JOURNEY THROUGH GRANT COUNTY AND BEYOND | INSIDE
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
154th Year • No. 30 • 14 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
Crooked River flows falling fast
Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
The Crooked River trickles into Prineville Reservoir.
“CROOK COUNTY HAS BEEN IN EXCEPTIONAL DROUGHT FOR ALMOST A YEAR.
IT’S THE ONLY COUNTY IN THE STATE WITH THIS DISTINCTION.”
Bruce Scanlon, manager for Ochoco Irrigation District
By MICHAEL KOHN
The Bulletin
RINEVILLE — Even in times of
ation of the dam in 1961, according to the Oregon
drought, the amount of water fl ow-
Water Resources Department. The lower levels
ing into the Crooked River from
mean less water for Crook County farmers to
Prineville Reservoir typically
use on their fi elds, as well as lower levels in
hovers at or near 50 cubic feet
the river for fi sh to survive.
per second. But this fall — after succes-
Exactly when these low fl ows will trigger
sive dry years and with Crook County still
is up to the weather and water usage by irri-
in the throes of severe drought — the fl ow is
gators. Hot temperatures like those expected
expected to drop to 10 cfs.
this week will speed up the decline. Bruce Scan-
The lower fl ow out of Bowman Dam
lon, manager for Ochoco Irrigation District,
Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin believes the district supply will be exhausted
will occur after irrigation districts in Crook
County run out of water this year, said Gregg A sign at the decommis- by late summer.
Garnett, Bend fi eld offi ce manager for the sioned Jasper Point boat
“Crook County has been in exceptional
ramp at Prineville Reservoir. drought for almost a year. It’s the only county
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
As of Thursday, July 21, Prineville Res-
in the state with this distinction,” said Scanlon.
ervoir was just 24% full. The reservoir this year had the
See River, Page A14
lowest maximum fi ll on record dating back to the cre-
P
Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
The extreme drawdown at Prineville Reservoir gives way to
cracked earth.
Judge drops Smith child neglect charges
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
CANYON CITY — After
more than a month of delib-
erating, a Circuit Court judge
has tossed out misdemeanor
charges against a former Grant
County sheriff ’s deputy but
ruled that trial can proceed on
three felony counts.
In a written ruling issued
July 18, Circuit Court Judge
Dan Bunch stated he would
dismiss four counts of child
neglect but not charges
of fourth-degree assault,
attempted fi rst-degree rape
and attempted fi rst-degree sex
abuse against Tyler Smith.
The ruling comes in
response to a motion by
Smith’s attorneys to dismiss
all the charges against him,
which they alleged were part
of a plot by former Grant
County Sheriff Glenn Palmer,
other sheriff ’s offi ce employ-
ees and Smith’s accuser to get
him fi red and prosecuted.
Smith was arrested on
Sept. 9, 2019, and then fi red
by the Grant County Sher-
iff ’s Offi ce on Dec. 17, 2019,
several months before having
an opportunity to enter a not
guilty plea on April 30, 2020.
Smith’s trial was slated to
begin in late October of 2021.
However, it was abruptly put
on hold to give defense attor-
neys time to sift through hun-
dreds of pages of discovery
materials fi led just one day
earlier by the prosecution.
The evidence in question
included documents and inter-
nal reports from the Grant
County Sheriff ’s Offi ce.
Additionally, there were
two recorded interviews with
Smith’s accuser, including one
in which she acknowledged
placing a tracking device on
Smith’s vehicle and keep-
ing the Grant County Sher-
iff ’s Offi ce informed of his
whereabouts.
In his ruling, Bunch writes
that Smith’s accuser created
“proof problems” for the pros-
ecution by not disclosing the
alleged assault when she was
asked by law enforcement
Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle, File
Tyler Smith appears in Grant
County Circuit Court on April
20, 2022.
whether there was reason to be
concerned regarding Smith’s
potential for violence.
However, the judge writes,
it “simply strains logic” to
believe that Smith’s accuser
and the Grant County Sher-
iff ’s Offi ce colluded to make
a false accusation of assault to
further her goals and those of
the sheriff ’s offi ce.
Bunch adds that he stopped
short of concluding that law
enforcement
deliberately
withheld evidence that could
be used by the defense to
exonerate Smith.
However, in the child
neglect case, the questions
become more complicated.
While the judge disagreed
with the defense that internal
See Smith, Page A14
Justin Davis/Blue Mountain Eagle
Ron Lundbom, left, shakes hands with new owner Gary Snair on Monday, July 25, 2022, at John
Day NAPA.
Lundbom sells auto parts store
By JUSTIN DAVIS
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — The NAPA
auto parts store in John Day is
under new ownership.
The change came with
Ron and Sherri Lundbom’s
sale of the store to Gary and
Gayln Snair of Redmond for
an undisclosed amount of
money. Gary Snair was pre-
viously the co-owner of the
Bend, Madras and Redmond
NAPA stores. The sale was
fi nalized on July 1.
The John Day NAPA auto
parts store was opened by
Lundbom’s father, Don, in
April of 1966, and Ron Lund-
bom started working part-
time at the store in 1976. He
began taking on more of a
hands-on role with the store
in the mid-90s and took over
management of the business
following the retirement of
his parents in the early 2000s.
Lundbom had hoped his
son Stefan would take over
operation of the store, but cir-
cumstances in his son’s life
took that option off the table.
“I kind of thought my son
was going to take over, and
then his wife changed career
fi elds and he followed her in
her career,” Lundbom said.
Once it was clear that
Lundbom didn’t have a suc-
cessor lined up to take over
the business, Snair reached
out to Lundbom and asked
him what is plans for the
business were.
“The business was in a
trust — my mom and dad set
up a trust for us,” Lundbom
said. “Once that was cleaned
up and the estate was taken
care of, we started talking and
made the deal on July 1.”
Lundbom said he owed
it to Stefan to wait until he
decided he wasn’t going to
take over the business before
deciding to make the move to
sell.
See NAPA, Page A14