FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2015
4 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS
Opinion
— Editorial —
Freedom of
religion, not
from it
It’s frustrating to see the same
old ridiculous dead horse being
beaten at County Commissioners
meetings.
What a blatant waste of every-
one’s time.
We thought the issue of prayer
at public meetings was laid to rest
years ago after the same individual
created the same controversy at
City Council.
Particularly when the lone com-
plainer has even less of a legal leg
to stand on than ever.
Last year, a Supreme Court rul-
ing upheld the Constitutionally-
based notion that public officials
could begin public meetings with
Letter to the Editor Policy: The Baker
County Press reserves the right not to pub-
lish letters containing factual falsehoods or
incoherent narrative. Letters promoting or
detracting from specific for-profit business-
es will not be published. Word limit is 375
words per letter. Letters are limited to one
every other week per author. Letters should
be submitted to Editor@TheBakerCounty-
Press.com.
Advertising and Opinion Page Dis-
claimer: Opinions submitted as Guest
prayer—pointedly Christian or
otherwise.
After all, the issue is freedom of
religion, not from it.
At the start of these meetings,
when the invocation is offered,
no one in the room is ridiculed,
excluded, singled out, or otherwise
ostracized.
A moment of prayer is given.
Those in the audience may
choose to sit through these mo-
ments with no action. They may
observe a moment of silence. Read
a book. Play on their iPhones. Of-
fer up their own prayers in their
own way to whichever god they
choose. Or join in!
Instead of recognizing a positive,
we suppose there will always be
those who will take the slightest
gesture and turn it into something
offensive.
We’re fairly certain our three
Baker County Commissioners and
those who attend their sessions
each week have better business
issues on which to expend their
energies.
—The Baker County Press Editorial Board
Opinions or Letters to the Editor express
the opinions of their authors, and have not
been authored by and are not necessarily
the opinions of The Baker County Press, any
of our staff, management, independent
contractors or affiliates. Advertisements
placed by political groups, candidates,
businesses, etc., are printed as a paid
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endorsement of or fulfillment obligation
by this newspaper for the products or
services advertised.
County Commissioners
hold government-to-
government meeting
with Forest Service
— Guest Opinion —
What’s a
u-value?
By Susie Snyder
Special to The Baker County Press
For over a decade Oregon Trail Electric
Cooperative’s (OTEC) Energy Services
team (ES) has enthusiastically helped
members lower their electric bills and
conserve energy by upgrading from old,
leaky windows to high efficiency models
with a u-value of .30 or better. OTEC
members who took advantage of BPA’s
financial incentives satisfied the progra
criteria by proving their primary installed
heat source was electric and they were
purchasing new windows that with low
u-value ratings.
So, what is a u-value? Windows are
rated according to the degree of heat loss
measured from the middle of the pane
going outward; hence, the lower the U-
factor, the better the window insulates the
building. The U.S. government standard-
ized the rating method and now requires
this information to be posted on all new
window products. High efficiency wi -
dows can be double or triple pane, argon
gas or air filled, or a myriad of other types
that meet new efficiency ratings, but the
key is to check and compare u-values.
Unfortunately, BPA recently announced
the window program will be changing as
of October 2015 and the rebate will be
greatly reduced, almost half of what it
has been. This decision came following a
study performed by the Regional Techni-
cal Forum (RTF), a committee formed by
the NW Power and Conservation Coun-
cil, and only after years of monitoring
the actual savings derived from retrofi -
ting windows as compared to what was
originally projected. The RTF’s primary
job is to develop standards to verify and
Submitted Photo
Susie Snyder is a 15-year employee
of OTEC, has a B.A. in Business
and is a NWPPA certified Home
Energy Auditor/Inspector. She has
been helping OTEC members find
ways to conserve energy for over 6
years.
evaluate conservation savings.
This group of experts keeps the Council
and Bonneville Power Administration
(BPA) updated on whether changes need
to be made to any conservation program,
so the funding is put to best use. Unfor-
tunately, this one did not live-up to the
expectation, so future rebates will be cut
in half of what they have been, with the
likelihood the program will be phased out
altogether in the near future.
Although, the change may lower par-
ticipation for the future, many of OTEC’s
members have already benefitted from
the program. And, regardless, it’s still a
good idea to remove leaky windows and
replace them with higher efficient mo -
els. OTEC’s ES team will continue to be
enthusiastic about helping members make
smart energy choices and find ways to
make the member’s project affordable.
Call us for more information about other
rebates that help you to conserve.
“Enthusiasm is the electricity of life.”
– Gordon Parks
— Letters to the Editor —
Cell towers and pigs...
To the Editor:
Recently I attended a Planning Com-
mission meeting open to the public
regarding two 100-pig pig farms that a
company is pushing to establish within
Baker City’s city limits. Current regula-
tions restrict pig farms within city limits
to 38 pigs. Before starting, a lawyer
representing the city, speaking a dialect of
English I barely understood, advised those
in attendance that FCC (Flatulence Com-
munication Commission) rules prohibit
any testimony that includes pgfs (pig
grunt farts) and that any testimony includ-
ing pgfs would be rendered inadmissible
despite the fact it has been proven that
pgfs can be harmful to humans. Besides,
those opposed wouldn’t have time to men-
tion pgfs since anyone who opposed the
two new farms would only be given three
minutes each to state their case.
Meanwhile B.S. Snickerdoodle, rep-
resenting the company, was given all the
time she needed to totally baffle everyone
in the room. Snickerdoodle maintained
that not only a 100-pig pig farm smelled
no different than a 38-pig pig farm but
alluded also that the company’s pigs had
very little smell at all and would hardly
be noticeable, especially at night so long
as one remained upwind. She explained
that although the 38-pig pig farms sup-
ply Baker City with almost all the bacon
the town’s residents need, current trends
demand high quantities of pig grease be-
cause an increasing number of people are
chewing the fat. Asked if this was a local
or national trend, Snickerdoodle admitted
it was a national trend.
Opposition testimony to the 100-pig pig
farms, despite the three-minute restriction,
offered a wide latitude why Baker should
not entertain large farms from pilots flying
over Baker might be overcome by smell,
and what if everyone in town wanted to
build a 100-pig pig farm? The lone local
voice in favor noted insightfully that the
only residential area that the two farms
might affect was high-density housing
full of low-income people who obvi-
ously didn’t and wouldn’t care. No vote
was taken. The meeting was adjourned.
Snickerdoodle promised to return with an
updated set of tampered facts. The issue
remains pending.
Whit Deschner
Baker City
Brian Addison / The Baker County Press.
Wallowa-Whitman National Forest supervisors (from left) Deputy Forest
Supervisor Chuck Oliver and Forest Supervisor Tom Montoya meet with Baker
County Commissioners Mark Bennett, chair Bill Harvey, and Tim Kerns to
discuss government-to-government relationship and needs of county.
BY BRIAN ADDISON
Brian@TheBakerCountyPress.com
The Baker County
Board of Commissioners
convened a government-
to-government meeting
on Wednesday, September
30, with United States
Forest Service supervisors
to begin to bring federal
land management plans
into consistency with the
interests and land use plans
of Baker County. The three
county commissioners,
chair Bill Harvey, Tim
Kerns, and Mark Bennett
met with Wallowa-Whit-
man National Forest Su-
pervisor Tom Montoya and
Deputy Forest Supervisor
Chuck Oliver.
The meeting included
five main areas of focus
specifically ta geting the
lands and resources within
Baker County and man-
aged by the USFS within
the burn-area this fire
season.
The first portion of
the meeting dealt with a
review of damage assess-
ment made by the USFS
including timber stands
and the need for salvage
logging projects, ongo-
ing threats to wildlife, an
assessment of missing and
damaged fencing, loss of
forage for livestock and
the process for reseeding
of pasturelands, the likeli-
hood of future flooding,
erosion problem and loca-
tions, and the opening and
repair of roads for restora-
tion.
Approximately
150,000-acres of private
and federally managed
land within Baker County
burned this summer and of
that total, the fires burned
through about 48,000
acres of land managed
by the USFS: the Windy
Ridge/Cornet Fires burned
30,000 acres of USFS
land, the Eagle Complex
Fire through about 12,000
acres of USFS land, the
Dry Gulch fire through
about 2,300 acres, and
the Eldorado Fire burned
3,700 acres of USFS man-
aged land. Within in those
burns many millions of
board feet of timber were
burned along with fencing
built by private land own-
ers that border the national
forest.
“Astronomical, the scope
of the thing is tremen-
dous,” Harvey said of his
assessment of the areas
burned.
The USFS currently
works on the task of haz-
ardous tree removal near
roadsides.
SEE USFS MEETING
PAGE 11
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OFFICIALS
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Walden.House.gov
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503.378.3111
Governor.Oregon.gov
State Rep. Cliff Bentz
503.986.1460
State Sen. Ted Ferrioli
541.490.6528
Baker County
Commissioners Bill Harvey;
Mark Bennett; Tim Kerns
541.523.8200
541.523.8201