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Wednesday, June 8, 2022
154th Year • No. 23 • 16 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
After Uvalde
Blue Mountain Eagle, File
The parent company of the Prairie Wood
Products sawmill in Prairie City intends to
reopen the facility in early July and plans on
hiring roughly 50 employees.
Prairie
Wood
Products
set to
reopen
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
PRAIRIE CITY — The parent com-
pany of the Prairie Wood Products saw-
mill in Prairie City intends to reopen the
facility in early July and plans on hiring
roughly 50 employees.
The D.R. Johnson Lumber Co.
announced in a Wednesday, June 1,
press release that the sawmill will host
a job fair at Chester’s Thriftway in John
Day on Monday and Tuesday, June 13
and 14, from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
According to the press release, the
company is looking to fill a variety of
jobs, from maintenance and production
to a job in human resources. Addition-
ally, the sawmill is looking to fill five
management positions.
Asked what the approximate pay
range of the jobs would be, Prairie Wood
Products President Jodi Westbrooks said
in an email that the positions would
offer a “family wage” with “competi-
tive benefits.” Westbrooks added that
more information would be released as
the mill reopens in the summer. While
she did not say how many employees
have been hired so far, she did say all of
the current employees are Grant County
residents.
The Prairie Wood Products mill will
focus on producing 8- to 9-foot Douglas
fir studs. Westbrooks said the company
plans to get its timber supply from a
combination of public and private lands
and would purchase its timber from
independent loggers and landowners.
Malheur Lumber, Grant County’s
only other sawmill, primarily processes
pine, according to Craig Trulock, Mal-
heur National Forest supervisor. Trulock
See Sawmill, Page A10
Grant County school offi cials take
stock in wake of Texas school shooting
By JUSTIN DAVIS
Blue Mountain Eagle
T
he shooting in Uvalde,
Texas, on May 24 left 19
students and two teachers
dead and 17 other people
injured. In the aftermath
of that shooting, many local school
districts are asking themselves if they
are doing enough to prevent a similar
occurrence in their schools.
Plans including school resource
offi cers, armed teachers and even
armed veterans at schools are being
debated nationally as a deterrent to
school shootings with administrators
torn as to which path to take to make
their schools and students safer.
Here in Grant County, Humbolt
Elementary Principal Janine Attles-
perger said she and her staff regularly
prepare for an active shooter scenario.
“We do trainings throughout the year
and we do drills with the kids.”
Attlesperger calls the staffi ng short-
age in local law enforcement agencies
“concerning” but stresses there hasn’t
been a lot going on. “Each time we
have had to call, response has been
very quick, so we’ve been pleased
with that, but it is concerning that we
no longer have city police and they’re
stretched very thin. We’re super hope-
ful that we can get (a school resource
offi cer) that will cover all of our
schools,” Attlesperger said.
The John Day Police Department
used to provide a school resource offi -
cer, or SRO, under contract to the
Grant School District, but the depart-
ment was shut down in October due to
budget constraints. A similar contract
with the Grant County Sheriff ’s Offi ce
is expected to go into eff ect next fall.
An offi cer assigned to the district’s
three schools — Humbolt, Grant
Union and Seneca — would go a
long way toward deterring a potential
school shooter just by their presence,
according to Attlesperger. As it stands
now, she and her custodians share a
large portion of the burden of making
sure their school is safe and secure.
“It’s up to me and the custodians
to make sure the doors aren’t left open
and everything is locked. We do our
rounds regularly throughout the day,
but having an SRO help out with that
throughout the day would be great.”
The school does take precautions
to ensure the safety of students and
staff , but Attlesperger said there is
room for improvement.
See School, Page A10
Local law enforcement
beefs up response plans
national conversation.
Following calls for
a federal investigation
CANYON CITY — from Uvalde Mayor Don
Even before the slaughter in McLaughlin, the Justice
Uvalde, Texas, last month, Department aims to high-
law enforcement offi cials in light the lessons learned in
Uvalde and identify
Grant County were
practices that could
looking at beef-
help fi rst respond-
ing up response
ers in other com-
plans for a poten-
munities prepare
tial school shooting
to deal with active
here.
shooter situations in
Now
those
the future.
eff orts have taken
McKinley
For his part,
on even greater
McKinley
says
urgency.
“It just made it come to there is not enough infor-
the forefront even more,” mation out there for him to
Sheriff Todd McKinley said. play “armchair quarterback”
Amid confl icting reports on the law enforcement
that police in Uvalde may response in Uvalde.
That said, he and his dep-
not have acted quickly
enough to stop the Robb Ele- uties are committed to pro-
mentary School shooter, the tecting the people of Grant
issue of what police should County, whether the threat is
do when a school is under
See Police, Page A10
attack has entered into the
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
County’s third wolf attack confi rmed
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
GRANT COUNTY — State
wildlife offi cials have con-
fi rmed a second wolf depre-
dation on the Middle Fork of
the John Day River, the third
such incident recorded in Grant
County.
The 350-pound calf that was
injured in the most recent attack
had been on the same pasture
where two calves were killed
by wolves last month, accord-
ing to a Thursday, June 2, report
from the Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife.
The report noted that the
livestock producer discovered
the injured animal in the pri-
vately-owned pasture on Mon-
day, May 30, but scheduled
the visit from state fi sh and
wildlife offi cials to conduct
the investigation on Wednes-
day, June 1.
ODFW’s report estimated
the calf’s injuries occurred
over two and half weeks ago
and concluded that the bite
marks and other injuries to the
calf were consistent with wolf
attacks seen on live calves.
ODFW’s report concluded
that the Desolation Pack was
responsible for the most recent
attack as well as the two live-
stock kills reported in the same
area on the Middle Fork of the
John Day River last month.
Thursday’s report marks the
third confi rmed wolf depre-
dation in Grant County in just
over a year. The fi rst occurred
in May 2021 in Fox Valley.
According to the Oregon
Wolf Conservation and Man-
agement 2021 Annual Report,
the Desolation Pack increased
from fi ve wolves to nine this
year.
A pack is defi ned as more
than four wolves traveling
together in the winter. The
Desolation Pack also met the
criterion of having a breed-
ing pair. A breeding pair is an
adult male and adult female
with at least two pups that sur-
vived to Dec. 31 in the year of
their birth.
The Desolation Pack is a
resident pack in Grant County
and resides primarily at the
north end of the county.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife/Contributed Photo
A trail cam photo from May 30 of one of the two yearling
wolves in the Lookout Mountain pack.