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HAZY BLAZE IN SHERMAN CO.
Traffic vanishes into thick smoke drifting over Highway 97 between Grass Valley and Kent Wednesday afternoon, causing traffic delays. The fire has burned for two days in canyons off the John Day River, and threatened several homes. “It’s scary when you live on the edge of it,” said Emmajean Smith, who lives between Jack Knife Canyon and Little Fairy Canyon in rural Sherman County. She praised the farmers with bulldozers who helped protect four threatened homes in the area. Smith said the fire was still burning this morning down by the John Day River and could easily revive and push back up the rugged canyons. It grew to some 15,000 acres, according to this morning’s report from the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, driven by winds. Firefighting efforts were hampered by steep, inaccessible terrain. Reports indicate 43 people, 16 engines and one helicopter are fighting the fire with the Bureau of Land Management as the lead agency. No containment date has been identified. Mark Gibson photo
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Corps' John Day Dam park facilities closed due to wildfires
PORTLAND, Ore. - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has closed LePage and Albert Phillippi Parks at the mouth of the John Day River just east of John Day Dam due to wildfires in the area. Corps property in Bigelow Canyon has also been closed.
The Corps and local fire and law enforcement personnel evacuated LePage Park between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. today, and ordered Albert Phillippi Park and the Bigelow Canyon facilities closed at about 9 a.m.
The Corps is providing entrance fee refunds to customers at the facilities and working to contact those people who have reservations at the facilities over the Independence Day holiday.
For updated information about John Day Dam recreation facilities closures, please contact the LePage Park gatehouse at (541) 739-2713.
Information about wildland fires in Oregon is available at the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center Web site at http://www.nwccweb.us.
Board recants on track
District will repair old instead of building new
By ED COX
of The Dalles Chronicle
North Wasco School District 21 won’t spend $550,000 to build a new middle school track after all, but will fix up the two tracks it has instead — and likely for less than that amount.
That was the result of Wednesday’s special board meeting, where the board unanimously approved Ernie Blatz’s motion to direct staff to renovate the track at the high school’s Wahtonka campus and upgrade the Thompson Street track to a “usable condition.” 
Panel progresses on charter draft
Members reach accord on issues related to land use
By RODGER NICHOLS
of The Chronicle
The Wasco County Home Rule Charter Committee made progress at its June 26 meeting. The provisional rough draft of the charter has seven articles. Prior to the meeting, the committee had approved specific language on Article I: Names and Boundaries, and three of the four sections of Article II: Powers.
Last Thursday’s meeting saw agreement on the language for all of Section V: Ordinances — but not before a lot of give and take, and an amendment.
Bush: More troops to Afghanistan
WASHINGTON — Grappling with a record death toll in an overshadowed war, President Bush promised Wednesday to send more U.S. troops into Afghanistan by year’s end. He conceded that June was a “tough month” in the nearly seven-year-old war. tt was the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the conflict began.
“One reason why there have been more deaths is because our troops are taking the fight to a tough enemy, an enemy who doesn’t like our presence there because they don’t like the idea of America denying safe haven [to terrorists],” Bush told reporters. “Of course there’s going to be resistance.”
