LOCAL
2A — THE OBSERVER
DAMS
Continued from Page 1A
for a solution that revives salmon popula-
tions, the draft plan is built on the same
failed approach the courts have rejected
time and again,” said Todd True, an attor-
ney for Earthjustice who has represented
environmentalists and fi shing groups in
ongoing litigation over the dams.
“We need a different approach and
leadership from elected offi cials.”
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has voiced
support for demolishing the Snake River
dams.
The 14 federal dams on the Columbia
and Snake rivers together produce 40%
of the region’s power — enough electric-
ity to power nearly 5 million homes, or
eight cities roughly the size of Seattle.
They also contain a system of locks that
allows cities nearly 500 miles inland
from the Pacifi c Ocean access to Asian
markets via barges that fl oat down
the massive rivers to the sea. Roughly
STANCE
Continued from Page 1A
“This will not reduce
carbon, but only raise taxes,”
Hansell said. “It does not
make sense.”
Why the Democrats won’t
budge, Smith said, is a head
scratcher.
“I think those who are in
the majority believe that it is
their responsibility to handle
this. They believe they have
the staff and technical assis-
tance to handle this,” he said.
But if the proposal is so
good for Oregon, the pair of
legislators said, Democrats
should have the confi dence
Oregon voters will deliver.
The voting math tends to
favor the Democrats, with al-
most 974,000 registered vot-
ers, according to the January
registration data from the
Oregon Secretary of State, a
bump from December 2019
of nearly 3,500.
Republicans are verging on
702,000 voters in Oregon, but
they dropped 92 voters from
December 2019. Nonaffi liated
voters remain the second
largest registration block with
a little more than 960,000, an
increase of more than 4,200
from the end of 2019.
If voters were to approve
cap and trade, Smith and
Hansell said the Democrats
come out looking good.
But, they contended, Dem-
ocrats also would look good
if they refer the measure to
the public and it fails. In that
outcome, Democrats could
at least say the will of the
people prevailed and democ-
racy in Oregon is strong.
Democrats in the Oregon
House moved Thursday to
force Republicans back to the
Capitol, issuing subpoenas
SPURGEON
Continued from Page 1A
the John Maxwell Company, which
provides leadership training.
“She had a lot of determination,”
said Aldrich, who serves on the
Weston City Council. “She had a
real heart for other people. She was
a good mediator. She was good at
taking two heated-up parties and
calming them down.”
“She was fi ercely possessive
about Weston,” McIntyre said. “She
was our rock.”
Umatilla County Commissioner
and former Athena Mayor John
Shafer remembered Spurgeon as
intelligent and energetic. As friends
and leaders of nearby towns, their
paths often converged.
“We were mayors together and
bounced ideas off each other,” Shafer
said. “She was my campaign man-
to 21 state representatives
that would compel them to
explain their disappearing
act from Salem.
House Speaker Tina
Kotek, D-Portland, said pro-
cess server has been hired
to chase down wayward
Republicans, although they
may be out of state. If they
obeyed, the representatives
would have to appear before
the Democratic-controlled
House Rules Committee on
Thursday, March 5.
“Be prepared to tes-
tify about your unexcused
absences during the 2020
regular session of the Legis-
lative Assembly, the need for
members to fulfi ll their oaths
of offi ce and constitutional
duties,” the subpoena states.
The move showed that
Kotek is determined to stand
against Republican demands
to kill the greenhouse gas
ager when I ran for commissioner.”
He said Spurgeon was passion-
ate and driven, but her fun-loving
side emerged often.
“She had a quirky sense of hu-
mor,” he said, laughing. “She was a
‘Weird Al’ Yankovic fan.”
Spurgeon grew up in Elgin, and
her father, Steve McClure, served
as a Union County commissioner.
Evelyn Spikes of Elgin recalled
Spurgeon as one of her English stu-
dents in her sophomore and senior
years at Elgin High School.
“I had so many outstanding stu-
dents, but Jennifer was extremely
smart, an athlete, and obviously
she was taller than everybody else,”
Spikes said.
Spurgeon stood out at 6-foot-4
inches tall, played volleyball and
basketball in high school and
graduated in 1990. She went on to
Whitman College, where she stud-
50 million to 60 million tons of cargo
navigate the Snake and Columbia river
system each year.
Yet, the towering dams have proven
disastrous for salmon that struggle to
navigate past them on human-made fi sh
ladders as they swim upstream to spawn
and die after spending most of their lives
in the Pacifi c Ocean. Salmon are unique
in that they hatch in freshwater streams,
and then make their way hundreds of
miles to the ocean, where they spend years
before fi nding their way back to their natal
streams to mate, lay eggs and die.
Snake River sockeye were the fi rst
species in the Columbia River Basin
listed under the Endangered Species Act
in 1991. Now, 13 salmon runs are listed
as federally endangered or threatened.
The Columbia River System dams cut
off more than half of salmon spawning
and rearing habitat, and many wild
salmon runs in the region have 2% or
less of their historic populations, said
Meg Townsend, an attorney for the Cen-
legislation or send it to
Oregon voters.
The absence of Republicans
in the House and Senate has
largely stopped action on
legislation this week because
there is no quorum. The
House needs at least one more
Republican to show up to ad-
vance legislation on the fl oor
and the Senate needs two.
“We feel like this is within
our legal right to ask our
colleagues to come back and
explain before a committee
why they believe it’s OK for
them to not do their job,”
Kotek told reporters late
Thursday.
Legislative committees,
minus Republican members,
have continued working
on bills and policy discus-
sions. But it’s unclear if their
legislative work will result in
new laws.
Smith said the bills com-
ied history and played basketball,
making 52.7% of her fi eld goal
attempts and holding records for
most rebounds (902) and blocked
shots (95) in a season. She was
inducted into Whitman’s Hall of
Fame in 2008.
In a YouTube video from last
June, Spurgeon said she and Dave
have a huge collection of movies on
DVD “since internet services are
kind of weak.” Sporting a “Dead-
pool” T-shirt, she talked to friend
Eric Reid remotely from her bed,
telling Reid that she and her hus-
band often quote lines from movies
“to see who gets the most obscure
movie references.”
During that interview, she also
talked frankly about the brutal
realities of cancer.
“The chemo is killing cancer cells
just a little faster than it’s killing
you. It is a race to see which comes
DISTRICT
— Alex McHaddad,
BMTD executive director
Submitted photo
This transmitter on Mount Fanny near Cove is part of
the Blue Mountain Translator District’s network. The
district has plans to start a local channel.
more information, contact
the district at 541-963-0196
or bmtd.org@gmail.com.
McHaddad said the
district will seek sponsors
for the new low-power local
station.
“They’ll be able to sponsor
the online streaming. The
goal of that is to generate
enough revenue to support
our operations so we can
ter for Biological Diversity.
“The science shows that pulling out
the four lower Snake River dams is
the only way to save Columbia river
salmon,” she said.
Townsend and other scientists also
warn that Southern Resident orcas are
starving to death because of a dearth
of the Chinook salmon that are their
primary food source.
The Puget Sound population of orcas
— also called killer whales — was placed
on the endangered species list in 2005. A
mother orca that carried her dead baby
on her back for 17 days brought interna-
tional attention in 2018 as their num-
bers have dwindled to 72 animals.
The U.S. government has spent
between $15 billion and $17 billion on
improved salmon passage over years,
but nothing has changed for the salmon,
True said. Yet the Pacifi c Northwest’s
power supply and ability to use energy
more effi ciently have vastly improved in
the past 20 years, he said.
ing out of Housec ommittees
are are stacking up. Were
Republicans to return, Smith
said their fi rst motion should
be to kick those bills back to
committee for review.
“It would be extremely
incompetent of me to vote on
those bills without reviewing
them,” Smith said. “We need
to make sure what is in the
legislation.”
The House also would
need to prioritize the bills,
he said, starting with the
budget and polices related to
the budget.
To date, just three bills
have passed both chambers
and been sent to Gov. Kate
Brown to sign into law.
Both chambers, in a
formality, convened for less
than 15 minutes Wednesday
and adjourned.
“I wish the Republicans
would understand the im-
fi rst,” she said. “You’ve got to stay
positive about it. If you can’t keep a
sense of humor in this, then pretty
much all is lost.”
Connie Carter said she and
Spurgeon grew up together and
knew each other in high school.
They went their separate ways
after graduation but eventually
reconnected when they both moved
to Union.
“Then I moved to Elgin and she
and her husband lived in Weston,”
Carter said. “That wasn’t too far
apart, so we continued our friend-
ship. We spent time together, and
we laughed. She was incredibly
witty and intelligent. She loved
sarcasm, yet she had a heart of
gold and was very insightful to
struggles of life. She was just a
wonderful friend.”
Connie and her husband, Glen
Carter, organized a pie auction
“Our goal here is to use
television to reinvest in
the community. Part of
our model is that we don’t
want anything that’s
created here just to be
broadcast here.”
Continued from Page 1A
The district representa-
tives also talked with Baker
High School offi cials about
the option of broadcasting
Bulldogs sporting events.
“The big reason we’re try-
ing to go forward in making
a channel, one that you can
watch over the air, stream
online, and watch on cable
is to get a different source
of revenue going for the dis-
trict,” McHaddad said. “Over
the last 40 years we had the
same system of collecting
revenue and a lot of people
really don’t like it.”
The district broadcasts
more than 20 HD channels
and has federal authority to
charge residents for viewing
the TV signals it broadcasts.
The district has sent letters
to area property owners
seeking the $100 annual fee
if they receive the district’s
signals via a TV antenna.
Those who return the letter
and report they don’t use the
signals don’t have to pay the
annual fee.
But property owners who
do not view the district’s TV
signals can get an exemp-
tion. The district Thursday
announced for certain
properties, failure to return
an exemption by May 31
could mean the fee ends up
on property tax bills. For
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2020
reform the way we make
money,” he said.
The request for proposals
seeks a fi rm that has experi-
ence in ad sales. While using
a local fi rm is preferred, the
district also will consider
proposals from Boise, Walla
Walla or the Tri-Cities.
“We want somebody who’s
able to get sponsors for this
channel from this area so
that local businesses are
sponsoring local television,”
McHaddad said.
The district also is inter-
ested in proposals from local
residents about producing
shows that could be shown
on the new channel.
“Our goal here is to use
television to reinvest in the
community,” McHaddad
said. “Part of our model is
that we don’t want anything
that’s created here just to be
broadcast here. We’re going
to be building syndication
partnerships with other TV
stations around the region
and the country.”
— Oregon Capital Bureau
reporter Claire Withycombe
contributed to this report.
benefi t for Jennifer on Nov. 23, 2019,
in Elgin, to help offset the costs of
her cancer treatments. The event
raised more than $6,500. With other
contributions, the entire fundraising
effort totaled almost $11,000.
“Jennifer had such a large and di-
verse following of friends,” she said.
Last January, shortly after
having surgery, Spurgeon joined
several other representatives of the
Oregon School Board Association
in traveling to Washington, D.C., to
meet with Oregon legislators. Scott
Ludwig of La Grande, Spurgeon’s
uncle, marveled how she made the
trip so soon after her operation.
“It was not more than 10 days
later and she fl ew back to Wash-
ington, D.C., to lobby for the rural
school districts,” Ludwig said. “I
asked her, ‘Why on earth would
you do something like that?’ She re-
plied, ‘I just wanted to feel normal.’”
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portance of their being here,”
Senate President Peter
Courtney told the Senate.
Courtney listed multiple
bills passed by the House
with bipartisan support that
the Senate could be consider-
ing — if only Republicans
would show up.
One bill is aimed at honor-
ing deceased veterans. Anoth-
er would protect water rights
in Southern Oregon. Others
would reform the state’s public
defense system, boost afford-
able housing in Pendleton, ad-
dress school bullying, require
building standards in tsunami
zones and make insulin more
affordable.
“So wherever you are out
there, will you please come
back?” pleaded Courtney.
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