Opinion
A4
Tuesday, August 2, 2022
OUR VIEW
Support, att end
the Union
County Fair
he Union County Fair kicks off this week
and you should go check it out.
That’s because there will be plenty of
entertainment along with a plethora of Future
Farmers of America and 4-H activity.
There will also be live music every night.
The fair — and along with it, the fairgrounds
— should be the cornerstone of the county, a
place that stands out once a year as the venue to
go to. This year’s fair looks to be one that will not
disappoint.
Attending the fair, while a fun element to the
week, is also very much about supporting an
important community site.
The fairgrounds should — and do — represent
a location where every year the community can
gather and interact and enjoy some late summer
fun.
Attending the fair helps deliver needed fi nan-
cial resources to the facility which, frankly, needs
to be a much higher priority for county and city
elected leaders.
Why it isn’t is somewhat of a mystery. Part
of it, though, certainly rests with the very rural
nature of our county. In the rural parts of the
state, fi nances are almost always tough for county
and city governments. The tax base isn’t huge and
there are always a series of competing priorities.
So, area lawmakers can’t take all the blame for a
facility that needs millions more in upgrades, but
more can be done to help.
A key piece of that help should rest at the state
level with our elected representatives. While there
has been some valuable help delivered to the fair-
grounds through the work of state lawmakers,
more is needed.
That’s because, in the end, the fairgrounds
should be a bright light for visitors to visit and
experience the entire year. The possibilities for
the fairgrounds are really only as limited as one’s
imagination. The more that can be done to cap-
italize on this ready platform right in our back
yard the better off the entire community will be.
Aside from the politics, though, the fair this
week will just be one very nice family-oriented
event. Those don’t come along as much as we’d
all like, but this week the community can travel
out to the fairgrounds for a good time.
We hope you do.
T
EDITORIALS
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opinion of The Observer editorial
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opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of The Observer.
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YOUR VIEWS
No land owner will benefi t
from this boondoggle
Here we go again with the push to
build the “for profi t” Boardman to
Hemingway 500 kilowatt power line.
Idaho Power Co. is one of the oper-
ators of the B2H and owns 45% of
the line, along with Pacifi Corp. The
companies hope the line can become
a “clean-energy superhighway.”
What the comment should say is the
companies hope the line will pro-
duce the estimated $80 million in
profi t for the stockholders of the two
investor owned companies.
“The more we study, the more
we are convinced that this is the
best option for the Pacifi c North-
west,” Idaho Power spokesperson
Sven Berg said. What he should say
is that it is the best option for the
shareholders and has no benefi t to
the 700-800 private landowners who
will suff er not only from the loss and
destruction of their land but the sig-
nifi cant loss of value due to the line.
No land owner will benefi t from this
boondoggle.
This land grabbing project began
back in around 2007-10. At that time
Idaho Power was to present an esti-
mate of cost to build the line, and it
was projected to be around a billion
dollars, and, as I understand it, there
was to be safeguards that taxpayers
and ratepayers would not be picking
up any of the costs. At this point
it should be noted, with the with-
drawing of Bonneville Power, Pacifi -
Corp (Berkshire Hathaway) is asking
for a rate increase of more than 6%
for construction and updates of their
lines. It is time for Idaho Power to
submit a new updated projected
costs budget.
Idaho Power had planned on
buying steel from Russia for the
towers and lines themselves. That
to date has not been done, nor can
it due to current actions of Russia.
What is the new costs of construc-
tion, or should I say destruction, of
the planned line site.
If it was estimated around a
billion dollars in 2010, what is the
overall estimates now? Why did
the Oregon Public Utility Commis-
sion form a commission to study
the fi re prevention plan of Idaho
Power, which returned a summary
that Idaho Power’s fi re prevention
plan was not up to standards, only to
override the commission’s fi ndings
and make an exception for Idaho
Power?
How many energy projects has
the Department of Energy Siting
Council ever rejected? Idaho Power
is to receive a 10% bonus in con-
struction costs, most of which will
go to investors.
John and Cyndi Harvey
Pendleton
Yes, a feral cat can be
tamed, but it takes time
Maria Carmichael stated in the
July 28 Observer that you cannot
tame a feral cat. She is so wrong. In
the 14 years that my husband and
I have lived in La Grande we have
not only fed the strays and ferals,
but now have fi ve cats, four of which
were feral.
We found out almost immediately
there was a huge problem here with
ferals and strays. We live on South
12th Street and were told by our
neighbors that people drive to the top
of 12th, which turns into Bushnell,
and dump their animals off . They
fi gure this is the rich side of town
and the animals will be taken care
of. We are not rich but do what we
can for the animals. We trap as many
as we can, have them fi xed, then
release them, but the problem with
that is they still don’t have homes,
so still need to be fed. We also enjoy
the other wildlife that is here, the
squirrels, birds of all kinds and the
city deer, so we have to tread lightly
when feeding the ferals outside,
because we don’t want to encourage
them to kill the birds and squirrels.
Two of our ferals were kittens,
so it was fairly easy to domesticate
them. The other two ferals took time.
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Shoutout to Liberty
Theatre Cafe
I would like to give a shoutout to
Liberty Theatre Cafe for being such
an asset to our downtown business
community.
Food service is risky. There are
many variables that can easily make
or break the sustainability of its suc-
cess. Key elements are: continuity
of a good product, trained staff with
the ability and willingness to sell and
promote said product, and of course,
someone with business sense to exe-
cute and maintain a viable business
plan — this usually takes a team of
dedicated and focused individuals.
In my opinion and observation, Lib-
erty Theatre Cafe, in downtown La
Grande, has achieved this plan.
Liberty Theatre Cafe serves up a
stellar menu of savory and sweet cui-
sine, with a consistent product out-
come. It is nice to have this morning
venue to start the day and enjoy a
delicious culinary treat. Thank you,
Liberty Theatre Cafe, and team, for
hanging in there.
Debera White-Waters
La Grande
STAFF
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The fi rst one it took over two years
before he started to trust us, but with
patience and time he is now a domes-
ticated loving boy. He still loves to
go outside, but sleeps inside every
night. The second feral showed up
when he was just a kitten. We fed
him for more than a year, but trapped
him right away and had him fi xed.
With time and patience he is now
part of our happy family. Only one
of the fi ve was a stray. He just came
walking in the back door 10 years
ago. No one claimed him, so we fi g-
ured he was dumped off .
Nothing is impossible if you want
it to happen. So to Carmichael’s
comment that you cannot tame a
feral cat, you probably couldn’t
because you don’t want it to happen.
Jamie Thiesfeld
La Grande
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