NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Budget
Pool
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with the $800,000 budget
shortfall since May 2, when
Ellison sent an email to the
three County Court mem-
bers and the three citizens
who together make up the
county’s budget committee.
Ellison wrote that she
had come across a miscal-
culation when reviewing
budget fi gures and had sub-
stantially reduced the coun-
ty’s reserve funds to off set a
signifi cant shortfall.
In an interview on Fri-
day, May 20, Ellison traced
the beginnings of the prob-
lem to last year’s budget
cycle, when the commit-
tee voted to dip into two
reserve accounts that added
up to just under $520,000
in order to plug holes in the
budget. This year, she said,
the county appeared to be
in better fi nancial shape,
so the committee voted
to liquidate with the hope
that the county could use
American Rescue Plan Act
funds to boost general fund
contingency.
But as she was review-
ing the numbers in her pro-
posed 2022-23 budget, Elli-
son said, she realized she
had miscalculated. She said
she thought the accounting
error might have been for
ARPA funds, but she was
not entirely sure because
she did not save the calcu-
lator tape.
beginning, and the fi nal out-
come seems likely to prompt
a hand recount of the vote.
Percy says a diff erence of
one-fi fth of one percent can
trigger a hand recount. Any
diff erence over that fi gure
requires the parties request-
ing the recount to cover the
cost of recounting the vote.
Voters were asked to
weigh in on a $4 million pool
bond that would add 70 cents
per $1,000 of assessed value
to property tax bills inside
the John Day/Canyon City
Parks & Recreation District.
The passage of the bond
would allow the district to
move forward with the con-
struction of an aquatic center
that would be located at the
Seventh Street Sports Com-
plex in John Day.
The increased tax would
be in eff ect for the life of the
bond, which is expected to
be 20 years.
The district includes the
cities of John Day and Can-
yon City as well as some
unincorporated areas around
both communities. The
boundary extends close to
Mount Vernon in the west,
nearly to Magone Lake in
the north, close to Keeney
Fork Road in the East and
as far south as Starr Ridge.
Voters who live within the
parks and rec district were
Partnership
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The most valuable and
respected source of
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eomediagroup.com
asset management services
that pool staff , capital equip-
ment and fi nancing across
multiple jurisdictions, accord-
ing to the white paper.
In Burns, City Manager
Nick Brown says the City
Council has had discussions
pertaining to R3 but hasn’t
gotten to a vote on the part-
nership yet. He adds that
the scope of the partnership
has been narrowed by the
council.
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Bennett Hall/Blue Mountain Eagle
A sign urges voters to approve a $4 million bond measure to fi nance a new community pool. The vote ended in a tie in early unoffi cial
results.
the only individuals eli-
gible to vote on the bond
measure.
Plans call for a six-lane,
25-yard outdoor pool to
replace 64-year-old Gleason
Pool. The design could be
altered to enclose the build-
ing at a later date.
Gleason Pool has been
closed for two years, and
workers began demolishing
it on Monday, May 23.
The $4 million bond
would be combined with a
$2 million state grant to go
toward the pool’s estimated
$6 million construction cost.
The city has also applied for
an additional $750,000 in
grant funding to go toward
construction of a warm-wa-
ter exercise pool at the
aquatic center.
An intergovernmental
agreement between John
Day and the parks and rec-
reation district leaves the
district responsible for
operating and maintaining
the aquatic center while the
city would be responsible
for covering utility costs
incurred by the center.
The Parks and Recreation
District Board voted 4-0 on
Feb. 22 to put the bond on
the ballot. The vote was held
during a joint meeting with
John Day’s city council. The
council approved its own
companion resolution by a
vote of 6-0 during the Feb.
22 session.
“Burns City Council thinks
R3 has a lot of positive attri-
butes, especially shared
resources to get projects done
that would have been diffi cult
to do alone,” Brown said.
Talks about forming a part-
nership came about during
discussions Brown had with
John Day City Manger Nick
Green about similar goals the
two cites have. Those discus-
sions evolved into ideas about
sharing a city planner and
sharing costs, which led to
the idea of the R3 partnership.
Both Burns and John Day then
reached out to Lakeview to
gauge its interest in joining the
partnership.
Brown says the agreement
“started as an idea about the
effi ciency of local govern-
ment.” The downside, accord-
ing to Brown, is that the com-
munities in the partnership are
so far apart.
Lakeview has put R3 on
its list of priorities, according
to Town Manager Michelle
Perry. The town has been
awarded a series of grants
to build a water treatment
plant and renovate McDon-
ald Park. Because of supply
chain issues and rising costs,
those projects have taken pre-
cedence over the R3 partner-
ship in the town.
“We’re starting to clear
some of those things off out
table, so we’ll probably pick
up R3 again and do some revi-
sions on that,” Perry said.
At this time, she added,
Lakeview hasn’t had detailed
discussions about R3. “We’re
still in the conceptual part of
development for R3 and what
that’s going to look like.”
John Day is little further
along in adopting the R3 part-
nership than Lakeview and
Burns. The City Council has
reviewed the adopting reso-
lution and has agreed to pro-
ceed with the partnership after
fi nalizing the scope with the
other two communities.
The timeline for fi nalizing
the partnership is up in the air
at this point, however, because
John Day City Manager Nick
Green is leaving that post in
June.
“Depending on what the
council decides to do with
the replacement city manager,
that will determine our ability
to participate in R3 because
there has to be a city manager
to direct the activities of the
agency from each of the three
communities,” Green said.
A its may 10 meeting, the
council appointed Community
Development Director Corum
Ketchum to the position of
interim city manager for a six-
month trial period.
Green says there are no
known partnerships of this
type in the state. R3 would be
a precedent-setting agreement
between the three communi-
ties and an experiment other
cities would be closely moni-
toring to see if it can work.
Brown said the community
of Hines has expressed inter-
est in joining the R3 partner-
ship, and the communities of
Ontario, Nyssa and Vale have
discussed forming a similar
partnership sometime in the
future.
Rowell wins commissioner race
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
CANYON CITY —
Grant County residents
Memorial
Day
Join your local
telephone &
internet provider
as we honor &
remember those
who made the
ultimate
sacrifice for
our country.
have elected a new county
commissioner.
According to updated
unoffi cial results, John Row-
ell received well over half
of the bal-
lots cast in
the May 17
election,
garnering
over 53%
of the vote
Rowell
in the three-
way race for
county commissioner.
Rowell got 1,348 votes
to 809 for Mark Webb, who
ran as a write-in, and 362 for
Scott Knepper.
If no one had received
more than half the total bal-
lots, the top two vote-get-
ters would have faced off
in the November general
election.
Rowell will take his seat
on the Grant County Court
in January, joining County
Commissioner Jim Ham-
sher and County Judge Scott
Myers.
“It was a nice surprise
that folks have that kind of
confi dence in me,” Rowell
said.
“Now I’ve got to go to
work.”
Rowell, a Marine vet-
TOM CHRISTENSEN
CHRISTENSEN
TOM
CONSTRUCTION
DAY
’s
da
m
652 W. Main St.
John Day
541-575-0549
652 W. Main St., John Day • 541-575-0549
Ny
da
m
’s
1-800-848-7969 or 541-932-4411
Webb
Memorial
Remembering those
who served and
gave their all
One Telephone Drive, Mount Vernon, OR 97865
155 E Main St, John Day, OR 97845
Knepper
eran who served in the Viet-
nam War and the First Gulf
War and later retired after
a career in the lumber busi-
ness, is no stranger to public
offi ce, having served on the
Grant School Board for eight
years.
Over the past several
months, Rowell, along with
outgoing Grant County
Commissioner Sam Palmer,
has met to discuss the con-
tentious issue of law enforce-
ment funding with Grant
County Sheriff Todd McKin-
ley, former John Day City
Councilor Gregg Haberly
(541) 410-0557 • (541) 575-0192
and City Councilor Heather
CCB# 106077
Rookstool.
A mainstay at public
REMODELS • NEW CONSTRUCTION • POLE BUILDINGS
meetings of area city coun-
CONCRETE EXCAVATION • SHEET ROCK • SIDING
cils, the County Court and
ROOFING • FENCES • DECKS • TELESCOPING FORKLIFT SERVICES
the Grant School Board,
Rowell said he intends to
try and understand the issues
facing Grant County.
Rowell got into the race
with outgoing commissioner
Palmer’s endorsement.
Palmer, who joined a
crowded fi eld of GOP hope-
fuls in the primary for a
chance to unseat Democratic
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, said
after the fi ling deadline that
he would not make another
Remembering those who served
run for his seat on the County
Court if he fell short of earn-
and gave their all
ing the nomination.
Ny
A18
Carpenter reelected
In other Grant County
election news, District Attor-
ney Jim Carpenter, who ran
unopposed, was elected to a
third four-year term.
Carpenter has held the
DA position since 2015, after
defeating incumbent Ryan
Joslin in the 2014 election.