GO! EASTERN OREGON MAGAZINE | INSIDE
Wednesday, July 13, 2022
154th Year • No. 28 • 14 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
The Blue Mountain Hospital District board quickly hired a new CEO in May, but in its haste it appears to have sidestepped the state’s open meetings law.
Hospital hiring raises questions
In rush to bring in new CEO, Blue Mountain district board may have skirted state law
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
J
OHN DAY — The Blue Mountain
Hospital District Board of Direc-
tors acted swiftly to hire a new chief
executive offi cer but in the process
seems to have skirted Oregon law.
In a May 9 special meeting, the board
accepted CEO Derek Daley’s resignation and
announced that Daley’s last day with the dis-
trict would be Aug 3. A week later, in another
special meeting on May 16, the board voted
to have Chair Amy Kreger make an off er to
Cam Marlowe, the hospital district’s former
chief fi nancial offi cer, to
step in as the district’s new
CEO and “report back with
the outcome.”
The public did not
learn the outcome until
early June. On June 4, in
response to a request from
Marlowe
the Blue Mountain Eagle,
Kreger provided information on Marlowe’s
hiring and compensation, which includes a
salary of $320,000 per year, plus a $50,000
signing bonus and a $35,000 annual reten-
tion bonus after two years. In a follow-up
interview on June 9, Kreger told the news-
Missing mom and
daughter found dead
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
SILVIES — Law enforce-
ment offi cials have identifi ed
the bodies found Thursday,
July 7, on public land north-
west of Drewsey as those of a
missing Idaho woman and her
16-year-old daughter.
The bodies of Dawna
Faye Roe, 51, and Gabrielle
Michelle Roe, 16, of Cald-
well, Idaho, who had been
missing since July 6, were
found in a 2004 Toyota van
that belonged to Dawna just
inside Grant County near the
Harney County line, accord-
ing to a Friday, July 8, press
release from the Grant County
Sheriff ’s Offi ce.
The cause of death is still
under investigation, the press
release noted. However,
Pendleton
La Grande
84
John Day
Silvies
Burns
Drewsey
20
Two bodies found
on public land
northwest of Drewsey
OREGON
according to Grant County
Sheriff Todd McKinley, no
other individuals are currently
being sought.
Silvies Ranch employees
reported seeing a dead body in
a van on Thursday, according
to the press release.
Grant and Harney County
sheriff ’s deputies discovered a
second body concealed in the
van after Silvies employees
led them to the area, McKin-
ley said.
The sheriff declined to be
specifi c about exactly where
the bodies were found, except
to say it was a remote loca-
tion about midway between
Drewsey and Silvies.
The deputies secured the
area and called in the Major
Crimes Team, which includes
investigators from the Ore-
gon State Police and the Grant
County Sheriff ’s Offi ce, along
with state police forensics
personnel.
The case remains under
investigation.
paper that Marlowe would take the reins on
July 11.
In its rush to hire a new CEO, the board
— the publicly elected governing body of the
hospital taxing district — appears to have vio-
lated the state’s public meetings law.
There is no indication that Marlowe him-
self did anything wrong.
In general, the law says, a public body
such as the hospital district board should
take deliberative actions on hiring and make
other decisions during regularly scheduled
open sessions. However, there are provisions
for making such decisions in special meet-
ings if certain requirements are met, includ-
ing a requirement to give the public adequate
notice.
The hastily scheduled meetings in May
appear to have fallen short of the law’s public
notice requirements.
Public bodies, according to the Oregon
Attorney General’s Public Meetings Manual,
must provide at least 24 hours’ notice of and
public access to a special meeting unless the
minutes describe an emergency justifying the
lack of such notice.
Kreger said the board properly announced
the May 9 and 16 meetings by posting the
agendas in the hospital cafeteria and a nearby
hallway. Moreover, Kreger said the May 9
See Hospital, Page A9
Calling the shots at dispatch
Former head of Grant
County 911 center looks
back on eventful career
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — In a 30-year career with the
Grant County Emergency Communications
Agency, Valerie Maynard was at the helm of the
911 dispatch center during some of the county’s
most signifi cant events.
From the 2015 Canyon Creek Fire that
destroyed 43 homes, to the 2016 armed take-
over of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
that divided the community and put her at odds
with the county’s former sheriff , to a budget
crisis that nearly shuttered the dispatch center,
Maynard saw the agency through some trou-
bled times.
Maynard, who decided to step down in mid-
March, looked back at her long and eventful career
in an interview with the Blue Mountain Eagle.
Maynard landed her fi rst dispatch job in
1989 while living in Brookings after coming
across an ad in the local newspaper. She recalled
the job posting saying that no experience was
necessary.
Rudy Diaz/Blue Mountain Eagle, File
Valerie Maynard, Grant County’s longtime
dispatch center manager, retired in March af-
ter a 30-year career.
“And that was all she wrote,” she said. “I
loved the career. I’ve always loved it.”
Three years later, in 1992, she and her
then-husband moved to John Day. Shortly after,
she landed a job as a dispatcher with the John
Day 911 center. Maynard left the county twice
when her husband’s work, fi rst with the Forest
Service and then with the Oregon Department
See Maynard, Page A14
Subdivision getting fresh start
By JUSTIN DAVIS
Blue Mountain Eagle
CANYON CITY — A long-for-
gotten housing development on Elk-
horn Street in Canyon City is springing
back to life again and could add over
40 homes to the community.
Canyon Mountain heights is a
31-acre subdivision that was started 20
years ago but stagnated for well over a
decade following the construction of a
small number of homes. Then, earlier
this year, the property was purchased
by local steel-frame homebuilder
Bruce Ward and his wife, Kimberly,
along with other fi nancial backers for
$675,000.
Ward’s fi rst connection to the devel-
opment came two years ago, when he
purchased a pair of lots with plans to
build on them. That led to a fair amount
Justin Davis/Blue Mountain Eagle
Bruce and Kimberly Ward on the site of a new home lot they’re developing at Can-
yon Mountain Heights in Canyon City on Monday, July 11, 2022.
of buzz from residents in the area.
“All of a sudden, people were
paying attention,” Ward said. “You
wouldn’t really go up that road unless
you’re coming down from the airport
the back way. You wouldn’t just acci-
dentally drive by that subdivision.”
The original developer of the subdi-
vision in 2002 was an individual from
Salem. Initially, the subdivision was
broken down into 60 tax lots before
being redrawn into 48 lots due to con-
cerns that the lot sizes weren’t large
enough.
Ward surveyed the land after his
acquisition of the property and found
four lots that were unbuildable for var-
ious reasons. One of the lots on the
property spans 15 acres on the back
hillside of the subdivision and acts
as a buff er. Following the survey, 43
buildable lots were advertised for sale
within the subdivision.
Ward said acquiring that 15-acre
buff er lot with the rest of the subdivi-
sion was very important to the project.
The lot is steeply sloped, and his main
concern was that building on it might
See Housing, Page A9