REGION THURSDAY, MAY 5, 2022 THE OBSERVER — A3 Idaho Power gains access for surveys, withdraws lawsuits One Union County case remains open By JAYSON JACOBY Baker City Herald BAKER CITY — Boise, Idaho-based Idaho Power has withdrawn all of the 10 lawsuits it fi led this winter against Baker County land- owners seeking access to their property to do sur- veys related to the proposed Boardman-to-Hemingway transmission line project. Attorneys for the com- pany fi led the civil petitions between mid-December 2021 and early February 2022. Idaho Power was asking a judge to order the land- owners to allow access to their properties for a variety of surveys, including looking for certain wildlife and plant species. The company sought to dismiss the lawsuits because “we were able to obtain rights-of-entry out of court from all of the Baker County landowners we requested it from,” Sven Berg, an Idaho Power spokesperson, said. That was also the case with most of Idaho Pow- er’s lawsuits fi led in other counties in Eastern Oregon, including Union, Umatilla and Morrow, Berg said. In fi ve cases, however, there were court hearings, he said. Four of those were in Union County, and one in Morrow County. In two cases, a judge granted Idaho Power a default judgment granting the company access for surveys. Three others went to trial, Berg said. In two cases the court granted Idaho Power access for surveys. One case, in Union County, remains open. The landowner in that case is 516 Ranch Partnership. Idaho Power has been working since 2007 on the Boardman-to-Hem- ingway project, a 293- mile, 500-kilovolt line that would run from near Boardman to Hemingway, who combined own about 60 separate parcels. Berg said Idaho Power does not pay for access to private property to do pre-construction surveys. In each petition fi led in court, Idaho Power’s attorneys, Timothy Hel- frich and Zach Olson, of the Yturri Rose fi rm in Ontario, state that either the company or its con- tractor, Cornerstone Energy Inc. 21, acting on the company’s behalf, had “contacted the Respon- dent several times to request access to survey, test, and sample the Prop- erty. Respondent has not granted Idaho Power access to the Property.” “Because construc- tion on the B2H project is scheduled to start as early as 2023, Idaho Power must begin surveying, testing, and sampling the Property in 2022,” the petitions state. Berg said Idaho Power typically sends three let- ters to each property owner before fi ling peti- tions in court. Baker City Herald, File The proposed Boardman-to-Hemingway power line would follow the route of an existing line that crosses Highway 86 between Baker City and the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. near Murphy in Owyhee County, Idaho. Although sections of the proposed route run through public property — Idaho Power has received permission from the fed- eral government to do so — the line, as proposed, would also cross several dozen parcels of private land in multiple counties, including Baker, Union, Wallowa and Morrow in Oregon. Idaho Power would have to pay private landowners for an easement to build the power line across their property. This would be a one-time payment, not an annual lease, according to www.boardmanto- hemingway.org. Berg said the line would aff ect about 30 private land- owners in Baker County, Pendleton UAS Range is busier than ever Blazing Fast Internet! 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FEEL THE SPEED, EVEN AT PEAK TIMES. where available Dale Bogardus 541-297-5831 Stay up-to-date Microsoft’ If your with computer is s most advanced operating system to date, in despair call Outstanding Windows 11 Computer Repair! Started in a small garage in 1994, Insitu is now a sub- sidiary of Boeing. It makes the widely used military ScanEagle drone and the Navy and Marine Corps’ larger RQ-21 Blackjack. Its neighbor, Hood Tech, produces the Flying Air Recovery System, which provides fi xed-wing drones with vertical takeoff and landing capability. “(Range staff ) have been terrifi c,” Hood Tech engi- neer Cory Roeseler said. “They do a nice job.” Hood Tech has fl own 700 times during the years on the range with a perfect safety record. Hood Tech is working on FLARES 3.0 at Pendleton, a system capable of handling larger and heavier drones. “It’s a challenge to integrate unmanned and manned fl ights in the same air space,” Roeseler said. “They do it as well as anyone. Better in fact. We’ve been all over, from the Army’s Yuma Proving Ground to Florida and everywhere in between. Pendleton does it the best.” Pendleton’s range belongs to the Pan-Pacifi c TH East Oregonian, File Delmar Aeorospace Corp. COO Stanley Springer speaks May 19, 2021, during an event announcing Blue Mountain Community College’s UAS program in a hangar at the Eastern Oregon Regional Airport, Pendleton. Darryl Abling, manager of the Pendleton drone test range, reports the range had about 7,000 operations in 2021 and expects to have 15,000 to 20,000 in 2022. PENDLETON — The manager of the Pendleton UAS Range, Darryl Abling, reported the site is busier than ever. Last year, the range had around 7,000 operations. This year, Abling said he expects 15,000 to 20,000. “Despite the weather, as of the end of April, we’ve had 1,292 operations in 2022,” he said. “When we fi nally get spring and into summer, we’ll fl y even more often.” The test range has about 15 unmanned aerial system clients with semi-perma- nent leases and operating on a daily or weekly basis, according to Abling. “We have several new clients whom I can’t talk about,” he said. “We get new people all the time, and the 15 here are expanding their operations.” Nondisclosure agree- ments bind Abling and the rest of the city from publicly disclosing specifi cs about the clients operating at the range. The Pendleton UAS Range was awarded in 2013, but started off slowly. Air Force veteran Abling came to Pendleton in 2016, after 29 years with Northrop Grumman Corp., working on the B-2 stealth bomber in Southern California. “I don’t want to go back,” he said. “Even to visit.” The range in 2016 had only 54 operations, but its use started to take off after Air Bus’ and the Navmar Applied Sciences Corpora- tion’s programs arrived the following year. Air Bus’ Vahana project was an all-electric, tilt- wing vehicle demonstrator. The only fl yable Vahana in existence is in boxes at the Eastern Oregon Regional Airport, Pendleton. It spent two years in a San Francisco warehouse before returning to Pendleton. NASC’s Arc- ticShark developed a cold weather drone. Some range clients cur- rently fl ying openly include Verizon Robotics, Cubic Corporation’s ISR Sys- tems of San Diego, and two Columbia Gorge companies, Insitu, of Bingen, Wash- ington, and Hood River’s Hood Tech Mechanical. 2 East Oregonian RD By JOHN TILLMAN Justin Armstrong Kat Naughton Kelsey Fregulia Ken & Aimee Patterson Kyle McDaniel Lara & Jon Paustian Lindsay Warness Logan McRea Mardi Ford Margarette Craig Mark Simmons Mat Miles Matt Insko Mauri deLint Maurizio Valerio Mike & Tamarah Rysavy Mike & Tracy Partney Mike Billman Molly King Monte Reed Morgan Olson Nathan Weishaar Neil Roberson Paid for by the Committee to Re-elect Paul Anderes OCA President Todd Nash Odin Miller Patrick Flynn Patty Bingaman Paul Swigert Pete & Katie Trick Rob Beck Rob Lane Robert Minarich Ronald Bruce Ryan Rodighiero Sam & Reva Hartenstein Sondra & Bill Rosholt Scott Bisenius & Melinda Becker-Bisenius Scott Newman Scott Wilkinson Shawn Bingaman Sherry Haeger Susan Bunch Suzannah Moore-Heman Teresa Stratton Tony & Jamie Haddock Triangle W Farms Tyler Brooks Vince & Robin Naughton Warner Wasley Wilson Zehr Zach Wilson