Frustrations of a lack of support from the state and discussions on being proactive during a pandemic dominated the conversation during a John Day City Council meeting Aug. 11.

During the meeting, John Day City Manager Nick Green talked about the state providing $52,000 in COVID-19 relief funds to the city and how low it is in comparison to the need of relief from the pandemic.

“These amounts are ridiculously low,” states the agenda for the meeting. “The State has re-directed critical funding for education and coronavirus recovery from local governments to special interest groups, while denying funding applications for basic infrastructure needed to fulfill their constantly changing guidelines on what is and is not ‘allowed.’”

The lack of broadband access needed for online education and responding to 24 executive orders from March 8 to the end of June affecting policy framework were two problems Green cited in explaining why $52,000 was little help

“When we found out that the entirety of our relief from coronavirus in the city of John Day amounts to $52,000, it got my ire up,” Green said. “The thought that I had in my mind was what exactly do you expect us to do with $52,000 when we don’t have broadband to our elementary school or many residents, and you just turned down our application for funding to correct that.”

Green submitted an application to Business Oregon for $2 million in broadband grants, which would help finish the broadband project in John Day and at Humbolt Elementary, but the application was turned down with no explanation given.

Green said the city needs to take proactive measures, and he said Sen. Lynn Findley is in full agreement with the city’s position.

Oregon received about $1.63 billion in coronavirus relief funds. Under the federal directive, some local governments received their allocations directly with about $247 million sent to Portland, and to Washington and Multnomah counties. Other local governments were to receive $625 million.

However, the Legislature and Gov. Brown have controlled the process with about $200 million put into a state-run account in which local governments could apply for allocations.

On July 14, legislative leaders allocated $200 million of the relief money to special interest groups. On Aug. 17, legislative leaders approved a plan to use federal funds to buy $105 million of personal protective equipment, despite objections from over half of all lawmakers.

Many lawmakers were against the plan on Aug. 17 and wanted funds to go directly to local governments to spend on their COVID-19 priorities instead of having the agenda dictated by the state.

Green said one of the reasons the state is holding onto funds is because they haven’t seen John Day spend the money yet.

“I’d like to spend our money tomorrow and then send them a letter at the end of the day and say money’s gone,” Green said. “The other issue is that we’re still in this reactionary mindset where you pay people to not work… The reality is that you need to put people to work.”

He said there will always be people critical with how the city will spend their relief funds, but a solid implementation of the funds would be in small infrastructure projects.

The city council approved $15,000 to go to Commstructures Professional Services to design the broadband extension to Humbolt Elementary, which will make this project ready for building. This project will provide Humbolt with faster internet speeds to carry out online education from the school building.

The city council approved $2,500 to the John Day Farmer’s Market after manager Stephanie LeQuieu said that the county will not be funding the market after October.

The city council then approved up to $2,500 to support 4-H students at the fair livestock auction by adding $20 to each animal auctioned.

“The other issue is that we’re still in this reactionary mindset where you pay people to not work… The reality is that you need to put people to work.”

—Nick Green, John Day city manager