6A — THE OBSERVER
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2020
STATE/NORTHWEST
Brown trying to resurrect state lott ery bond projects
COVID-19 financial fallout killed more
than 30 projects throughout the state
By Gary A. Warner
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Gov. Kate
Brown wants to resur-
rect more than 30 proj-
ects costing more than
$200 million that died last
summer when the state
bond market collapsed
during business shutdowns
ordered to combat the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Brown’s 2021-23 budget
proposal includes Oregon
Lottery bonds set aside for
projects in nearly every
corner of the state.
There’s dam work at
Wallowa Lake and New-
port, water system fi xes in
the Deschutes Basin and
Hood River and health
facilities in Umatilla and
Jefferson counties.
The Oregon Coast
Aquarium in Newport
and arts facilities in Lin-
coln City and Beaverton
are marked to receive mil-
lions for expansion and
renovation.
Statewide programs
would bolster affordable
housing, historic preserva-
tion, redevelopment, levees
and public works programs.
It’s essentially a repeat of
the lottery bond allocations
approved by the Legislature
and signed by Brown at the
end of the 2019 session. The
bonds were set to go on sale
this past summer.
The steady fl ow of
money into the state-run
games of chance make the
bonds attractive as a con-
servative long-term invest-
ment with relatively small
return but a rock-solid
record of paying off at the
end of the bond’s term. The
bonds have performed well
during economic booms
and recessions.
But COVID-19 was
what investors call a “black
swan” — a rare unfore-
seen catastrophic event that
upends economies, blowing
away the usual rules and
strategies of the boom-and-
bust market cycles.
When the pandemic
ramped up in Oregon at the
beginning of March, Gov.
Kate Brown issued an exec-
utive order telling residents
to stay at home and shutting
most businesses, including
bars and restaurants. The
Lottery’s points of sale are
inside businesses and the
shutdown cratered reve-
nues as never before. At one
point, Lottery sales were off
OREGON LOTTERY BONDS PROJECTS
Cathy Cheney/Associated Press, File
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown attends a news conference Nov.
10, 2020, in Portland. Brown’s 2021-23 budget proposal in-
cludes Oregon Lottery bonds for projects in nearly every
corner of the state, including $14 million for the Wallowa
Lake Dam rehabilitation.
by more than 90 percent.
The state’s May revenue
forecast indicated a crippled
economy with massive rev-
enue defi cits.
Oregon Treasurer Tobias
Read announced in July
that the lottery bonds
approved in 2019 would not
go on sale. The bond market
required a 4-to-1 revenue
to debt ratio on the sale and
the hit on the lottery sales
had sent its balance to just
above 3-to-1. Without the
sale, the projects were dead.
“There’s not enough
money — there is no
repair,” said Sen. Betsy
Johnson, D-Scappoose, a
NEWS BRIEFS
25 more women
sign on to sex abuse
lawsuit against
former doctor
PORTLAND — Twen-
ty-fi ve more women have
joined four former patients
in an amended civil lawsuit
alleging sexual abuse by
former suburban Portland
physician David B. Farley
and negligence by his health
clinic.
The plaintiffs who
recently joined the lawsuit
now live around the world,
from Taiwan to Colorado,
The Oregonian/OregonLive
reported.
Together, the women
seek $290 million in dam-
ages — $181 million for
non-economic and $109
million for economic costs,
saying while in his care,
Farley performed unnec-
essary pelvic exams and
engaged in sexual battery.
In October, the Oregon
Medical Board stripped
Farley of his state medical
license for dishonorable
and unprofessional con-
duct and gross or repeated
negligence.
He remains under crim-
inal investigation by the
West Linn police.
Most of the plaintiffs
have made statements to
police, their lawyers said.
Farley moved to Idaho
after leaving the West Linn
Family Health Center and
sending a retirement letter
to patients in August. He
did not mention he was
under board investigation at
the time.
Karen O’Kasey, Farley’s
lawyer, has not responded
to phone and email mes-
sages from the newspaper,
but in court last week urged
a judge to put the civil suit
on hold as Farley faces the
criminal investigation.
O’Kasey argued that
postponing the civil suit
would protect Farley’s
Fifth Amendment right
against self-incrimination
in the police investigation.
One of the patients’ law-
yers, Thomas D’Amore,
said Farley is trying to halt
discovery evidence in the
civil case “to conceal his
wrongdoing.”
Multnomah County
Circuit Judge Melvin
Oden-Orr said he was
leaning against delaying
the civil case, but wanted
to review the matter fur-
ther before issuing a formal
decision.
The new 74-page civil
complaint describes alleged
abuse involving patients
as young as 5, addi-
tional accounts of patient
exams that Farley con-
ducted in a bedroom at his
home and repeated alle-
gations that he insisted on
breaking women’s hymens
before marriage, claiming
it would make sex “more
pleasurable.
EPA: Oregon wildfi re
hazardous waste
cleanup complete
PORTLAND — The
Environmental Protection
Agency said Wednesday it
has completed the cleanup
of household hazardous
waste from properties
burned in Oregon wildfi res.
The September fi res led
to an initial EPA response
in Jackson County, which
quickly expanded to Clack-
amas, Douglas, Klamath,
Lane, Lincoln, Linn and
Marion counties, the fed-
eral agency said in a news
release.
The agency said it iden-
tifi ed and removed about
300,000 pounds of haz-
ardous waste from 2,285
properties. Among the
items rendered safe or
removed were propane
tanks, ammunition, oil,
gasoline, solvents, paints,
pesticides, and bulk
asbestos.
The EPA said removing
those items helps ensure
the safety of workers who
will begin removing ash
and fi re debris as part of
the second step in cleanup.
To protect water quality
and sensitive fi sh and wild-
life habitat, the EPA also
completed bank stabiliza-
tion, erosion control and
fi re debris removal work
on more than 225 river-
front properties along
seven rivers described as
vulnerable.
“Over 250 EPA staff and
contractors from around the
country contributed to this
effort to help Oregonians
begin the rebuilding pro-
cess,” Randy Nattis, EPA’s
Incident Commander said
in a news release.
The state of Oregon is
now starting the larger task
of clearing ash and debris,
and will also remove haz-
ardous waste from assis-
tance-eligible properties
not cleared by EPA.
2 men linked to
death of woman
found on rural road
PORTLAND — Police
have identifi ed two men in
connection with the death
of a Silverton woman,
whose body was found
along a rural Multnomah
County road last month.
Joel Foran, 50, and
Brandon Rossow, 37, were
indicted in the death inves-
tigation of Aubriel Has-
kett, 24, The Oregonian/
OregonLive reported
Wednesday, Dec. 9.
Foran was charged
with abuse of a corpse, 20
counts of identity theft,
computer crime, tampering
with physical evidence,
criminal impersonation
and unlawful possession
of methamphetamine.
Rossow was charged with
abuse of a corpse.
Neither man has been
directly charged in Has-
kett’s death, and police
have not said how she died.
Police said they believe
she died somewhere else,
and the two men dumped
her body on the rural road
afterward.
Haskett’s body was
found Nov. 2 down an
embankment next to Mer-
shon Road, between Trout-
dale and Corbett.
Police have released
no other details about the
investigation.
— Associated Press
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chair on the budget-writing
Joint Ways and Means
Committee that had
approved the 2019 project
list.
Sen. Bill Hansell,
R-Athena, a committee
member, said the state
needed to prioritize the
debt service on bonds sold
in previous years, ensuring
confi dence in the state’s
annual offerings wasn’t
permanently undermined.
The 2019 projects were
being sold as a package that
couldn’t be broken up into
smaller chunks to sell.
“If we don’t sell one,
we don’t sell any,” he said.
LOCATION SPECIFIC PROJECTS:
• Salem — drinking water improvements, $20 million
• Eugene — Eugene Family YMCA facility, $15 million
• Joseph — Wallowa Lake Dam rehabilitation, $14 million
• Enterprise — Wallowa Valley Center for Wellness, $2.5 million
• Deschutes Basin Board of Control — piping project, $10 million
• Roseburg — Southern Oregon Medical Workforce Center,
$10 million
• Sweet Home — wastewater treatment plant, $7 million
• Newport — Oregon Coast Aquarium, $5 million
• YMCA of Columbia-Willamette — Beaverton Hoop YMCA,
$5 million
• Jefferson County — Jefferson County Health and Wellness
Center, $4.1 million
• Newport — Big Creek dams, $4.1 million
• YMCA of Marion and Polk Counties — veterans’ affordable
housing, $4 million
• Oregon City — Parrott Creek Child and Family Services
building renovation, $3.5 million
• Salem — Center for Hope and Safety, $2.5 million
• Port of Cascade Locks — business park expansion, $2.4 million
• Multnomah County School District — Reynolds High School
Health Center, $2.33 million
• Sherwood — Pedestrian Connectors, $2 million
• Gresham — Gradin Sports Park, $2 million
• Curry Health District — Brookings emergency department,
$2 million
• Portland — Hacienda CDC Las Adelitas Housing, $2 million
• Hood River — waterfront stormwater line, $1.7 million
• Pendleton — Umatilla County Jail expansion for mental health
services, $1.6 million
• Beaverton — Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, $1.5 million
• Lincoln City — Lincoln City Cultural Center plaza and grounds,
$1.5 million
• Port of Morrow — Early Learning Center expansion,
$1.4 million
STATEWIDE PROJECTS:
• Special Public Works Fund, $30 million
• Affordable Housing Preservation, $25 million
• Affordable Market Rate Housing Acquisition Loan Program,
$15 million
• Water Supply Development Account, $15 million
• Levee Grant Program, $15 million
• Brownfi elds Redevelopment Fund, $5 million
• Oregon Main Street Revitalization Grant Program, $5 million
• Storm Drainage Improvements, $1.88 million
Study recommends forming a
group to build high-speed train
Associated Press
OLYMPIA, Wash. —
A new government report
on high speed rail in the
Pacifi c Northwest rec-
ommends that Oregon,
Washington and British
Columbia formalize their
interest in a Cascadia
bullet train by creating an
independent body to plan
and eventually build it.
But a critic with a con-
servative think tank said
the region should take
heed of California’s high
speed rail woes and end
the Cascadia bullet train
ambitions, the Northwest
News Network reported.
The new study built
on previous state—spon-
sored studies that asserted
there is suffi cient demand
for trains running at up
to 250 miles per hour
between Portland, Seattle
and Vancouver, BC.
“Creating a coordi-
nating entity does take
it to the next level in
terms of the possibility of
making it a reality,” said
Janet Matkin, communi-
cations manager for the
rail division of the Wash-
ington State Department
of Transportation. “It
really is beyond just the
study phase and looking
at more of an implemen-
tation focus.”
The report said one of
the fi rst jobs of the coor-
dinating entity should be
to select a technology for
the “ultra—high speed
ground transportation”
corridor. Options include
traditional high speed
rail, magnetic levitation
trains or a hyperloop,
where passengers move
in capsules that are pro-
pelled electrically down
sealed low air pressure
tubes.
Target travel times are
about one hour between
Portland and Seattle and
another hour from Seattle
to Vancouver, BC. The
top speed of 250 mph
for the project is faster
than other rail services
on the horizon in North
America.
The $895,000 study
released Tuesday was
led by the engineering
consultancy WSP USA.
It was funded by about
equal contributions from
Washington, Oregon,
British Columbia and
Microsoft.
Oregon Gov. Kate
Brown, Washington
Gov. Jay Inslee, British
Columbia Premier John
Horgan and Microsoft
President Brad Smith on
Tuesday , Dec. 9, renewed
their endorsements of a
Cascadia bullet train.
“Transformative infra-
structure projects like this
one could help us rebuild
our economy in the short
term and provide us with
a strong competitive
advantage in the future,”
Inslee said in a news
release.
Problems facing Cal-
ifornia’s high speed rail
project led an analyst
associated with the con-
servative—leaning Wash-
ington Policy Center
to recommend against
moving ahead with a Cas-
cadia bullet train.
Rubin said the chances
of securing signifi cant
federal funding for a high
speed rail infrastruc-
ture project of this scale
depend on Democrats
controlling both chambers
of Congress alongside a
Democratic president.
“That’s the only pos-
sibility to get major U.S.
federal government dol-
lars anytime in the near
future,” Rubin said.