blue Mountain Eagle tive center,” he said.
was later purchased
by Lung On and Ing Kitchen shelves hold a variety of foodstuff s “Since that time, we
“Doc” Hay and oper- at Kam Wah Chung, which shut down in 1948. have acquired three of
ated as a general store
those properties.”
and Chinese apothecary.
The Oregon Parks and Recreation Depart-
The site was a longtime center of the Chi- ment is in discussions to fi nalize the purchase
nese community in Grant County. Plans call of the last two parcels for the expansion, Glea-
for a new interpretive center, additional park- son Park and Gleason Pool.
ing and other improvements on an expanded,
“The agreement is already in place,” Brad-
multi-acre site.
ley said.
State fi nancing for the project includes
The city of John Day has agreed to demol-
funds for additional improvements designed to ish the pool, which is no longer in use, before
link the Kam Wah Chung site with downtown the state closes on the land sale.
John Day.
The demolition of the pool and an adjoining
Identifying the need for an expansion began building is under review by the State Historic
with the fi rst restoration of the site in 1974-76 Preservation Offi ce. The 64-year-old pool is no
under former curator Carolyn Meisenheimer.
See Expansion, Page A12
In the years that followed, Meisenheimer began
By JUSTIN DAVIS
Blue Mountain Eagle
O
A BRIEF HISTORY
OF KAM WAH CHUNG
Loosely translated from the Chi-
nese, Kam Wah Chung means
“golden fl ower of prosperity,”
and it was a center of prosperity
for many years.
The stone building that stands
today near Gleason Park in
John Day was constructed as
a trading post and stagecoach
stop between 1864 and 1865.
Chinese immigrants founded
Kam Wah Chung & Co. in 1871.
Both the building and company
name were purchased by Lung
On, Ing “Doc” Hay and a third
business partner, Ye Nem, from
another Chinese businessman
named Shee Pon in 1871. The
building served a large and
vibrant Chinese community in
Grant County, numbering up to
2,000 at its height.
Hay and On ran a general store,
apothecary and boardinghouse
for migratory workers in the
building.
The general store was in opera-
tion until the death of Lung On
in December of 1940. Doc Hay
continued to operate the apoth-
ecary until 1948, when an injury
forced him to move to a nursing
home in Portland. Hay died four
years later, in 1952, having never
returned to the apothecary.
The building was sealed from
the time Hay left in 1942 until it
was turned over to the John Day
Historical Society in 1968, saving
the structure from being torn
down. The building was turned
into a museum, which was listed
on the National Register of
Historic Places in 1973. In 2005
the museum was designated a
National Historic Landmark.
‘Terrible Tilly’ goes on the market
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
KMUN
CANNON BEACH — “Terrible Tilly,”
the historic 141-year-old Tillamook Rock
Lighthouse off the coast near Cannon Beach,
is for sale.
Mimi Morissette, the owner, listed the
property for $6.5 million. She had once hoped
to turn the decommissioned lighthouse into a
large columbarium, a place to store people’s
cremated remains. There was room, she said,
for up to 300,000 urns.
But Morissette’s plan never really took
off .
Forty-two years later, the ashes of only 31
people, including Morissette’s parents, have
been laid to rest at the lighthouse. Morissette,
who is 77, has concluded it is time for some-
one else to take over.
“It is time for me to pass the baton,” she
said.
An ad went out last week, and Morissette
is confi dent she’ll fi nd a buyer.
“I think it’s a given,” she said. “I think I’ll
sell it and I think I’ll close it by the end of
the year.”
She traveled last week to a conference in
Las Vegas to seek out potential buyers. She
told KMUN she connected with a large cem-
etery brokerage and consulting fi rm that has
several potential buyers in mind.
Challenges
Morissette bought the property with her
business partners in 1980 and began selling
spaces for urns, but cremation was less com-
mon at the time. Then, the columbarium lost
its state license in 1999 and, despite a fi ght,
she was unable to renew it.
She was also dogged by consumer com-
plaints fi led with the state Department of
See Tilly, Page A12
Tiff any Boothe/Seaside Aquarium
Sea lions roam the waters around Tillamook Rock Lighthouse.
The historic lighthouse has been used as a columbarium for de-
cades, but is now for sale.