GO! EASTERN OREGON MAGAZINE | INSIDE
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
154th Year • No. 43 • 18 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
Tony Chiotti/Blue Mountain Eagle
Firefi ghters tend the line on a prescribed burn in the Malheur National Forest on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022. The fi re was executed under strict new Forest Service rules, yet managed to briefl y escape
containment lines later that afternoon.
Over
the
line?
Forest Service employee’s arrest after fi re crosses onto
private land sparks larger debate over prescribed burns
Editor’s note: Blue Mountain Eagle reporter Tony Chiotti was on the scene of the Starr
6 prescribed burn before it jumped containment and spread to private land on Oct. 19. In
reporting this story, he drew on observations made that day as well as multiple interviews with
Forest Service offi cials, burn crew workers and landowners. If you have video footage from
that day that can shed additional light on the sequence of events, please contact Chiotti at
tchiotti@bluemountaineagle.com.
By TONY CHIOTTI
Blue Mountain Eagle
W
hen
Rick
Snodgrass
approached Grant County
Sheriff Todd McKinley,
he thought the sheriff was
there to help him.
According to Snodgrass, he’d called for
law enforcement to help control aggressive
traffi c and to deal with harassment his crews
had been receiving while implementing a pre-
scribed burn on the Malheur National Forest
in Bear Valley, about 7 miles north of Seneca.
That burn — called the Starr 6 — had since
jumped the fi reline, and now there was active
fi re on both sides of County Road 63, where
Snodgrass and McKinley met: the prescribed
burn operation on Malheur National Forest
land to the north of the road — now fl aring up
in gusts of wind — and an uncontained slop-
over on private land to the south. The crews
under Snodgrass’ direction were now attempt-
ing to quell one fi re while holding the reins on
another, with tempers, smoke, wind and now
traffi c adding to the dangers to his crew.
But instead of assistance, what Snodgrass
got was arrested.
When the sheriff cuff ed Snodgrass, it is
thought to be the fi rst time a U.S. Forest Ser-
vice fi refi ghter has been arrested in the course
of performing their job.
Snodgrass, the “burn boss” on the day’s
Tony Chiotti/Blue Mountain Eagle
Blue Mountain Eagle graphic
Chad Holliday shows the edge of a burned area on his family’s
Windy Point Ranch in Bear Valley on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022. A
prescribed burn performed on federal land the day before spread
across the road to the private land before being contained.
operation, was taken away from the scene and
charged with reckless burning, a Class A mis-
demeanor that carries a maximum penalty of
a year in jail and a $6,250 fi ne. Before it was
contained, an hour after it kicked off , the spot
fi re burned an estimated 20 to 40 acres of pri-
vate land owned by members of the Holliday
family.
The arrest of Snodgrass on Wednesday,
Oct. 19, has drawn national attention and
has fanned the debate over Forest Service
fi re mitigation policies, especially as they
pertain to intentional burns adjacent to pri-
vate lands.
See Burn, Page A8
Squeeze-In looking to make a move
By TONY CHIOTTI
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — The iconic John Day
diner Squeeze-In was set to close at its cur-
rent location at end of business Tuesday,
Oct. 24, after decades of serving up diner
food, coff ee and good-natured backtalk
and providing a meeting place for locals,
travelers and the occasional campaigning
politician.
But owner Shawn Duncan hopes it
won’t be closed for long. After much wran-
gling and a lot of legwork, it appears Duncan
may have been able to line up a new loca-
tion in Canyon City, at 295 S. Canyon Blvd.,
according to the sign painted in enthusiasti-
cally massive letters on the diner’s window.
Duncan said the current tenants of that
space, the Painted Sky Center for the Arts,
contacted her after she’d posted on Face-
book that her current lease was not being
off ered for renewal. Painted Sky has been
in the process of purchasing another build-
ing and thought it could fi nd a solution that
allowed a swap, and according to Duncan,
the owner was open to the idea.
“I’m hoping to be closed for one month,”
Duncan said. “If that doesn’t happen — if it’s
sooner than that — I will be tickled.” Dun-
can hopes the fact that the space used to be
a cafe, with a bakery in the back, will ease
the transition. And she’s grateful to the folks
from Painted Sky for reaching out with the
off er.
Getting up and running so quickly will
not be easy, however. Duncan says she is
motivated to reopen before the holidays and
hopes to be able to continue the restaurant’s
tradition of serving free Christmas dinners
to the community. But the deal depends on
having a building to move into, and the space
she has lined up is not yet vacant.
Tony Chiotti/Blue Mountain Eagle
See Squeeze-In, Page A18
The window of the Squeeze-In Restaurant as it appeared on Mon-
day, Oct. 24, 2022, announcing the new location in Canyon City.
Cities move ahead on plan for regional partnership
By JUSTIN DAVIS
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — A formal agree-
ment is being drawn up to create a
partnership between John Day, Burns
and Lakeview to allow the three com-
munities to share staffi ng, capital
equipment, software, consulting and
professional services.
The agreement, which still needs
to be approved by all three cities,
should be ready for review within 90
days, Interim City Manager Corum
Ketchum said during the Oct. 11 ses-
sion of the John Day City Council.
Regional Rural Revitalization
Strategies, or R3 for short, looks to
pool staff across its member cities
through virtual teaming arrangements,
according to a white paper on the pro-
posal released in February. These vir-
tual teams would work together on
projects for a limited duration, which
John Day City Hall is shown on Friday, May 20, 2022. The city is looking into a part-
nership with Burns and Lakeview that would allow the three communities to share
resources in an eff ort to cut costs.
would allow the member commu-
nities to take on larger projects than
they normally would without giving
up their independence.
Pooling capital assets such as
equipment is also a part of the plans
for R3. These assets often sit unused
in one jurisdiction when they could be
put to use in another. Small cities may
lack the purchasing power to acquire
expensive equipment for utility line
and street maintenance, among other
basic needs, the white paper noted.
This lack of purchasing power means
rural communities often have to con-
tract for these types of services and
may have to pay extra due to the cost
of bringing assets to remote rural
areas.
R3 Strategies looks to break this
model by assembling virtual motor
pools comprised of all the available
equipment of the group’s member cit-
ies. These virtual motor pools would
allow resources to be made available
to the entire partnership to use as the
need comes up. R3 could also acquire
assets on behalf of its members which
they might not have been able to
aff ord independently.
One example of this would be shar-
ing a street sweeper. Lakeview has a
street sweeper and John Day does not.
Under the R3 agreement, both John
Day and Burns would be able to use
Lakeview’s street sweeper for commu-
nity cleanup operations instead of pur-
chasing or renting one on their own.
See Partnership, Page A18