Remote Surveillance Trailer in John Day, OR

JOHN DAY — The city of John Day has given its residents the option to vote on the creation of a library taxing district after the unanimous passage of Resolution 26-01 at its Jan. 13 city council meeting.

Every city in the county will consider the resolution for adoption, a necessary step in creating a county-wide library taxing district. The resolution will allow any community that adopts it the opportunity to vote on the creation of a library taxing district during the May election, if the taxing district appears on the ballot.

Communities that adopt the resolution will be members of the taxing district if the proposal passes.

Stephanie Thompson, the chair of the Save Our Library Committee, said John Day, Seneca, Long Creek, Canyon City and Dayville have all passed resolutions in support of the creation of a library taxing district.

Prairie City and Monument were considering the resolution at their council meetings Jan. 14.

Thompson said residents of communities that decide not to opt in to the library taxing district will be charged an out-of-district fee when applying for a library card at the Grant County Library — if the taxing district passes.

The Grant County Court announced it was looking to plug a $1.5 million budget gap during the last budget cycle and identified the county library and its budget of just more than $200,000 as an entity that could potentially be defunded. The county does not mandate funding for the library.

That announcement sparked the creation of the Save Our Library Committee, a pair of mandatory library hearings, community outreach and a feasibility study. All of those efforts led to the decision that a library taxing district is perhaps the best way to keep the library’s doors open.

If all goes according to plan, residents of the communities that opt in to the taxing district will vote on its creation during the May election.

“We’re simply giving the community the opportunity to vote on whether they want to be a part of the taxing district or not,” John Day City Manager Melissa Bethel said.

Fishing season could start in late January or early February in Bonneville, The Dalles pools

The white sturgeon fishing season has closed in the John Day Pool on the Columbia River, from the John Day Dam upstream to McNary Dam, and adjacent tributaries.

Friday, Jan. 9, was the last day of the season, which started Jan. 1.

Fishery managers from Oregon and Washington decided to end the season after determining that the sturgeon harvest threshold would nearly be met, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The projected harvest as of Jan. 9 was 101 fish, which is 96% of the threshold.

ODFW announced in November that recreational sturgeon fishing wouldn’t open as usual, on Jan. 1, in the Bonneville and The Dalles pools due to unseasonably warm water that in the past few years resulted in anglers catching fish so quickly that the season lasted just a few days before the harvest thresholds were reached.

Fishing started Jan. 1 in the John Day Pool because catch rates there had been lower the past two years than in the Bonneville and The Dalles pools, according to ODFW.

The sturgeon season in the John Day Pool lasted 72 days in 2025 and 74 days in 2024.

ODFW officials expect to open the sturgeon season in the Bonneville and The Dalles pools in late January or February, when water temperatures should drop enough to make fishing more difficult and reduce catch rates.

ODFW doesn’t expect to have an open season for sturgeon below Bonneville Dam this year due to low numbers of legal-size sturgeon.

During open seasons, anglers can keep white sturgeon between 43 and 54 inches in fork length — measured in a straight line from the tip of the nose to the fork in the caudal fin (tail), with the fish lying on its side on a flat surface and the measuring tape or ruler positioned flat under the fish. The daily bag limit is one sturgeon, and the season limit is two fish.

Catch-and-release fishing for sturgeon remains open in the mainstem Columbia through April 30. All angling for sturgeon is prohibited from May 1 through Aug. 31 within sanctuary areas below each of the dam tailraces.

Anglers caught legal sturgeon at high enough rates in 2024 and 2025 that the annual quotas were reached relatively quickly, resulting in retention seasons that lasted only one day in 2025, two days in 2024 and six days in 2023 in the Bonneville Pool.

Despite the short seasons, the total catch in that pool exceeded the quota in both 2025, when anglers caught 1,365 sturgeon and the quota was 1,250, and in 2024, when the quota was 675 and anglers caught 692 fish.

The retention season totaled four days in both 2025 and 2024 in The Dalles Pool.

“The high demand in these fisheries has led to early closures and reported dissatisfaction for some anglers,” according to a joint report from Oregon and Washington fishery managers in November 2025.

With a huge bite taken out of the small quota in just six days of fishing, sturgeon retention on the John Day Pool would close starting this Saturday, January 10, under a proposal Columbia River managers will consider during a conference call tomorrow.

Staffers from WDFW and ODFW are making that recommendation in a fact sheet out ahead of Thursday morning’s meeting, saying that the projected kept catch through Friday will hit 96 percent of the 105-fish guideline.

It’s not totally surprising.

With keeper seasons on two more productive downstream pools having been put on hold till sometime later this winter due to high past catch rates, Columbia River anglers who want to keep a diamondside have had only one option, the John Day Pool, and the weather so far really hasn’t really been stopping them from trailering further east on I-84 into the gorge. And a relatively warm December across the region kept water temperatures warmer than usual, making for better sturgeon fishing.

“Fishery monitoring indicates that effort in the John Day Pool fishery was somewhat higher than average on January 1 then dropped to average levels over the weekend. However, catch rates were about double those typically observed in this fishery during early January. Due to the high catch rates, harvest has accrued more quickly than anticipated preseason,” states the fact sheet.

The DFWs report that anglers have made an estimated 755 trips and harvested 88 sturgeon on the John Day Pool so far.

Seasons since 2021 on the pool have yielded about the same number of fish as 2026’s will have in the end, but also fisheries that lasted 77, 74, 72, 68 and 32 days.

Back in November when staffers and managers discussed opening this year’s only keeper fishery on the John Day Pool and holding off on the traditional January 1 openers on The Dalles and Bonneville Pools till midwinter’s coldest waters so as to provide longer, more meaningful seasons there, there were some concerns that it would just result in “effort shift” – that is, anglers switching over to the open reservoir.

Staffers said they hadn’t seen that in past years when The Dalles and Bonneville Pools were closed and the John Day Pool was open, but that appears to have happened. One close observer of Columbia River fisheries said a certain percentage of lower gorge fishermen had run upstream and found reasonable water temps and good weather there.

At the time last fall, Tucker Jones, ODFW’s director representative on the joint-state Columbia River Compact calls, acknowledged staff observations about a lack of effort shift, but pointed out that managers were also “doing something new. When you do something new, there is some risk.”

The risk was that the here-and-gone seasons seen on the Bonneville Pool in recent years would be seen on the John Day Pool. That now may be the case.

Under the staff recommendation, catch-and-release sturgeon fishing would remain open on the John Day Pool, as it is below there.

On Thursday, the DFWs will also consider a commercial smelt fishery on the Lower Columbia. It’s meant to continue gauging run strength to provide insights on possible tributary dipping openers, as well as provide commercial harvest opportunity.

WDFW has already lined out tentative dipping days on the Cowlitz, but openers are based on abundance seen in the mainstem. Managers expect a continuation of the downward trend seen the past three winters and say the run is likely to come in below the 10-average of 8.1 million pounds.

JOHN DAY – Grant School District #3 is looking to expand their preschool capacity. School Board Chair Will Blood was recently in KJDY Studios and explained to listeners that following their November meeting, there’s a good chance they will be adding more Preschool Promise slots into their program.

According to the state’s website, “Preschool Promise is a free, high-quality preschool program available to Oregon families who are living at or below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level in Oregon.”

Blood said just within the last couple of years, their capacity to offer the Preschool Promise has expanded:

“When [Superintendent] Mark [Witty] first got here, we had four. That’s not very much. I think Mark got us up to ten, and we are looking at possibly getting ten or more additional slots, which is a big thing. On top of that, it was in one of our meetings that we are looking at getting a grant, and I think we are going to find out in the spring…”

In addition, Blood mentioned that if the grant is awarded, there will be a new Early Learning Center:

“We are in a tentative agreement with the folks that own the old Strawberry Mountain Beef building, which is basically right across the street from the Snaffle Bit. That is contingent on getting the grant. If we get the grant, we can move right on converting that building into a large Early Learning Center. With those Preschool Promise dollars from additional slots and things, you are going to have a lot lower cost, if not completely free on some of those slots.”

Listen to the full podcast with Grant School District 3 Board Chair Will Blood below:

The plan visualizes John Day in 2045

JOHN DAY — The city of John Day is crafting its strategic plan with visions of what the city will look like in 2045.

The city announced in a Dec. 19 press release that it had developed a draft vision statement and vision focus areas as part of its John Day 2045 Community Vision and Strategic Plan project. The draft vision statement and vision focus were taken directly from extensive public input from over 200 residents who participated in surveys, small group conversations, and a November public meeting.

The language within the draft vision statement and vision focus describes the future John Day wants to have by 2045. In that future, John Day will be thriving economically, have a high quality of life, and have a safe and supportive environment that maintains small-town values and character that makes the community unique.

Once adopted, the Vision will be used to inform the development of a Strategic Plan for the City of John Day that will define actionable steps the City will take over the next several years to help implement it. Those steps will be refined and detailed further through the city’s annual budget process.

John Day’s 2045 vision statement

The 2045 vision statement describes John Day as a safe, thriving and welcoming place where families flourish, businesses succeed, and visitors discover the spirit of Eastern Oregon.

A thriving economy, an excellent and family-friendly quality of life and the safety of residents were all highlighted as focus areas for the community vision. Key concepts within those focus areas included sustainable population growth, successful local businesses, well-paying jobs, affordable cost of living, access to housing, good schools, access to quality healthcare and safety and security.

“In 2045, John Day is a safe, thriving, and welcoming place where families flourish, businesses succeed, and visitors discover the spirit of Eastern Oregon. Nestled in the Blue Mountains along the free-flowing John Day River, our town is the heart of Grant County, with affordable living, well-paying jobs, quality schools, and healthcare access that make this an exceptional place to call home. Rooted in our rich history yet forward-looking, we embrace opportunity while maintaining our unique character to preserve the small-town warmth, community cohesion, and connection to the land that defines us,” the draft community vision statement reads.

City seeks additional feedback

The city hopes a second survey and town hall meeting on Jan. 14 at 6 p.m. at the John Day Senior Center will provide it with additional feedback from residents before the draft vision statement and focus areas are adopted by the city council.

Residents will be asked whether the language in the draft reflects the aspirations of the community, along with suggesting any necessary edits or additions. Residents can complete a survey online or pick up a paper copy from city hall.