Continue to Stand in the Gap: Grant County

Strawberry Mountains, Grant County, OR

Sing praises on the harp to our God, who covers the heavens with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass grow on the mountains.
Psalm 147: 7-8

Grant County, named after General Ulysses S. Grant, is the fourth least-populated county in the state. It is home to part of the John Day Fossil Beds and the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness. The county seat is Canyon City but the major town in the county is John Day, once considered the epicenter of the Oregon gold rush in eastern Oregon. Now the rural town is a popular outdoor recreation spot and tourist destination.

Like a handful of other eastern Oregon counties, Grant County is still governed by the County Court system with Judge Scott Myers as the County Judge and Jim Hamsher and Sam Palmer as the Commissioners.

Todd McKinley is the County Sheriff.

Grant County, OR
The county was established in 1864 out of parts of Wasco and Umatilla Counties. You can read more about the early history here and here.

Nick Green is the city manager of John Day. According to this article, the City of John Day has been growing smaller since the decline of the timber industry. Currently, the city is planning to increase their population by 20% within five years (beginning in 2022). With a shortage of skilled construction workers, and only a few building contractors, the city has partnered with a local business to build 3D printed homes, a new technology and concept that would produce living units in a fraction of the time, and cost less than traditional stick-built homes as well as reducing the need for the unavailable human workers.

While John Day apparently has the distinction of building the first printed concrete house in Oregon, other towns on the eastern side of the state, including Ontario in Malheur County, are also making plans to develop printed 3D housing units. This innovative technology addresses several issues in Oregon, and Governor Tina Kotek attended a presentation of how it all works during her trip around the state to connect with local communities. The benefits of 3D construction include faster building times to address the housing shortage on both sides of the Cascades, as well as being – they believe – cost effective to build, and of sturdy construction, saving money, time, and manpower.

While John Day has grant funding for their project and the support of both government and private companies, there are some issues to work out including bringing the state codes up to speed on the modern technology.

According to Nick Green in this article, the company building the first batch of homes in John Day is Mahogany Ridge Properties, a veteran-owned company that plans to give preference to veterans in their first small community of 3D-printed homes.

Pray for those seeking creative ways to address the housing shortage, especially in rural areas and in eastern Oregon.

St. Thomas Episcopal Church was built in 1876 in Canyon City, the county seat of Grant County. A bit gothic (Jacobean style) in appearance, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Churches in nearby John Day include Baptists, Lutheran, Seventh Day Adventist, Catholic, Methodist, Church of Christ, Christian, and several non-denominational including New Life Church and Strawberry Mountain Christian Fellowship. Keep all the churches of Grant County in prayer.

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