A6
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, April 27, 2022
Cost overruns hit reload center Homeless mom
clings to hope
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
NYSSA — Building the
Treasure Valley Reload Cen-
ter to original design speci-
fications would cost almost
one-third more than origi-
nally estimated, prompting
proponents to scale back the
project.
The truck-to-train load-
ing facility to be built north
of Nyssa would ship onions
and other commodities east
to major markets. Southeast
Oregon and southwest Idaho
produce about a quarter of the
country’s fall storage onions.
The 2017 Legislature
approved a $26 million Con-
nectOregon grant from lot-
tery-backed bonds. Legis-
lators this year approved a
$3 million grant, from fed-
eral coronavirus recovery
funds, to the city of Nyssa,
for a water line extension for
the reload center and future
industrial development.
Greg Smith, Malheur
County Economic Develop-
ment director and officer of
the separate Malheur County
Development Corp., said the
project is about $9.8 million
over the original $35 mil-
lion budget. The original plan
called for opening nearly 290
acres of industrially zoned
ground for development.
He said an overarch-
ing solution is to reduce the
budget and features “from
a Cadillac to a Chevrolet”
including eliminating “unnec-
essary wants.”
Cost overruns include
about $5 million in unex-
pected necessary excavation
to deal with excess ground-
water, a price from lone
building-construction bidder
TCG Construction, Meridian,
Idaho, that was about $2.9
million above expectations,
and steel and asphalt costs
driven by high inflation.
Smith said construction
bidding interest has dropped
due to development in south-
west Idaho and high transpor-
tation costs. The corporation
will solicit new bids.
About $3 million could
be saved by delaying con-
struction of one of the three
rail spurs for three years, he
said. And $1 million could
be saved by using a sep-
tic waste system instead of a
lagoon system serving several
companies.
Smith said $2 million
could be saved by eliminat-
ing all access roads except
the one to the reload center.
Industrial park roads could
be added later as funding
becomes available.
BMH gets $400K equipment grant
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — The Blue Moun-
tain Hospital District has been awarded
roughly $400,000 in federal grant fund-
ing to purchase new medical equipment.
“Critical access hospitals like the
Blue Mountain Hospital District serve
as a lifeline for Oregon’s rural commu-
nities,” USDA Rural Development Ore-
gon State Director Margi Hoffmann said
in an April 14 press release.
“Too often rural Oregonians are
forced to drive hours for specialized med-
ical care, while rural health care workers
and providers struggle to find funding for
basic operations. If an expecting mother
no longer needs to travel hundreds of
miles for an ultrasound or a grandfather
no longer loses crucial days waiting for
a cancer screening, that’s a win in our
books.”
The grant funding came through the
Emergency Rural Health Care Grant
Program, part of the American Rescue
Plan Act. The funds were paid out to
93 rural health care organizations and
groups across the country.
Joan Sonnenburg, the John Day hos-
pital’s director of outpatient and provider
services, said the USDA grant has helped
the hospital acquire pieces of equipment
it otherwise would not have been able to
afford.
According to the press release, the
grant helped the hospital purchase
equipment that included an ultrasound
machine, a portable chest X-ray machine,
and a stand-alone auxiliary generator.
Blue Mountain Hospital District
CEO Derek Daley said he wished the
hospital had had much of this equip-
ment during the omicron and delta vari-
ant surges. In any case, he said, the hos-
pital is in a much better position moving
forward for both COVID and non-
COVID patients.
Showdown looms over BMCC cuts
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The Blue
Mountain Community Col-
lege Budget Committee has
its first public meeting to dis-
cuss the plan to cut faculty and
programs to meet the college’s
bottom line.
BMCC Faculty Associa-
tion President Pete Hernberg
said some instructors plan to
be at the public meeting Mon-
day, April 25, at the Pendleton
campus, but he stayed mum
about any addresses or state-
ments they might make to the
committee.
BMCC President Mark
Browning contends the col-
lege started
the 2022-23
budget pro-
cess with a
$2 million
hole. After
cutting 39
Browning
classified
and admin-
istrative positions from 2020
through 2022, the college no
longer can make cuts to those
areas. Now, he told the East
Oregonian in a meeting April
19, it’s time to “right-size”
Blue Mountain, and that means
eliminating faculty.
His proposal calls for cut-
ting 10 full-time faculty and
several part-time positions in
multiple disciplines and elimi-
nating criminal justice, college
prep and industrial systems
technology programs. Brown-
ing said BMCC is top heavy
with faculty compared to other
Oregon community colleges.
BMCC has 47 full-time fac-
ulty teaching just more than the
equivalent of 1,000 full-time
students, he said, while Clatsop
Community College has 29
full-time faculty and 800 full-
time students and Treasure Val-
ley CC in Ontario has 566 full-
time students and 26 faculty.
Hernberg contends Brown-
ing is conflating the 35 full-
time faculty who teach on
campus with those who teach
in the two state prisons in
Umatilla County. The teach-
ers at Eastern Oregon Correc-
tional Institution, Pendleton
and Two Rivers Correctional
Institution, Umatilla, receive
separate funding, he said, and
those students don’t count as
part of the college’s 1,000 full-
time students.
Hernberg teaches math
and said he keeps a close
watch on funding for the col-
lege, so Browning’s claim the
college is $2 million short is
shocking.
“The revenue is projected
to be up $300,000 from where
we were a year ago,” Hern-
berg said.
And some of the cuts in
the proposal, he said, are for
classes that are full.
By SUZANNE ROIG
The Bulletin
REDMOND — When sher-
iff’s deputies evicted Tessy
Moon from her Redmond
home, she told her children
they were going camping.
At first it seemed like fun,
but two and a half years later,
it’s anything but.
Being houseless has taken
more imagination and hard
work than she could ever have
imagined.
Getting drinking water and
propane for electricity and heat
to the campsite requires a half-
mile or more walk and a plan
on how to carry the heavy tanks
across unstable terrain.
She used area rocks and
found wire fence material to
carve a playground out of sage-
brush and hard-packed dirt for
her kids to play and ride their
bikes.
Throughout it all, Moon
has remained hopeful that one
day soon her family won’t be
crammed into a fifth-wheel RV
in the sagebrush of a remote
area of Redmond.
“We try every day,” said
Moon, a 36-year-old mother
of four. “It’s hard to stay clean
when you’re homeless.”
Their family van, which
doesn’t have a current regis-
tration, runs, but only when
there’s extra money for gas,
Moon said. So most days she
and her family walk or use the
one bicycle they own. Just a
week ago she was on her bicy-
cle in Redmond and a motorist
hit Moon. Thankfully the bicy-
cle and Moon were OK, just a
few scrapes and bruises.
They walk a half-mile —
three times a day — to get the
children to three different school
bus stops.
Their RV home is outfit-
ted with a scrap wood entry
attached to keep the cold out.
A black mailbox is wedged
into the rungs of a ladder at
the entrance. Does she get mail
there? A bouquet of fake flowers
greets visitors.
“It’s pretty small in there,”
Moon said, pointing to the dark
interior of the RV. “It’s a tight
squeeze for us. But luckily
someone gave
it to us. Some
people here
(in Central
Oregon) have
had it hard.”
It’s not the
Moon
life she imag-
ined for her
children. It’s not the life she
imagined for herself growing up
in Tumalo.
The past two years have been
harder than she ever anticipated.
There have been times when
she’s had to humble herself for
diapers or food. She’s stood on
street corners or in parking lots
with a cardboard sign asking for
help. One time, a woman yelled
at her to get a job. Another time,
a woman handed her $200 to
buy Christmas presents.
Moon does what she can to
make the site homey. On Eas-
ter, she hid plastic eggs filled
with candy for the children. And
sometimes the children spend
the weekend with her mother,
who lives in Central Oregon.
“Anyone can become home-
less,” Moon said. “Don’t judge
me.”
The path to homeless-
ness for Moon was paved with
nearly three years of domestic
violence that finally ended in
divorce. Finalized in May, the
court awarded Moon posses-
sion of a mobile home in Red-
mond. That was after more than
30 court hearings all occurring
in the middle of the pandemic.
Her divorce took a long
time because there were crimi-
nal charges against her husband
for the domestic violence. Her
ex-husband is now serving a jail
sentence.
The mobile home that the
couple bought several years ago
has been sitting vacant since
November 2019, when the court
prohibited the family from liv-
ing in the home on Northwest
35th Street in Redmond until the
health violation caused by the
leaking septic system is fixed,
according to court records.
Raw sewage was seeping on
the ground and into a neighbor’s
property, according to court
records. The court also posted a
lien against the home because of
back taxes owed.
MT. VERNON
PRESBYTERIAN
Community Church
SUNDAY SERVICE..............9 am
SUNDAY SERVICE ..9 am
541-932-4800
EVERYONE WELCOME
St. Thomas
Episcopal
Church
Join us on Facebook
live Sunday 10am
Like us on Facebook!
Redeemer
Lutheran Church
Come Worship with us at
Grace Chapel (EMC )
154 E. Williams St.
Prairie City, Oregon
541 820-4437
Pastor Robert Perkins
Sunday School (all ages)
9:30-10:30
Sunday Worship
10:45-12:00
John Day Valley
Mennonite
Church
Meeting every Sunday
at Mt. Vernon Grange Hall
Sunday School ................................ 9:30 a.m.
Sunday Morning Worship ............. 10:50 a.m.
Pastor Leland Smucker
Everyone Welcome • 541-932-2861
2 Corinthians 5:17
Every Sunday in the L.C.
Community Center
(Corner of Second & Allen)
Contact Pastor Ed Studtmann at
541-421-3888 • Begins at 4:00pm
JOHN DAY
UNITED
METHODIST
CHURCH
Sunday Worship • 9AM
(541) 575-1326
johndayUMC@gmail.com
126 NW Canton, John Day
Food Pantry Friday 3-4PM
Like us on Facebook!
24/7 Inspirational Christian
Broadcasting
Tune into KSPL 98.1 FM
For more information,
call 541 620-0340
CHURCH OF THE
NAZARENE
Sunday School ............................9:30 am
Sunday Worship Service.......... 10:45 am
Sunday Evening Service ............ 6:00 pm
Children & Teen Activities
SMALL GROUPS CALL FOR MORE INFO
627 SE Hillcrest, John Day
59357 Hwy 26 Mt. Vernon
1 st Sunday Worship/Communion ...................10am
3 rd Sunday Worship/Communion/Potluck .....4:30pm
2 nd , 4 th & 5 th Sunday Worship ..........................10am
Sunday Bible Study .....................................8:45am
Celebration of Worship
For information: 541-575-2348
Midweek Service
FIRST CHRISTIAN
CHURCH
Sunday School ..................... 9:45 am
Sunday Worship ...................... 11 am
Fox Community Church ............. 3 pm
Sunday Evening Bible Talk ......... 6 pm
Saturday Men’s Study ............... 6 pm
Weekdays: Sonshine Christian Schoo l
Full Gospel- Come Grow With Us
Pastor Randy Johnson
521 E. Main • John Day • 541-575-1895
www.johndaynazarene.com
541-575-1202 Church
311 NE Dayton St, John Day
Pastor Al Altnow
Sundays 5:30pm
Youth: 0-6th Grade
Thursdays 6:30pm
Youth: 0-6th Grade
Jr./Sr. High
Youth Connection
Wednesdays at 6:30pm
Overcomer’s Outreach
Mondays at 6pm at
LWCC
A Christ-Centered, 12-Step
Recovery Support Group
Pastor Sharon Miller
541-932-4910
www.livingwordcc.com