LOCAL
MONDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2019
THE OBSERVER — 5A
State Senate seat
to be filled Jan. 6
By Jayson Jacoby
EO Media Group
BAKER CITY — Repub-
lican Party offi cials from
Baker County and 10 other
counties are slated to meet
Jan. 4 in John Day to nomi-
nate candidates to replace
Cliff Bentz, state senator for
District 30 who is resigning
Jan. 2 to run for Congress.
Elected commissioners
from each of the 11 counties
in District 30 are scheduled
to convene Jan. 6 in Ontario
to pick Bentz’s successor from
among the GOP nominees.
Bentz, a Republican from
Ontario, hopes to replace
Rep. Greg Walden, who
announced in late October
he would not seek another
term representing Oregon’s
2nd Congressional District.
Walden’s two-year term
expires at the end of 2020.
The process for replacing
a state lawmaker involves
two steps.
First, precinct committee
members from the party
of the departing legislator
— Republicans, in Bentz’s
case — meet to nominate
candidates.
Suzan Ellis Jones, chair
of the Baker County Repub-
lican Party, said the GOP
plans to pick three candi-
dates when it convenes on
Jan. 4 at the Grant County
University of Washington Photo via OPB
The Axial Seamount is the most active volcano in the Pacifi c Northwest.
AXIAL
Continued from Page 1A
we can,” he said.
An expansive seafl oor
monitoring network installed
in 2014 has allowed Chad-
wick to monitor Axial Sea-
mount in real time. Over the
past few years, he’s watched
the volcano slowly grow.
“We’re using that repeated
pattern of infl ation and
defl ation to try to anticipate
when the next eruption
might be,” he said.
Chadwick said making
such a straightforward and
public forecast is its own
kind of experiment.
“We’re just kind of doing
this forecasting … to see if it
works. In my mind it’s more
honest and more of a test to
see if it’s really useful to do it
before something happens,
because it’s easy to kind of
fool yourself in hindsight or
spin it a certain way,” he said.
Other scientists in the
Pacifi c Northwest also are
monitoring the seamount for
signals of eruption.
University of Washington’s
William Wilcock studies
earthquakes at Axial Sea-
mount. The seismic activity
gives indications of what’s
ELGIN
Continued from Page 1A
Church, La Grande.
At the Harvester’s Church of the
Nazarene, 1120 Birch St., the vandals
did most of their damage by pouring
syrup and punch on the carpet and
BAN
Continued from Page 1A
said he wonders how far this
will go down the line of ban-
ning all kinds of plastic.
“I think it’s not the govern-
ment’s business to tell retail
stores what to use when
checking people out,” Barreto
said. “I don’t agree with the
government getting mixed
up in the market on say-
ing how much it will cost to
provide something.”
Major retail chains, such
as Walmart and Safeway,
have already been dealing
with such a ban in other
states and cities. California,
Connecticut, Delaware, Ha-
waii, Maine, New York and
Vermont have established
statewide bans.
“Albertsons and Safeway
stores in Oregon are ready
for the plastic bag ban
implementation,” according
to Nicky Nielsen, marketing
promotional coordinator for
Safeway. “Stores are supplied
with paper and reusable
happening inside the volcano.
“Immediately after an
eruption, there are very
few earthquakes, and then
the number of earthquakes
steadily increases as the
volcano infl ates,” he said. “So
after the eruption in 2015,
the number of earthquakes
that we recorded went down
to just a handful and it’s now
up to maybe 50 a day.”
Wilcock said he believes
Bill Chadwick’s forecast is in
the right ballpark.
“My personal view is it’s
probably more likely in 2022
to 2024. But I think there’s
some uncertainty,” he said.
furniture, said Pastor Lauri Ferring. In
addition, paper, books and other items
were dumped onto the fl oor.
The suspects may have crossed the
legal line just getting into the building.
“They broke in through a locked
door,” Ferring said.
This was the second time in the past
plastic bags and we encour-
age customers to bring their
own reusable bags.”
The Safeway and Albert-
sons chains are owned by the
same company.
“Walmart is aware of the
legislation and will be ready
to comply with any new
laws,” Tiffany Wilson, direc-
tor of communications for
Walmart, said in an email.
In February, the company
announced new initiatives to
reduce plastic waste not only
from the bags people use to
carry their purchases home
but also in the packaging for
products. One of Walmart’s
goals is to “achieve 100
percent recyclable, reusable
or industrially compostable
packaging for its private
brand packaging by 2025.”
Stores that use plastic bags
offer bins for people to drop
off their used bags to be re-
cycled into new ones, and the
company is developing alter-
natives to plastic products
such as single-use forks.
“This announcement
Unlike the eruption of
a land-based volcano, like
Mount St. Helens, the erup-
tion of the Axial Seamount
won’t cause any problems for
humans.
“For the size of eruptions
we’ve seen in the last 20
years … if you were on top of
it on a boat, you would never
know it,” OSU’s Chadwick
said. But the forecast erup-
tion does provide a unique
opportunity scientifi cally.
“There’s a lot of interest in
trying to set up experiments,
to basically observe more of
(the volcanic processes) as
it’s happening,” Wilcock said.
Imagine The Difference You Can Make
three months the church was the target
of vandals, Ferring said, and the build-
ing sustained similar type of damage
each time.
The pastor credited volunteers with
doing an outstanding job of cleaning
up the mess quickly, allowing a church
service to be conducted Sunday.
sends a positive signal to
the marketplace, especially
in the United States,” Steve
Alexander, CEO of the Asso-
ciation for Plastics Recyclers,
said in a statement. “We ap-
plaud Walmart for establish-
ing such a strong recyclable
packaging goal and encour-
age others to pursue similar
ambitions.”
Oregon’s plastic bag ban
also is joined by a bill requir-
ing restaurants to give only
plastic straws to customers
who specifi cally ask for them
and will go into effect on
Jan. 1. A third bill, which
would have banned foam
takeout containers, did not
pass.
Stores that violate the new
law may receive a fi ne of up
to $250 per violation.
According to the law,
people who make purchases
using WIC vouchers and
electronic benefi ts trans-
fer cards will receive free
recycled paper bags or reus-
able plastic bags at checkout.
Stores may offer reusable
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fabric bags for free as a
promotion for up to 12 days
in a year.
Under this law, cities,
counties or other local govern-
ments can increase fees for
bags as long as they follow the
other provisions of the law.
La Grande City Manager
Robert Strope said the city
has no provision for increas-
ing fees and the question has
not come up with the council
at this point.
Union County Chamber
of Commerce Executive
Director Suzannah Moore-
Hemann said that while the
process may have hiccups in
the beginning, she believes
people will enjoy having a
couple of nice reusable bags
instead of a stack of single-
use plastic to fi nd a place for.
“I have heard some people
say they hope it is a good
transition,” Moore-Hemann
said.
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STATE
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our seasoned directors as well to learn
new ideas and thoughts with fresh
people to bounce ideas off of,” Warner
said. “It’s been really successful and
mutually benefi cial.”
As part of the new directors forum,
DAS Chief Operating Offi cer Katy
Coba will assign “learning partners,”
or matching veterans with newcom-
ers so they have someone to turn to for
answers or morale support. Warner said
learning partners were only expected
to meet for six months. Almost all of
the relationships formed through the
program have lasted well beyond that.
One of those relationships, Warner
said, is the professional friendship be-
tween State Parks Director Lisa Sump-
tion and Department of Energy Direc-
tor Janina Benner. The two were paired
when Benner came onboard toward the
end of 2017. They’re still close.
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are doing diffi cult jobs on behalf of the
public. “It makes me sad when you read
about all the negativity because there’s
some really good, hardworking people
in our state government who have the
best interest of Oregonians in mind,”
Warner said. “That’s not always shown
or apparent to people.”
For Peters, seeing Warner and DAS
staff bring her idea to life has been
fulfi lling. It’s also provided support to
new people tapped for leadership posi-
tions. “Bringing the model of executive
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Benefi ts and synergy
Another piece of Warner’s job is to
oversee the state’s mentorship program.
She enjoys matching mentors and
proteges across departments so state
employees can understand more about
their government than just the offi ce
where they work.
For example, Warner’s team recently
paired Health Authority Deputy Direc-
tor Kris Kautz to mentor Department of
Transportation Deputy Surveyor Chris
Glantz. While the Health Authority and
ODOT might not seem like they have a
lot in common, the cross-pollination has
a lot of benefi ts and promotes a synergy
that’s been previously unseen across
Oregon’s agencies, Warner said.
Warner said her program’s best
benefi t gives agency directors and state
employees people to turn to when a
job isn’t quite so pleasant. As people
become more distrustful of government
at all levels, Warner sees opportuni-
ties to show that “hardworking people”
Airport in John Day.
As of Dec. 23, Jones said
two people have applied
— Lynn Findley of Vale, a
state representative whose
district includes Baker
County, and Rod Runyon of
Wasco County.
State law requires pre-
cinct committee members
to nominate three, four
or fi ve candidates to fi ll a
vacancy, Jones said.
If fewer than three people
apply, then Oregon Gov.
Kate Brown would appoint
Bentz’s replacement.
But Jones said she expects
there will be at least three
candidates by the Monday
deadline the Oregon Repub-
lican Party set for people to
submit a letter of interest. To
be eligible, candidates must
live within District 30 and
have been a member of the
Republican Party for at least
180 days prior to Jan. 2, 2020.
Although party committee
members nominate candi-
dates, the final choice is made
by commissioners from the
counties in District 30. That
district, the largest geograph-
ically in the Oregon Senate,
includes all of Baker, Grant,
Harney, Jefferson, Malheur
and Wheeler counties, as
well as parts of Deschutes,
Lake, Wasco, Clackamas and
Marion counties.
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