A16
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Bond
Continued from Page A1
said. “February of 2022 was
just at the start of this infla-
tionary cycle.”
“Having that extra $1 million
of cushion on a $5 million-$7
million project is not a bad idea.
The hope is that we never have to
touch it,” Ketchum said.
Also potentially lost if
the bond fails would be right
around $320,000 that the city
has spent in developing design
plans for the project.
John Day City Councilor
Shannon Adair said during the
Oct. 25 council meeting that the
designers working on the pool
plans can’t be expected to work
for free and that spending money
on those plans was a step that had
to be taken to secure any type of
funding for the pool project.
The current plan is to use up
to 20% of the $2 million in lottery
funds to pay for the cost of devel-
oping the pool plans. So far the
city has spent $320,000 to cover
the cost of developing those plans
and will have to take that money
out of its own budget if the lottery
grant has to be returned.
Ketchum explained that the
city could apply for another $2
million in lottery funding if the
bond doesn’t pass, but the pro-
Wednesday, November 2, 2022
cess would be a much tougher
one the second time around.
“It would be more difficult to
get back on the list … especially
if we demonstrate that it is not a
sure thing that we’d be able to
spend the money,” Ketchum said.
Ketchum said he was “fairly
confident” that the current vote
is the last chance the commu-
nity will have to obtain a pool
for the foreseeable future in the
event the pool bond fails.
“We worked really, really
hard on this process,” he said.
“It’s been a five-year process
to get to this point. I don’t think
anyone has the appetite right
now to turn around and restart a
five-year process on a different
kind of facility.”
There were hopes among
some that the $2 million in lottery
funding could be used to build
a cheaper alternative to the esti-
mated $7.1 million proposal pre-
sented to voters within the John
Day/Canyon City Parks and Rec-
reation District. If the bond fails,
however, it’s not clear whether
a formal proposal could be pre-
pared in time to secure the lottery
funds before the grant expires.
As Ketchum wrote in his staff
report to the council, the city and
the parks and rec district have
until Jan. 15 to select a project in
order to be eligible for the $2 mil-
lion in lottery funding.
Pumpkins
Continued from Page A1
3,000-pound holy grail
To grow a pumpkin weighing
more than 3,000 pounds, the hob-
by’s current holy grail, breeders
will also need to prolong the pump-
kin’s prime growing period, Coo-
per said.
Currently, the fruit grows at
an optimum level about 30 days,
which should be extended to 40-45
days to hit the 3,000-pound goal, he
said. “It’s not going to be long until
we get there. We’re almost there
now.”
Genetics are often freely
exchanged in the giant pumpkin
world, with growers sharing pollen
and cooperating on breeding.
No secrets
Each year, seeds from the top con-
testants are auctioned off to support
the PGVG’s weigh-off events, and
new members get a seed packet when
they join the club.
Whereas people would once gain
insights from a book, the rate of inno-
vation now moves too fast for tradi-
tional publishing, he said.
Growers now largely educate
themselves online and are willing to
tell their peers about successful meth-
ods to advance the hobby, Pugh said.
“Twenty years ago, if someone had
a secret, it stayed a secret because they
thought it gave them an edge. With
how the world is now, there’s no such
thing as a secret,” he said. “The digital
age has really changed things.”
Of course, the hobby is hardly
devoid of rivalry, but growers say it’s
good-natured and furthers the noble
aim of producing ridiculously large
pumpkins.
“We’re competitive with each
other and we’re competitive with our-
selves, if we’re talking about our per-
sonal best,” Spielman said.
Tony Chiotti/Blue Mountain Eagle
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
Officials from Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers inspect the bottom of a giant
pumpkin at a weigh-off at Bauman Farms near Gervais.
How it’s done
One of the main constraints on
growing giant pumpkins is space.
At least 1,000 square feet are
needed to produce a single “world
class” pumpkin worthy of competition
at the highest levels, Williams said.
Growers must be careful to remove
all but the sole female flower that’s
meant to be pollinated, so all the vine’s
energy is focused on the resulting
pumpkin, he said.
“That’s the golden rule. To max-
imize that growth, you just want one
fruit per plant,” he said.
Sprinkling mycorrhizal fungi into
the soil helps the plant better absorb
water and nutrients, Pugh said. Vigor
is further enhanced by burying por-
tions of the vine so additional roots
grow from the nodes.
“Instead of one root, you get hun-
dreds of roots,” he said.
Another limiting factor is com-
mon to all agricultural pursuits — the
weather. The earlier the vine is estab-
lished and the fruit is fertilized, the
more time the pumpkin has to attain an
incredible size.
Rain and low temperatures
can diminish that growth oppor-
tunity, as occurred this spring,
which has compelled some grow-
ers to install greenhouses.
“If the weather doesn’t cooperate,
you can manipulate the environment,”
Pugh said, adding that such invest-
ments can become expensive. “There
are people who spend a lot of money,
no question about it.”
Other competitions
Those who lack the capacity to
maximally fatten pumpkins have other
ways to shine among aficionados.
For example, Williams doesn’t
have enough room in his garden to
grow colossal pumpkins, but he’s still
managed to make a name for himself
with long gourds.
The vegetable grows suspended
from trellises, allowing him to be a
leading contender in the category
despite the confined dimensions of his
garden.
Gary Kristensen found another
way to overcome the tight parameters
of his yard in Happy Valley.
Instead of worrying about size,
he’s been selecting for vibrant color
to stand out in competitions based on
visual appeal.
“I don’t have the space or the skill
to be the biggest, so I grow as orange
of a pumpkin as I can,” said Kris-
tensen, a real estate appraiser.
Defense attorney Andrea Coit makes opening arguments in the Tyler Smith
trial in Grant County Circuit Court on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022.
Smith
Continued from Page A1
for their upcoming arguments and
introduced the witnesses and testi-
mony jurors could expect in the days
ahead. And both noted the complex-
ity of the information that is to come.
The prosecution gave its state-
ment first. Kimberly explained that
the victim’s own journal detailing
the events in question would play
a central role in the prosecution’s
case and spent time trying to pre-
empt any claims of conspiracy on
the part of the defense. Kimberly
noted that there will not be phys-
ical evidence of the crime itself, as
it was not reported for nearly a year,
but emphasized that the case for the
prosecution relies largely on the
credibility of the victim’s testimony.
She told the jurors that any witness
can be relied on to settle a disputed
fact.
The defense outlined its argu-
ments as focusing on both the
veracity of the testimony as well
as the victim’s journal entry detail-
ing the alleged attack. Coit brought
in the larger context in which these
events occurred, saying that Smith,
then a Grant County sheriff’s dep-
uty, was viewed as a threat to the
sheriff’s office because he intended
to reveal what she called an inter-
nal coverup regarding the investiga-
tion of Abigail Mobley, then a Grant
County Jail employee. Coit further
questioned the role and motives of
then-Sheriff Glenn Palmer and cur-
rent District Attorney Jim Carpenter,
whom she implied were part of the
alleged coverup of the events at the
jail involving Abigail Mobley, then-
wife of Undersheriff Zach Mobley.
Coit noted the complexity of the
case, ultimately building to the dec-
laration that “sometimes conspira-
cies are true.”
The witness list hints at the
extraordinary nature of the case, as
testimony is to focus not only on the
details surrounding the alleged crime
itself but also on the defense alle-
gations regarding the motives and
actions of the Grant County Sheriff’s
Office. The witness list includes the
current Grant County district attor-
ney, former Grant County Sheriff
Glenn Palmer, current Grant County
Undersheriff Zach Mobley, the sher-
iff of Wheeler County, and Ore-
gon State Police investigators who
looked into allegations of miscon-
duct against then-Grant County Dep-
uty Abigail Mobley.
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