The city-owned greenhouse in John Day on April 20, 2022.

JOHN DAY — Multiple resolutions with long-lasting ramifications for the city of John Day were approved at the May 10 City Council meeting.

The greenhouse will no longer be run by the city and is transitioning to private operators. The council also approved the purchase of the Grant County Library Foundation’s plot of land near the Kam Wah Chung Heritage Site, voted to dissolve the John Day Police Department and approved the sale of 2.8 acres on the Innovation Gateway property.

The city will officially stop operating the greenhouse on June 30. An agreement with CYA Holdings LLC of Huntington will put the greenhouse in private hands starting July 1.

The agreement is a five-year lease that has an option for CYA Holdings LLC to purchase the greenhouse at any time during the length of the contract for the value of the loan on the property.

Other terms of the contract are the greenhouse being partitioned into its own taxable lot and the city providing two storage facilities to store equipment. The city will also provide facility startup training for the staff set to take over operating the greenhouse. CYA Holdings LLC would also have to submit to monthly maintenance inspections of the facility and equipment.

The lease-to-own contract will expire in June 2027 and is priced at $24,000 a year. A termination of lease option can be triggered via a 120-day notice.

Shawn McKay of CYA Holdings said he’s “known about the greenhouse for a while” and this opportunity came up in talks with John Day City Manager Nick Green about things that are happening in town. He describes the opportunity to run the greenhouse as a good fit, citing experience his company has had with greenhouses in comments during the May 10 City Council meeting.

Shawn McKay and his wife, Robyn, were previously associated with Burnt River Farms in Ontario. The company’s website describes Burnt River Farms as a farm to market cannabis company located in Eastern Oregon.

Echoing earlier statements by Green at the May 10 meeting, Councilor Dave Holland stressed that the plan was always to have a private entity operate the greenhouse.

“That was really always the intent anyways,” Holland said. “We built it as a business model to show that it could be viable and it could be feasible to do. Now we have a private individual willing to take a go at it.”

The greenhouse going to private operation now means the city’s only financial obligation to the facility is an insurance bill of $2,500 a year plus the initial cost of staff time to train the new greenhouse staff. The City Council voted unanimously to enter into the lease agreement with CYA Holdings LLC. The agreement will take effect once it has cleared final approval by the city manager and city attorney.

Library land swap

In a separate vote, the council approved the previously tabled land swap agreement between the city and the library foundation. The city will purchase a 1-acre parcel near the Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site with the intention of using the land as future parking for visitors to John Day’s downtown. The purchase price of the parcel is $125,000.

The library foundation will take possession of a 2.1-acre parcel of city land along the planned Seventh Street extension at the base of Davis Creek with plans to construct a new library at the site. The parcel will be donated to the library foundation by the city and will allow the foundation to have the funds needed to build a new library.

The council had tabled voting on the land swap resolution at an earlier meeting over concerns that all parties affected by the deal hadn’t been in communication with one another. Library Foundation Secretary Ashley Armichardy spoke to those concerns at the May 10 meeting after hearing the council’s previous concerns from Elliot Sky. Armichardy stated the foundation has had conversations with some of the entities involved and that the library staff is “fully on board” with the land swap.

Armichardy also stated that the history of the library foundation and the library board not getting along “is history,” citing turnover and the desire to make the relationship better as reasons for the change in relationship. The foundation has also been in talks with the county about the land swap, according to Armichardy. Both the library board and officials the library foundation have communicated with about the swap love the location of the proposed new library, according to Armichardy.

The 2.1 acre parcel being donated to the library foundation is on the riverfront but out of the floodplain. Armichardy said that fact is attractive to the library foundation because the 1 acre parcel the city is purchasing is in the floodplain and would add the extra expense of carrying flood insurance should a new library be constructed at that location.

The land will need to be surveyed before the deal can be finalized. John Day City Manager Nick Green said the city would pick up the $2,000 cost of surveying the land. Green’s reasoning for the city picking up the survey cost was to put as little cost on the library foundation as possible so it would be free to put those funds into a new library.

The council voted to pass the resolution unanimously. The deal allows the library board to use the acquired land as a financial match when it applies for a block grant to help fund construction of the new library. The city of John Day has agreed to help the library foundation apply for the grant. If all goes according to plan, the land swap will end the library foundation’s 10-year struggle to raise the funds to build a new library.

John Day PD dissolved

The John Day Police Department is officially a thing of the past. The council, which voted to suspend the department’s operations in October, voted to formally dissolve the department at the May 10 meeting.

Grant County Sheriff Todd McKinley called the event a “sad day,” stating that the decision to defund the police has put tremendous strain on the Sheriff’s Office.

When asked if there was anything the council could do to creatively fund the department, Holland said it has been a decades-long struggle.

“We’ve tried that for over 30 years,” he said. “We have robbed other departments and creatively funded tying to keep the police department for 30 years that I’m aware of.”

Holland added that the council put the issue to a vote with a bond levy and the people said “no.”

“We gave people the option,” he said. “The only other option is to pull more money out of the water fund and increase people’s sewage bills by $4 or $5 each. That’s basically a backdoor tax, and we didn’t want to do that anymore.”

Innovation Gateway

The council approved the sale of 2.8 acres of city land in the Innovation Gateway development to Shannon Adair, a member of the council, for $122,840. The vote was 3-1, with Adair recusing herself and Councilor Chris Labhart voting no.

The vote formalized a letter of intent Adair signed with the city after a previous City Council discussion in December.

Adair, who owns 1188 Brewing in John Day, plans to build a brewery, distillery, restaurant and hotel on the site.

Grocery store proposed

A new grocery store is looking to call John Day home. Green said there are few details at this time but the proposed site for the store is across from the Nazarene Church on East Main Street. The size of the new store is slated to be 1,400 square feet.

The plans were announced at the end of the May 10 meeting by Green. The council was presented with a request for the city to remove fill material from the proposed build site by the prospective developers. Green stated that the need to remove the fill material was the one roadblock preventing the prospective buyers from moving forward with an agreement to purchase the site.

The City Council voted to remove the fill material, which will bring the build site down to highway grade and allow development of the site. The prospective developer will still need to come to a purchase agreement with the city and obtain a development permit to begin construction of the new grocery store.