A16
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Housing
summer. It is unknown how
many 3D-printed housing units
will ultimately wind up in the
development.
Iowa-based Alquist 3D
was originally tapped to print
the homes in the development.
That arrangement fell through
after an Oregon fi rm — Hun-
tington-based Layer Line 3D
— was found that was willing
to do the work at a lower cost.
According to the Oregon
business registry, the owners of
Layer Line 3D are Shawn and
Robyn McKay. The McKays
previously purchased the city
of John Day’s greenhouse and
have other land and business
interests in the county.
The project is expected to
be completed by Oct. 31. The
estimated cost of development
is $1.4 million. The URA will
provide up to $750,000 in cash
and in-kind support, and the bal-
ance of the cost will be contrib-
uted by the developer, Mahog-
any Ridge Properties.
Mahogany Ridge also plans
to build the homes on the devel-
oped lots.
The city received a grant
from the Oregon Depart-
ment of Land Conservation
and Development to help with
design plans for the 3D-printed
homes. Those plans are still in
development.
Russ Comer, a partner with
Josh Walker in Mahogany
Ridge, said the company is cur-
rently focused on phase one of
the development and that later
phases will happen once the
demand is there.
“We’re just really focusing
on getting this fi rst piece done
and having it available to the
community,” he said. “We’re
not really putting out any pro-
jections of would that might
look like beyond that but just
kind of focusing on taking small
bites and getting it (done) that
way.”
Comer said the city’s help
is essential in getting his devel-
opment and the others in the
urban renewal district off the
ground. Otherwise, they simply
wouldn’t pencil out.
“The city recognizes the dis-
crepancy in the cost of putting
in a development compared to
the amount of money that you
can realize from the lots,” he
said. “For instance, this proj-
ect was projected, even before
fuel prices and everything went
up, to be at about $1.4 million
in cost. Let’s say you have, with
today’s market, $800,000 in lots
to sell in the end. There is just a
huge gap there that makes it to
where it doesn’t pay to develop
any land.”
Comer added that the devel-
opments will help boost the
local economy while addressing
a signifi cant housing shortage.
“We’re defi nitely employ-
ing local contractors and obvi-
ously doing a good amount of
the labor ourselves. We have
our local road builder building
the road,” he said.
“Our goal was to really
provide the community with
a product that it needs. We
could’ve done a lot of diff er-
ent things with this property
besides what we’re doing here.
We understand there is a gap
and a need in the community.”
Approximately 60% of the
phase one lots are going to be
multifamily units.
“That’s in short supply in
John Day,” Comer said. “We
really worked with the city to
try to discover what the actual
needs were. It’s really not that
half-acre, one-house kind of lot.
There will certainly be some of
that here, but we wanted to ded-
icate a signifi cant chunk of the
property to fi ll some of those
discrepancies.”
The last and smallest of the
three housing developments is
Holmstrom Heights, located
at the east end of Charolais
Heights on the north side of
John Day. Holmstrom Heights
will add four new homes to the
city.
The property is owned by
the Holmstrom family. Fran-
ces Holmstrom is serving as the
family’s representative, but she
could not be reached for com-
ment on the projected cost of
the development.
The project extends the end
of the road at Charolais Heights
by creating 750 feet of new lin-
ear pavement, which will pro-
vide emergency access to Sev-
enth Street. New water and
sewer lines, storm drains and
miscellaneous utilities will also
be added to the development.
Tidewater Contractors was
contracted to do road grad-
ing and paving work on Holm-
strom Heights. The work is still
ongoing, with a small section of
road that connects the develop-
ment to Seventh Street yet to be
completed.
Doug Robbins of Tidewater
said there isn’t much work left
to do on the project short of fi n-
ishing paving operations. “The
upper portion is pretty much
complete other than just a lit-
tle grading on the shoulders,”
he said.
The road down the hill
toward Seventh Street isn’t
completed yet due to issues
that came up during attempts to
complete the road previously.
“The delay was just due to
the water table down there that
we got into,” Robbins said. “We
weren’t able to move a lot of the
dirt at the bottom end because
the water table is so high and
we’ve been waiting for it to seal
itself up.”
Robbins added that Tide-
water didn’t prep any lots in
the development. “We just built
the road that goes in front of the
lots. It’s my understanding that
whoever purchases the lots will
have to develop the roads into
their lots.”
The city has made available
up to $300,000 in assistance to
the developers of Holmstrom
Heights.
“They purchased the mate-
rial to save costs for them(-
selves); they don’t get the
markup on it that way,” Rob-
bins said.
Once completed, the three
projects will add more than 2.5
miles of new road construction
to the city. The overall cost to
develop all the lots on all three
projects is expected to be just
under $12 million.
The city’s plan for fi nanc-
ing development work on the
three projects depends on being
able to pay off the nearly $1.9
million loan through tax incre-
ment fi nancing. But what hap-
pens if houses don’t get built
fast enough to cover the debt
service?
Ketchum said the City
Council has considered the pos-
sibility and determined that the
city has the funds to cover the
Business Oregon loan in the
event sales stall.
“It was presented to council
at one point, but the city has the
capacity to pay the loan inter-
est through its general fund, but
that decision would have to go
through the budget committee,”
he said.
spring and earlier summer
rarely are infected with the
virus, he said.
In 2021 the fi rst confi rmed
infection in Baker County was
in mosquitoes trapped on July
19, also in the Keating Valley.
Overall in 2021 the virus
was detected in 19 mos-
quito pools, one person and
one horse in Baker County,
according to the Oregon
Health Authority (OHA).
The person recovered, as
most people do who contract
the virus.
Over the past several
years, the Keating Val-
ley area, including where the
infected mosquitoes were
trapped in 2021 and 2022, has
been a “hot spot for our West
Nile activity,” Hutchinson said
last year.
Most people infected with
West Nile virus will show lit-
tle or no signs of disease.
About one in fi ve people who
are infected develop a fever
with other symptoms such as
headache, body aches, joint
pains, vomiting, diarrhea, or
rash. Most people with febrile
illness due to West Nile virus
recover completely, but fatigue
and weakness can last for
weeks or months. It is import-
ant that you contact your health
care provider if you experience
any of these symptoms.
The incubation period is
usually two to 14 days. Rarely,
infected individuals may
develop neuro-invasive dis-
ease (infection of the brain or
spinal cord) that can be severe
or may cause death. This is
especially of concern to peo-
ple 50 and older, people with
immune-compromising condi-
tions, and people with diabetes
or high blood pressure.
Continued from Page A1
in-kind support — primarily in
the form of building materials
— for the project. The balance
of the cost will be funded by the
developer.
Young said work on the proj-
ect is currently on hold while he
awaits a revised plat and signed
agreement from the city.
“We’re close,” Young said,
adding that once the work
begins, it should all be com-
pleted within three or four
months.
“It’ll go fast because it’s
already a part of an existing
subdivision,” he said. “We
just don’t have a fi nished plat
because we’re doing some rede-
signing of sewer and water.”
Later phases of Ironwood
Estates, Young added, will
come in bigger chunks.
“The next phase is when
you start to get into the 30 or 40
lot confi gurations,” he said.
The Ridge
The Ridge is located above
the John Day LDS church, just
south of Highway 26 on the
east end of town. It is the sec-
ond-largest of the three devel-
opments and will add 23 new
dwelling units to the city once
completed.
Approximately 23 acres
comprising 12 multi- and sin-
gle-family residential lots will
be developed during the fi rst
phase of development.
Development that had been
done to the area previously pro-
vided sewer and water lines to
the property. Power and fi ber
optic internet lines are located
along Highway 26 and will be
connected to the lots under-
ground along the newly devel-
oped streets.
The project will also create
2,500 linear feet of new pave-
ment, with supporting infra-
structure for utilities that will
be installed to city specifi ca-
tions. All of the utilities will be
installed prior to paving.
Lot No. 1 of the develop-
ment will be used for Oregon’s
fi rst 3D-printed concrete hous-
ing. The 3D-printed dwelling
is expected to be completed this
Mosquitoes
Continued from Page A1
Hutchinson said culex tar-
salis and a related species
that’s also a common vec-
tor for the virus, culex pipi-
ens, are more common in the
county later in the summer.
The fl oodwater mosqui-
toes that predominate during
Justin Davis/Blue Mountain Eagle
Am unpaved road with manhole installed at The Ridge on Monday, Aug. 8, 2022.
Holmstrom Heights
Mushrooms
Continued from Page A1
“There is not enough infor-
mation for (the court) to safely
assume that it’s going to be OK
have a mushroom farm in the
county,” Myers said.
The measure does not per-
mit the recreational sale or
home production of psilo-
cybin products for personal
consumption. Instead, it only
allows its use in clinical set-
tings for clients 21 or older
at an approved site under
the guidance of a licensed
facilitator.
Meanwhile, the measure
allows cities and counties to
put a local “opt out” measure to
voters during a statewide gen-
eral election, enabling commu-
nities to prohibit OHA psilocy-
bin licensees from setting up
shop within their borders.
Those cities and coun-
ties that either forego vot-
ing on or fail to pass a local
ban are essentially “opted
in” automatically. In eff ect,
OHA will regulate psilocybin
products within those local
jurisdictions.
John Day city councilors
considered putting a psilocy-
bin opt-out ordinance on the
November ballot during their
July 12 meeting. Ultimately,
the councilors decided against
putting a local measure on the
general ballot. The rationale,
according to the councilors,
was that since M109 did not
permit psilocybin to be used
recreationally and it would not
be sold publicly, there was no
reason to put a ban to a pub-
lic vote.
The psilocybin measure
diff ered from the one that
legalized recreational canna-
bis in 2016. Like Measure 109,
that measure allowed local
governments to give local vot-
ers a chance to decide on an
opt-out ordinance, and both
Grant County and John Day
passed the local ordinances
overwhelmingly.
Ultimately, as public opin-
ion shifted on recreational and
medicinal marijuana and the
taxing revenue it could gen-
erate for county and city cof-
fers, both the county and city
rescinded their bans on retail
pot.
In the interim, before the
Aug. 18 deadline for fi ling bal-
lot measures, the commission-
ers will hold a second reading
to formally approve the resolu-
tion to put the ban on psilocy-
bin on the November ballot.
Should the measure pass,
Myers said, people living
inside the John Day city limits
would not be under the coun-
ty’s regulation.
Coffee Break!
61. Makes chang-
es to
62. Some are
secret
63. Tooth care-
giver
64. Old English
poet
CLUES DOWN
1. Sign language
2. In style
3. Norwegian
river
4. People with
impaired
hearing
5. Large stinging
paper wasp
6. Bucharest is its
capital
7. River in Ireland
8. Type of TV
CLUES ACROSS 17. Prolific Italian 41. Built
9. Double-reed
opera com-
43. A neighbor-
1. Breezed
instruments
poser
hood
through
10. Spanish
18. Restaurants
45. Inflammation
5. Time units
motorcycle
20. One’s grand-
of the kidneys
(abbr.)
manufacturer
mother
48. Semitic fertility
8. Pigeon’s
12. Midway
21. Ancient Greek
god
murmur
between south
City
49. Temporary
11. Moves aside in
and southeast
22. Italian moun-
name of
fright
14. French com-
tain ranges
Seaborgium
13. Partner to
mune
25. Data
50. Wise people
“ahh”
19. Alike
30. Acted in an
55.
Tear
down
14. Taxis
23. A bachelor’s
obedient way
56. __-fi (slang)
15. Monetary units 31. Autonomic
apartment
of Turkey
24. Foot part
nervous system 57. Diamond
weight
16. Returned
between the
32. Not on the
59. Frosted
material
ball and ankle
up-and-up
60. Predecessor
authorization
25. Belonging to a
33. Mock lightly
thing
38. Mimic
to EU
(abbr.)
26. Japanese
classical
theater
27. Supervises
flying
28. Not even
29. Capital of
Saudi Arabia
34. Electronic
countermeasure
35. Consumed
36. American poli-
tician (abbr.)
37. Sun up in New
York
39. Casually
looked through
40. Revealed the
presence of
41. Peyton’s little
brother
42. Diana __,
singer
44. Study of moral
values and
rules
45. Civil Rights
group
46. Makes less
severe
47. Made an emo-
tional appeal
48. Vivacity of
style
51. One who is
highly skilled
52. Gets around
in pursuit of
pleasure
53. Famed guitar-
ist Clapton
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