WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2019 ❚ SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
Neighbors oppose large hemp facility near Turner
Tracy Loew
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Neighbors of a proposed $15.5 million hemp drying
and oil-processing facility are asking Marion County to
deny its owners a conditional-use permit.
Jupiter Pharma, an Illinois company registered in
Delaware, plans to build the factory on a 37-acre farm, at
8710 Parrish Gap Road in Turner, as part of a “soil to oil”
operation.
Jupiter has contracted with farmers in Marion Coun-
ty to cultivate hemp, and has contracts to deliver CBD
oil, Michael Winter, the company’s CEO, said Monday.
The complex would consist of a 50,000-square-foot
hemp storage building; a 15,000-square-foot hemp-dry-
ing building; a 12,000-square-foot processing facility; a
6,000-square-foot administrative building; and a
4,800-square-foot motor pool building.
In addition to processing its own hemp, the company
would offer drying services to other Oregon hemp grow-
ers, according to the application.
Opponents worry about increased truck traffic on the
windy, narrow road, which is also used by school buses,
bicyclists and farm equipment.
They say odors and particulate matter would inter-
fere with farms and a dairy nearby, and bring down
property prices. And they worry criminals could try to
steal hemp stored on the property.
About 80 people attended a community meeting on
the proposed facility last week, and some neighbors
have hired lawyers.
See HEMP, Page 2A
A $15.5 million hemp drying and oil-processing
facility is being proposed for an area south of Salem.
ANNA REED/STATESMAN JOURNAL
High costs,
unsafe choices
Families struggle to find, pay
for safe child care providers
Whitney Woodworth
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
The Covanta Marion facility in Brooks. DAVID DAVIS AND KELLY JORDAN/STATESMAN JOURNAL
Covanta incinerator
could close next month
Garbage burner may be shuttered as contract talks collapse
Tracy Loew Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Marion County’s contract with Covanta, the garbage
incinerator that burns most of the county’s trash, is set
to expire next month, and negotiations have stalled.
If an agreement isn’t reached by Sept. 20, the facility
will close, said Brian May, the county’s Environmental
Services Division manager.
May said the county is working to reach a temporary
agreement, and has a contingency plan in place if the
32-year old facility closes.
“We definitely will not have garbage being stock-
piled in our streets or anything like that,” he said.
It’s unclear whether the outcome of negotiations —
successful or not — will cause garbage rates to rise, May
said.
“We’re in that pause. We need to get some questions
answered,” he said. “We’re going to work very hard to
avoid rate increases. Our intent is to reduce that impact
as much as possible. We’re still operating as if we have a
Covanta in our system, but that will be determined in
our future.”
Meanwhile, some health and environmental groups
say it’s a good time to evaluate whether burning trash is
still the best option for the county.
Sending trash to a landfill would be cheaper and cre-
ate fewer greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute
to climate change, they say. And they worry that there
have been few studies of the impact of the incinerators
air emissions on neighbors.
“Even though nobody likes landfilling it’s the lesser
of two evils in this situation,” said Damon Motz-Storey,
healthy climate program director at Oregon Physicians
for Social Responsibility. “Salem garbage ratepayers
pay some of the highest disposal rates in the region.”
Covanta Marion, a subsidiary of New Jersey-based
A truck full of recycling materials prepares to dump
its load at the Covanta garbage incinerator in
Brooks on July 31. KELLY JORDAN/STATESMAN JOURNAL
Covanta Energy Corp., has operated in Brooks, north of
Salem, since 1986.
The incinerator burns about 550 tons of municipal
waste per day, generating up to 13.1 megawatts of elec-
tricity.
The county’s current contract with Covanta Marion
was effective from Sept. 20, 2014 to Sept. 19, 2017. The
contract allowed for a two-year extension, which was
exercised.
Multiple amendments to the contract have been
adopted since then, county spokeswoman Jolene Kel-
ley said.
On Wednesday, the Statesman Journal filed a re-
quest, under Oregon’s public records law, for those doc-
uments. County officials were not able to immediately
provide them.
Negotiations for a new contract have been underway
for more than a year, May said.
See COVANTA, Page 2A
Millions of dollars flowing into Mill City
Child care in Oregon is in crisis.
Tuition for a toddler at a licensed care center aver-
ages more than $14,000 a year. But with Salem-area
wages well below the annual Oregon average of
$53,000, many parents are forced into less regulated
— and sometimes less safe — options.
Cases of children abused and neglected by care-
givers stoke parents’ fears, and even less extreme
challenges, like quitting a job or going into debt to
care for a child, can have a lasting impact.
The high cost of day care
While Angela Tipton was still pregnant with her
son, she and her husband, Alex, began researching
care in the area and reviewing their finances. The re-
sults were dismal.
Not much was available, and what was available
was outside their budget, Alex said. He and Angela
are college-educated with solid careers — she a lab
manager and he a mental health therapist — and had
decent wages. But the $800 and $900 tuitions would
be impossible to pay along with their mortgage and
student loans.
“Even we can’t come close to affording that,” Alex
said. “Knowing that I can’t fathom how lower-income
families can afford it.”
A 2018 study conducted for the Oregon Depart-
ment of Human Services and the Oregon Early
Learning Division found prices have increased state-
wide for all types of care. In the last 10 years, prices
have outpaced inflation, especially for infants and
toddlers. Toddler home-based care doubled, and
toddler center-based care increased by 157 percent.
The study, which collected data from about 3,500
small home-based, daycare centers and large home-
based facilities, compared the 75th percentile of
prices across Oregon.
Center-based care for infants and toddlers runs
about $1,400 a month. Small-home based care is less
than half that amount and large-home based runs
about $1,200.
According to the report “Oregon’s Child Care
Deserts” by Oregon State University, these costs
equated to more than $14,000 a year for toddler care
at a center.
“The big thing we’ve seen change is the affordabil-
ity of care,” said Megan Pratt, assistant professor of
practice at OSU’s College of Public Health and Hu-
man Sciences and one of the report’s authors.
“It’s more and more expensive relative to in-
comes,” Pratt said. “Family incomes have remained
pretty stable over the last number of years, however,
the price of child care continues to climb.”
Researchers attribute the rise to high labor costs
and operational costs of running a child care busi-
ness. About 80 percent of the money going into a fa-
cility goes to provider wages.
“That’s paired with the fact that providers, teach-
ers, have pretty low compensation level,” Pratt said.
“They make minimum wage or just above minimum
wage. They often make less than a fast-food worker.
It’s this tricky combination of keeping a business go-
See CHILD CARE, Page 3A
Bill Poehler
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Mill City was briefly famous. Make that infamous.
Once a shining example of economic benefits of the
timber industry, it was frequently cited in the 1990s as
an example of the collateral damage caused by envi-
ronmental protections.
“I was part of the economic development corpora-
tion which we formed back in the early 1990s as a di-
rect result of George Bush Sr. naming Mill City as a
dying timber town,” Mill City Mayor Tim Kirsch said.
Online at SilvertonAppeal.com
News updates: ❚ Breaking news ❚ Get updates from
the Silverton area
Photos: ❚ Photo galleries
Mill City is getting its first significant economic
boost in decades.
In the next few years, at least $29 million in infra-
structure and other improvements are coming to the
city, a municipality many see only as a convenient
place to stop along Highway 22 on the drive between
the Willamette Valley and Bend.
And it started with selling buttons to save a bridge.
“I’m like this in my own life. If I get one area kind of
going, it just kind of seems to carry over,” said Lynda
Harrington, the chair of the Save Our Bridge Commit-
See MILL CITY, Page 3B
Vol. 138, No. 35
Serving the Silverton
Area Since 1880
A Unique Edition of
the Statesman Journal
QEAJAB-07403y
©2019
50 cents
Printed on recycled paper
Angela Tipton and her 11-month-year-old son,
Ares, play at their home in west Salem on July 17.
MICHAELA ROMÁN/STATESMAN JOURNAL