ICA AND JUNIOR RODEO COVERAGE | SPORTS, A8-9
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
154th Year • No. 32 • 16 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
Blueprint for growth
John Day invests $1.9M to jumpstart development of 100 new homes
Michelle Gabel/mgabel@syracuse.com-TNS
Mosquitoes can transmit West Nile vi-
rus to humans.
W. Nile found in
Baker County
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
KEATING VALLEY — West Nile
virus has been found in mosquitoes
in Baker County for the fi rst time this
year.
The mosquitoes were trapped July
28 in the Keating Valley about 15 miles
east of Baker City, said Matt Hutchin-
son, manager of the Baker Valley Vec-
tor Control District.
It takes about a week for test results
to arrive, and Hutchinson announced
the positive test on Thursday, Aug. 4.
Hutchinson is responsible for con-
trolling mosquitoes in a 200,000-acre
area that includes most of Baker, Keat-
ing and Bowen valleys.
The virus, which mosquitoes can
spread to people, has been detected in
mosquitoes in Baker County in all but
two years (2018 and 2020) over the
past decade.
Typically the virus is confi ned to
insects and birds.
Baker County is the second Ore-
gon county to have infected mosqui-
toes in 2022. Two batches of mosqui-
toes tested positive earlier in Malheur
County.
Hutchinson sends dozens of “pools”
of dead mosquitoes — each pool con-
sists of around 10 to 50 insects — to
a lab at Oregon State University where
the bugs are tested for West Nile virus
and other mosquito-borne diseases.
So far this summer, Hutchinson said
160 pools of mosquitoes from Baker
County have been tested, with only the
one positive for West Nile virus.
He sent 38 more pools for testing
on Thursday, Aug. 4. Results usually
arrive within fi ve or six days, he said.
Hutchinson said he has sent about
twice as many mosquito pools for test-
ing as he did at this time a year ago,
a diff erence he attributes to the severe
2021 drought.
With much less water around, which
mosquitoes need for rearing their eggs,
populations were unusually low in the
county last year, he said.
This year is more typical, Hutchin-
son said.
The infected mosquitoes are the
culex tarsalis species, a permanent
water mosquito that is by far the most
common carrier of West Nile virus
locally.
Justin Davis/Blue Mountain Eagle
Josh Walker uses an excavator to dig trenches for sewer lines for The Ridge on June 22, 2022. The development aims to add 23 new homes to John Day
once completed.
By JUSTIN DAVIS
Blue Mountain Eagle
T
hree new housing devel-
opments are under way
in John Day that could
add 100 new homes to the
local housing supply over
the next few years.
The projects are being jumpstarted
by funding from the city’s urban
Renewal Agency as part of an eff ort
to rebuild declining population, shore
up the local tax base and address the
city’s housing shortage.
Constructing Oregon’s fi rst
3D-printed home is also a part of the
plans for the three developments,
known as The Ridge, Ironwood
Estates and Holmstrom Heights.
John Day City Manager Corum
Ketchum said the housing develop-
ments are part of a strategy to reverse
the city’s population loss of the past
few decades.
“If we’d have kept up with the .5%
growth we had in the ‘90s, our popu-
lation would be at 2,200 or 2,300 peo-
ple right now,” he said.
John Day established an urban
renewal agency and created an urban
renewal plan in June 2018, and now
the URA is being used to help get the
three housing developments off the
ground.
Justin Davis/Blue Mountain Eagle
Josh Walker (in white) and partner Russ Comer (in yellow) walk a road at
The Ridge on Monday, Aug. 8, 2022.
The URA has taken out a loan of
$1,851,797 from Business Oregon to
assist in the development of residential
lots at The Ridge, Ironwood Estates
and Holmstrom Heights. The loan’s
interest rate is 2.41% over a 20-year
term.
The plan is to pay off the loan
over time using tax increment fi nanc-
ing, Ketchum said. Tax increment
fi nancing captures any increase in
assessed property value within an
urban renewal district, with the addi-
tional revenues being directed toward
the district’s stated purpose — in this
case, residential development.
Ironwood Estates
Ironwood Estates, located along
Valley View Drive on the north side
of John Day, is the largest of the three
developments. It will add 73 new
homes to the city once completed.
Ironwood is part of a subdivi-
sion that was conceived 30 years ago,
according to developer Russ Young.
“It was originated by my mother
and father,” Young said. “They were
originally a part of Ironwood, and
this was all part of a phased-out build
when they set the plat back in the early
‘90s.”
Young said there was a need for
housing at the time, and a renewed
need for housing and places to build
houses exists today. The city of John
Day reached out to the Youngs, which
resulted in Ironwood being included in
city’s urban renewal district.
“There was already a template and
proved concept of the subdivision up
there,” Young added.
The development is currently in
its second phase, with Phase 1 hav-
ing provided sewer service, water
and power to the property. The sec-
ond phase includes the expansion of
streets and utilities for the develop-
ment of approximately 15.2 acres into
17 single-family residential lots.
Phase 2 of construction will also
include 1,750 linear feet of new pave-
ment through the addition of two new
cul-de-sacs and all the associated utili-
ties for development. Fiber optic inter-
net cable will also be extended to
existing lots in the development and
will be added to new lots via a grant
from Business Oregon, the state’s eco-
nomic development agency.
The estimated cost of this project
is just over $940,000. The URA will
provide up to $750,000 in cash and
See Housing, Page A16
See Mosquitoes, Page A16
Psilocybin ban heads to ballot
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
CANYON CITY — The Grant County commis-
sioners moved to put a measure on the Nov. 8 ballot
to let voters consider banning psilocybin manufac-
turing and service centers in the county’s unincor-
porated areas.
In 2020 Oregon became the fi rst state in the
nation to legalize the therapeutic, supervised use of
psilocybin when Ballot Measure 109 passed with
56% of the vote. Over the last decade, research has
shown psilocybin, the active hallucinogenic ingre-
dient in what is commonly referred to as “magic
mushrooms,” has been useful in treating various
mental health conditions, including depression and
post-traumatic stress disorder.
While the measure’s supporters point to the ther-
apeutic benefi ts of supervised consumption for peo-
ple over 21 by licensed facilitators in clinical set-
tings, 65% of Grant County voters rejected the
measure.
County Judge Scott Myers said there are too
Andrii Zhezhera/123RF
Psilocybe cubensis, magic mushrooms.
many unanswered questions and ambiguities about
how the Oregon Health Authority would license
and regulate the manufacture, delivery, sale and
administration of psilocybin.
The measure, which called for a two-year pro-
cess to write the rules and regulations for adminis-
tering the drug, created Oregon Psilocybin Services
under the health authority to oversee the formula-
tion and rollout of the regulations.
By the end of the year, the rulemaking group is
slated to establish and publish the rules on psilo-
cybin facilitator training, licensing, client care and
compliance. According to the state health authority
web site, OHA will start accepting applications for
licenses to manufacture, deliver and administer psi-
locybin in the state on Jan. 2.
The measure’s backers, Myers said, should have
had these basic details of the measure ironed out
before they presented it to lawmakers and defi nitely
before putting it on the ballot two years ago.
Those unknown variables, he said, are the rea-
son he supports putting the opt-out ordinance to the
county’s voters. There is simply not enough infor-
mation about the rules that govern the process from
start to fi nish, including how the product is manu-
factured, who gets to manufacture it and who dis-
tributes it to those who use it as part of a treatment
plan.
See Mushrooms, Page A16