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CapitalPress.com
January 6, 2017
Company offi cials weigh options after fi re destroys fresh potato facility
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
UCON, Idaho — Compa-
ny offi cials are considering
their options after a Dec. 26
fi re destroyed the Snake River
Plains Potatoes packing fa-
cility that employed about 65
workers.
Dave Beesely, a Rigby
potato farmer who is also
president of the company,
said 4,000 hundredweight of
unprocessed fresh potatoes
and 3,000 hundredweight of
packaged potatoes were in the
building.
Beesely said the main
building was built more than
a century ago as a grain ele-
vator. The portion in which
the fi re originated was built
23 years ago. His best guess is
that a heater in the truck shop
may have started the fi re.
“I’m fi nding work for as
many of the employees as I
can in other places,” Beesely
said. “Some of the employees
are going to be involved in the
cleanup.”
Nine Eastern Idaho pota-
to farmers are the company’s
stockholders. They sell most-
ly Russet Burbanks to mar-
kets throughout the country,
with most of their volume
shipped to the East Coast.
Beesely said the compa-
ny hasn’t made plans for the
future but has “some options
where we may consolidate
with another operation or re-
build.”
The Ucon Volunteer Fire
Department responded to a
passing motorist’s report of
the fi re at 12:40 a.m. Dec. 26
and arrived to fi nd the roughly
100,000-square-foot building
fully engulfed in fl ames, said
Fire Chief Scott Norman.
Norman said the cause had
not yet been determined as of
Dec. 28, and the owners were
awaiting an investigation by
their insurance company.
Norman said the factory
was closed for the holidays
when the fi re broke out and
employees hadn’t been in-
side in a few days. He said 30
mph winds rapidly spread the
fl ames.
Norman said eight engines
and three fi re tenders were
brought in to fi ght the fi re.
He had all of his crews at the
scene and was assisted by the
Ammon Fire Department and
the Jefferson County Fire Dis-
trict.
It took fi refi ghters four
hours to control the fl ames,
and crews who had remained
to put out “hot spots” fi nally
left the scene on the night of
Dec. 27.
“The problem is the build-
ing is so big and there were
so many spots that hadn’t
collapsed, so I could not send
people inside,” Norman said.
Washington high school South Willamette Valley OSU
greenhouse vandalized Extension agent moving
By MITCH LIES
By MATTHEW WEAVER
For the Capital Press
Capital Press
Courtesy Tony Kern/Moses Lake FFA
Vandals damaged plants raised by the Moses Lake, Wash., FFA
in partnership with McKay Seed Co. School offi cials are reviewing
security camera footage as they investigate the case.
Clare Sullivan, south Wil-
lamette Valley fi eld crops
extension agent, is leaving
Western Oregon to take an
extension position in Central
Oregon.
She will start in the newly
created Small Farms and Com-
munity Food Systems position
Feb. 1.
Her departure marks the
second time a south valley
fi eld crops extension agent has
left since Mark Mellbye retired
from full-time duty in 2008.
Paul Marquardt fi lled the posi-
tion for less than a year, start-
ing in March of 2012 and leav-
ing in January of 2013, before
Sullivan came on.
Her exit leaves the Willa-
mette Valley with just one fi eld
crops agent, Nicole Anderson,
who is based in McMinnville
and has fi eld crop extension
responsibilities in Washington,
Yamhill and Polk counties.
Sullivan said it was a diffi -
cult decision to leave the valley,
where she has served as an ex-
tension agent since June 2014.
“It was a very, very tough
decision,” Sullivan said. “I
loved working with the farm-
ers here. Basically, I feel like
Courtesy Tony Kern/Moses Lake FFA
Vandals also spray-painted graffi ti in the Moses Lake FFA green-
house, where students were growing plants in partnership with
McKay Seed Co. No suspects have yet been found.
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PURSUANT TO ORS
CHAPTER 87
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The sale will be held at 10:00am by
PURSUANT TO ORS CHAPTER 98
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following vehicle will be sold,
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on 1/10/2017. The sale will be
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Reputed owner(s)
JENNIFER CUNNINGHAM
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Reputed owner(s)
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Vandals have damaged
plants that students were rais-
ing in partnership with a local
seed company in the Moses
Lake, Wash., High School
greenhouse.
The school’s agriculture
teacher and FFA adviser, Tony
Kern, told the Capital Press
the damage occurred Dec. 29.
“Stuff was just chucked
on the ground,” he said. “It’s
just frustrating. You just want
to go, ‘What are you doing?
What is the purpose here? Re-
ally?’”
The
vandals
also
spray-painted graffi ti in the
greenhouse.
Half of a science class’
geranium projects were also
damaged.
School offi cials are re-
viewing security camera foot-
age, Kern said.
The plants were part of a
genetics study done in part-
nership with the McKay Seed
Co. in Moses Lake. The seed
company hoped to use the
greenhouse space to help de-
velop new lines of wheat, bar-
ley, buckwheat and quinoa,
and partner with the school
to provide experience and in-
ternship possibilities.
Kern said the seeds were
planted in September.
Fabio Pedraza, a plant
breeder at McKay Seed, esti-
mated roughly 50 percent of
the plants were salvageable.
Kern and Pedraza said the
cost of the damage is relative-
ly small.
Much of the damage is
time lost, Pedraza said.
It takes a year to make an
experimental cross, raise it in
a greenhouse and have some-
thing to plant in fi eld trials the
following year, he said.
Some identifi cation tags
were also removed, making it
diffi cult to tell which plant is
which, Pedraza said.
Pedraza expects the part-
nership with the school to
continue.
“Hopefully it will blossom
into something that ends up
being really neat and bene-
fi cial for our kids as well as
McKay Seed,” Kern said. “It’s
really a neat opportunity.”
McKay plans to update
equipment and install new
lights over three years in the
school’s older greenhouse,
Kern said.
The partnership will help
FFA students learn from “real,
true scientifi c studies,” Kern
said.
Courtesy of OSU
Clare Sullivan, the Oregon State University Extension fi eld crop
agent in the south Willamette Valley, will soon move to a new
position in Central Oregon. Extension administrators say fi lling the
vacancy is a top priority.
I was brought into a family. It
makes it very tough to leave.”
Sullivan holds a master’s
degree in soil science from the
University of Saskatchewan in
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and
a bachelor’s degree in global
resource systems in agriculture
from the University of British
Columbia.
Derek Godwin, extension
administrator for the West
Central Region, which in-
cludes Marion, Yamhill, Polk,
Benton and Linn counties, said
refi lling the south valley posi-
tion, as well as fi lling a vacant
fi eld crops position in Marion
County, are top priorities.
“Because so many large
farms grow fi eld crops, our
fi eld crops faculty are sort
of fi rst in line when it comes
to working with growers and
connecting with OSU,” God-
win said.
“Growers that have fi eld
crops may also be growing
hazelnuts or blueberries or
Christmas trees, but they tend
to think of the fi eld crops per-
son as their kind of high prior-
ity person to go to,” Godwin
said.
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