A2
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, April 13, 2022
New website highlights John Day Eagle schedules
candidate forum
By JUSTIN DAVIS
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — A website designed
to introduce non-residents to John Day
and the surrounding communities went
live at the end of March. The website
was designed by Portland studio Straw
to Gold as a way to give people who may
fi nd themselves in the region informa-
tion on the outdoor and indoor activities
the area has to off er.
The website is named discoverjohn-
day.com, but it covers the entire county.
Along with amenities in John Day, the
website highlights features outside the
city including the John Day Fossil Beds
and Magone Lake, and it informs visi-
tors about various mountain biking, hik-
ing and ATV trails throughout Grant
County.
Cost to the city for creation of the
website was $25,000. City Manager
Nick Green says those costs cover the
website itself as well as video content
collected over multiple visits during the
past year.
Straw to Gold’s Benjamin Ariff says
the website’s purpose is to connect peo-
ple with the various recreational and
economic opportunities that could make
the region attractive, both to visitors and
potential permanent residents. “There
is a lot of content on the website that is
really meant to interact with people from
outside the region,” according to Ariff .
The catalyst for building the website
came in the form of a meeting between
Green and Ariff a few years ago. The two
discussed the path the city was on and
some of the projects and new develop-
ment starting to take shape in the region.
A new website commissioned by the city
of John Day highlights attractions of the
community and Grant County.
After a number of conversations, the
website emerged as a tool to promote
some of the work being done in John
Day. Grant County is the only county
in Oregon with a declining population,
and the city’s goal is to try to stimulate
growth.
“Maybe people will look at this web-
site and decide they want to visit and
spend dollars here, possibly move their
family here and put their kids in school,
maybe open a business,” Ariff said.
Ariff says this project was “much
more intimate” than other projects he’s
worked on given the size of the town
and many of the community members
coming out to show their support for
the work that went into constructing the
website. “There was a lot of excitement
within the community,” Ariff said.
The project was challenging but Ariff
says that is because there is so much
within the region to showcase.
“John Day is the prefect base camp,”
he said. “You get into the city and there
is so much going on, but within an hour
of the city there is just so much to do.
I think we identifi ed over 30 things you
can do depending on your interests.”
Ariff says his team would consider
the website a success if it becomes a
tool for new people to become informed
about what John Day has to off er. “We
want people to see and understand the
possibilities and take the next step.”
Those next steps could be anything from
deciding to vacation in Grant County to
visiting a local business or maybe even
moving their business here.
“The website is very friendly and
digestible,” Ariff said. “It doesn’t use the
typical marketing language other web-
sites use. That is how we wanted to pres-
ent John Day and the region.”
Ariff says the website took more than
a year to develop and is mostly driven
by video content. The intention is to con-
tinue to develop the site and keep infor-
mation on the site in line with ongoing
projects in the area.
“This is one of the most fun projects
I’ve ever done,” he said. “Really friendly
and accommodating people. I feel really
connected to the city, and it doesn’t
always work out that way.”
Fourth Avenue repairs going out to bid
By JUSTIN DAVIS
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — Bidding
is set to begin for repairs to
a fl ood-damaged portion of
Southwest Fourth Avenue
after the city obtained grant
funding to cover the project.
Damage to the road
occurred during spring fl ood-
ing of Canyon Creek in 2019.
Since then, a section of the
road just west of the creek
has been restricted to one
lane. The COVID-19 pan-
demic, funding disagree-
ments between the city of
John Day and Grant County
as well as multiple design
iterations have delayed work
on the project.
The original plan relied on
a $1.2 million grant from the
Federal Emergency Manage-
ment Agency to fi x the dam-
The damaged road and eroded embankment on Southwest
Fourth Avenue in John Day. The road has been in need of re-
pairs for almost three years.
age. FEMA was set to cover
75 percent of the cost of the
repairs with a 25 percent
match required. John Day
City Manager Nick Green
says the project is now 100%
grant-funded, and the latest
design will cost less than pre-
viously estimated.
The project will be put up
for bidding in May. The cost
of the repairs is slated to be
$1.1 million, although Green
stresses that number is a pro-
jection. “We won’t have an
actual cost until we get bids
back,” he said.
John Day engineering
fi rm Sistul Engineering is in
charge of design plans for the
project.
Green says the project will
take roughly three months to
complete once construction
starts; those seeking to travel
to the airport will need to take
an alternate route until the
repair work is completed.
In a May 2021 inter-
view, John Day Mayor Ron
Lundbom called the repairs
an “extraordinary situa-
tion” that the city could not
budget for.
Lundbom
described
Fourth Avenue as a “criti-
cal access route to the Grant
County Regional Airport and
other emergency services” in
that same 2021 interview.
Demolition derby runs out of gas
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
CANYON CITY — Orga-
nizers of the annual demoli-
tion derby at the Grant County
Fairgrounds are canceling the
event this year and likely in
the foreseeable future due to a
lack of local drivers with cars
and soaring fuel costs.
Colby Farrell with the
Whiskey Gulch Gang, the
group that has organized the
event for the last 30 years,
said organizers knew they
might have to make the diffi -
cult decision of calling off the
event for quite some time.
For the last 10 to 15 years,
he said, the organizers have
struggled to fi nd enough peo-
ple with cars to compete as
they are becoming more and
more expensive every year.
This year, he said, with
rising fuel costs, drivers with
cars are setting their sights on
bigger derbies in larger areas
where they have a chance at
winning considerably more
prize money.
Grant County, he said,
does not have the facilities or
population to compete. Even
if they were to try to go big-
ger, Grant County is a long
way for a driver to travel.
Last year, he said, except
for two cars from Burns,
Celebration of Life
for
Carol Coombs
April 23 at 12:00 PM
at Depot Park in Prairie City.
roughly 100 miles away,
every other vehicle traveled
from Idaho or farther to com-
pete. Farrell said he spoke
with most of those driv-
ers, and they said fuel costs
were just too high for them
to make the trek to Grant
County.
“We’ve seen it coming for
quite a while,” Farrell said.
“We just kept holding out
hope that more local guys
would get involved and start
building cars, but it just has
not happened.”
Farrell added there are
reasons for that. For exam-
ple, some fi ght fi re during
the summer months or have
other jobs that take them
out of the community. Addi-
tionally, he said, building a
car for a demolition derby
is a signifi cant investment
of time and money. Far-
rell added that parts have
become more expensive and
harder to fi nd.
In the derby’s heyday,
there were between fi ve
and six Grant County cars
with another four or fi ve
from within 100 miles of the
Last Week’s Temps
John Day ...........................................................HI/LO
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county. The organizers, Far-
rell said, knew they would
have competitors.
He said that the Whiskey
Gulch Gang would need to
have that many drivers on tap
to compete before opening
the gates at the fairgrounds to
bring back the event.
“We know that this will
be greatly disappointing for
many people,” Farrell said,
“especially the kids and fam-
ilies who loved seeing the
cars smash into each other,
but we cannot continue to
just open the gates and hope
enough cars show up from
anywhere and everywhere to
have enough to make sure the
crowd gets a good show and
feel they got their money’s
worth.”
In the meantime, he said,
the Whiskey Gulch Gang,
which organizes Canyon
City’s ‘62 Days every year
in June, will focus on other
events and entertainment for
summers in Grant County.
For instance, the group wants
to open the historic Sel’s
Brewery a few more times
each year.
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — The Blue
Mountain Eagle will host a
public forum with the three
announced candidates for
Grant County commissioner
in the May 17 election.
The free event will be
held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on
Wednesday, April 20, in the
large conference room at the
Grant County Regional Air-
port, 720 Airport Road, John
Day.
Scott Knepper of Prairie
City, John Rowell of John Day
and Mark Webb of Mt. Vernon
are running to fi ll the seat on
the Grant County Court being
vacated by Sam Palmer, who
is running for the Republican
nomination for a U.S. Senate
seat. The candidates will talk
about their qualifi cations, dis-
cuss their positions on issues
facing the county and answer
questions about the campaign.
Blue Mountain Eagle Editor
Bennett Hall will moderate
the discussion.
Members of the public
are invited to attend in per-
son. The event will also be
streamed live on the Eagle’s
Facebook page.
Governor hopeful
Pulliam to visit
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — Republican
gubernatorial candidate Stan
Pulliam will make a campaign
stop in John Day this week
during a swing through East-
ern Oregon.
Pulliam,
the
mayor
of Sandy, will be at the
Squeeze-In Restaurant and
Deck, 423 W. Main St., from
noon to 1:30 p.m. on Friday,
April 15, to meet with voters,
talk about his positions and
discuss the issues facing the
state.
Pulliam is one of 34 can-
didates who have fi led to seek
the GOP nomination for gov-
ernor in the May 17 primary
election.
LOCAL BRIEFING
New community health leader named
HERMISTON — Greater Oregon Behavioral Health
Inc. has tapped Hermiston resident Lourdes Reyna Alcala
to head the organization’s community health engagement
efforts in Eastern Oregon, GOBHI announced.
In her new role, Reyna Alcala will serve
as GOBHI’s community health develop-
ment manager and will work closely with
the Eastern Oregon Coordinated Care Orga-
nization, overseeing a team that facilitates
work with the CCO’s community health
providers in 12 Eastern Oregon counties.
She has previously worked in early
Alcala
childhood services and most recently
served as a family support specialist with
the Intermountain Education Service District. She is flu-
ent in both English and Spanish, holds a bachelor’s degree
from Washington State University and is pursuing a mas-
ter’s degree in special education from the University of
Oregon.
Rancher relief payments set to begin
SALEM — Oregon ranchers who lost forage because
of wildfire or drought last year could soon start receiving
payments from a U.S. Department of Agriculture program.
Payments through the USDA Farm Service Agency’s
Emergency Livestock Relief Program will be made to
ranchers who have approved applications under the Live-
stock Forage Disaster Program through 2021, the agency
said in a news release.
The Farm Service Agency’s Oregon office received
2,325 applications requesting nearly $32 million in assis-
tance for last year and is preparing to release $26 mil-
lion in payments, but that does not include outstanding
applications.
The agency said it will continue to evaluate drought
and fire impacts from 2021 “to ensure equitable and inclu-
sive distribution of much-needed emergency relief program
benefi ts.”
State seeks relatives of WWII vet
SALEM — The Oregon Department of Veterans Aff airs is
trying to find surviving relatives of a deceased veteran to
make sure the dead soldier’s medals stay in his family.
George E. Hodgdon, who served as a first lieutenant in
the Army during the Italian campaign in World War II, died
in 1969 and left no surviving spouse. Recently, however,
Hodgdon’s medals were discovered in a house in Lake
Oswego that was being demolished. The decorations were
turned over to ODVA, which is now trying to track down
Hodgdon’s living descendants, the agency said in a news
release.
Among the medals were the Distinguished Service
Cross, America’s second-highest award for military her-
oism, and the Medgalia al Valore Militaire, Italy’s equiv-
alent of the Medal of Honor. Hodgdon received the Dis-
tinguished Service Cross for his actions during a battle
against German forces in January 1944 near Cisterna di
Littoria, Italy, during which he led a rally against heavy
rifle and machine gun fire to destroy an enemy tank.
Anyone with information about Hodgdon’s relatives or
other loved ones is asked to contact ODVA spokesman Tyler
Francke at tyler.francke@odva.oregon.gov.
— Blue Mountain Eagle
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