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12 CapitalPress.com April 28, 2017 Gebbers family, Chelan Fruit Co-op deserve a lot of credit GEBBERS from Page 1 They plan to continue op- erating the town’s only fruit facilities, which power a large part of Oroville’s economy. “The Oroville community is fortunate that Gebbers came in and purchased the ware- house that kept all those jobs in the Oroville area. We are thankful for that,” said Dave Taber, an Oroville grower. “The whole town is grate- ful. Any boost to the economy is a big deal,” said Mayor Jon Neal, who’s been involved in town government for 13 years and owns Neal’s Auto Body. “Gebbers was at max- imum capacity at Brewster on packing cherries and already was having Gold Digger pack some of theirs, so it’s a win- win.” The Gebbers family and Chelan Fruit Cooperative de- serve a lot of credit for saving Oroville’s tree fruit industry, said Jim DeTro, an Okanogan County commissioner. ‘A huge impact’ Oroville had been facing hard times before Gold Dig- ger’s troubles surfaced. Hughes Department Store closed a year ago, the timber industry is struggling and Kinross Gold Mine east of Republic is closing, so “it’s a huge impact to keep these jobs here,” said Roni Hold- er-Diefenbach, executive di- rector of the Economic Alli- ance of Okanogan County. The number of Canadians who shop in Oroville is also down because the Canadi- an dollar is so much weaker than the U.S. dollar, said Kate MacKenzie, who sells adver- tising for the Omak-Okano- gan County Chronicle. MacKenzie, Hold- er-Diefenbach and others lis- tened to Cass Gebbers, pres- ident and CEO of Gebbers Farms, and other Gebbers Farms officials at an Oroville Chamber of Commerce lun- cheon on April 13. “There’s a lot of good growing areas here. We worked with Gold Digger for years and when this came up we said why not keep it go- ing. We have a lot of belief in this town,” Gebbers told the group. Welcome Sauer, Gebbers’ business development man- ager, said the company will invest a lot in upgrading fa- cilities and replanting some orchards with newer apple varieties. Johnny Gebbers, manager of the company’s warehouses, said Gebbers Farms is making a longterm commitment to Oroville. Amy Wise, a grower, said she would have been sunk had not Gebbers leased the cherry plant from the bankruptcy court last season to keep it running. Jeffrey Earl, the U.S. Jus- tice Department-appointed bankruptcy trustee, told Cap- ital Press that part of Gebbers’ hard-working, skilled ware- house and orchard people,” Gebbers said. “We knew and trusted these folks and understood the importance of working with them and that it would hope- fully have a positive effect on the community. So yes, we feel it was a win-win for all involved,” he said. Chelan Fruit’s role Dan Wheat/Capital Press Downtown Oroville, Wash., on April 13. The town of 1,600 has struggled economically for some time and townspeople say they are grate- ful the Gebbers family bought the bankrupt tree fruit packing plant and is keeping it open. Gebbers family faces wildfires, lawsuits — and bullets inal deputy prosecutor, said he cannot dis- cuss the facts and that no trial date has been set. The maximum penalty for attempted OKANOGAN, Wash. — The Gebbers first-degree murder is life in prison. Meanwhile, on April 13, a group of peo- family traces its roots back 132 years in Okanogan County. In just the past three ple called Chiliwist Residents and Friends years it has sustained millions of dollars in petitioned the state Supreme Court to hear its case involving Okanogan losses to wildfires, faced a law- County’s closure of a road at the suit over a road closure and Cass Gebbers’ request. Gebbers has even been shot at. Two years ago, Gamble Land Mark Worth, 45, managing & Timber, a Gebbers company, broker of MW Real Estate in Pa- convinced county commissioners teros, has been held in the Okan- to permanently close the upper ogan County Jail since Septem- three miles of Three Devils Road ber in lieu of $750,000 bail on leading from Chiliwist Valley, charges of attempted first-degree northwest of Brewster, to Loup murder and drive-by shooting. Loup Pass and the Methow Valley. He has pleaded not guilty. The Gebbers family said they About 4 p.m. Sept. 7, Worth had maintained the road for years allegedly fired two shots from a Cass Gebbers while people used it to trespass gun in his car at Gebbers after pulling along side Gebbers’ pickup truck onto their property, cut fences and open as the two were northbound on Old High- gates, allowing their cattle to stray. A coun- way 97 north of Brewster, according to the ty hearings examiner first denied the Geb- county prosecutor’s statement of probable bers’ request but two of three county com- missioners later granted it. cause. Chiliwist Residents & Friends was orga- One bullet went through a window and struck the headrest inches from Gebbers’ nized to fight the closure in court and said head while another lodged in the door the historic road is needed for access to public lands and as a fire escape route. The frame of the truck. Gebbers, 52, president and CEO of Okanogan County Superior Court upheld Gebbers Farms, returned to Brewster, re- the commissioners. The closure became an issue in the un- ported the shooting and was treated for cuts from broken window glass at the successful 2016 re-election bids of the two county commissioners who voted for it, Brewster hospital. Worth was arrested five hours later in Ray Campbell and Sheilah Kennedy. On March 16, a state Court of Appeals Wenatchee. Gebbers told deputy sheriff Kevin Kin- upheld the Superior Court ruling, saying man that he doesn’t know why but that there was no fraud or collusion, grounds Worth has been stalking members of his needed to overturn a road closure. An attorney for the Gebbers family is- family for years, the probable cause state- sued a statement saying the ruling con- ment says. Authorities have not identified a motive. firmed the road closure was proper and said Gebbers declined to comment to Capital the family hopes it ends the matter. But the group is now petitioning the Supreme Press. Branden Platter, the county’s chief crim- Court. By DAN WHEAT Capital Press motivation was keeping the industry and Oroville viable. “I frankly think there were other places that geographi- cally would have been easier to conduct business than the north end of Okanogan Coun- ty. There is other orchard ground that would be more productive and newer, but they made a decision to help maintain the industry there for other reasons than strictly making money,” Earl said. “For the city of Oroville it’s a gigantic blessing to have things work out in a way that everything pretty much ran smoothly as if there really wasn’t a bankruptcy filed,” Earl said. Gebbers leased the cher- ry packing line last May and “at that time it was question- able whether it was viable to continue operation of the ap- ple-pear packing facilities, but ultimately a deal was struck for those assets as well,” Earl said. Cass Gebbers told Cap- ital Press his company had worked closely with Gold Digger marketing fruit through Chelan Fresh Mar- keting for several years and knew the Gold Digger opera- tion well. “The Oroville and Tonas- Dairy farmers voluntarily fenced miles of streams to keep cattle out OYSTERS from Page 1 U.S. Magistrate Judge John Jelderks has now dis- missed the case, ruling that it should have been filed in state court rather than federal court. Thomas Benke, attorney for the Hayes Oyster Co., said he’s preparing to refile in an Oregon court soon. Benke said DEQ wrongly assumes that permits issued to confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, by the Oregon Department of Agriculture actually prevent the discharge of bacteria into surface water. But since bacteria are nonetheless released into rivers, the DEQ has “sanc- tioned a pollution easement across the entire bay by the dairy farms,” he said. The Hayes Oyster Co. has been unable to harvest oysters during eight of the past 10 holiday seasons be- cause of high river flows that are associated with elevated bacteria levels, said Jesse Hayes, the company’s pres- ident. After heavy rains, the company must routinely wait until 10 high tides wash out the estuary to resume harvest- ing, he said. “You can’t imag- ine how frustrating that is.” Hayes argues the manure generated by dairies in the re- gion exceeds what can safely be applied to fields. “If you take the amount of dairy waste, there is not enough room for it,” he said. The goal of Hayes’ law- suit is for DEQ to recognize that CAFO permits aren’t adequately controlling bac- teria and to tighten manure management practices to stop water contamination, said Benke. Another possibility would be for wastewater plants in the region to pay dairies to re- duce pollution, rather than be subjected to stricter discharge controls by DEQ, he said. “It’s intended to create a situation where the citizens of Tillamook encourage farmers to abate their fecal coliform contribution to the estuary,” Benke said. Chad Allen, president of the Oregon Dairy Farmers Association, bristled at the notion that dairies are un- der-regulated. Manure can only be ap- plied to fields at agronomic rates needed to grow crops, which is subject to oversight by regulators, said Allen, who farms in the Tillamook area. To compare, crop farmers aren’t subject to restrictions on synthetic nitrogen, he said. Dairy farmers have also voluntarily fenced miles of streams to keep cattle out and planted vegetation in riparian areas to keep streams cool, Allen said. “Dairymen here in Tilla- mook take it extremely se- rious,” he said. “We’re not going to survive in this estu- ary if we can’t show we can co-exist.” Reducing the amount of manure on fields would ba- sically mean decreasing the number of dairy cows in the region, said Troy Downing, an Oregon State University dairy specialist. If dairy operations ceased operating, pastures could still be stocked with other live- stock that also produce ma- nure, he said. Septic systems, horses and wildlife also contribute to fe- cal coliform bacteria, Down- ing said. “That’s part of peo- ple living here in the valley.” Though manure levels are applied at rates aimed at precluding discharge, it is possible for some bacteria to get into water, said Wym Matthews, manager of ODA’s CAFO program. “The field is a treatment system and it’s not as highly controlled as a factory would be,” he said. Even so, farmers are re- quired to change their waste management plans if permit conditions are found to be in- sufficient, Matthews said. “The plan is very specif- ic for each individual farm,” but none are allowed to dis- charge, he said. Genetic tests have shown the source of fecal coliform bacteria in the Tillamook region is most commonly human in populated areas while ruminants are the more common source in rural ar- eas, said York Johnson, North Coast basin coordinator for DEQ. Over time, though, statis- tically significant decreases in bacteria levels have been documented in the Wilson, Kilchis and Tillamook rivers, which feed into the bay, he said. “In general, we’re seeing improvement,” Johnson said. “We’re making progress to- ward our goal.” ket areas have very good growing sites and we were al- ready producing fruit in those areas so it was helpful to have access to additional storage and packing. We live and do business in Okanogan County and wish to support the local economy and communities as much as possible,” Gebbers said. ‘A natural fit’ Gold Digger Apples Inc., named for Oroville’s gold-mining roots and the last grower-owned tree fruit cooperative headquartered in Okanogan County, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in U.S. District Court on May 26, 2016, six days after U.S. Bank sued it seeking $18.5 million and alleging it defaulted on loans. Gold Digger’s attorney, Peg Callaway of Omak, Wash., blamed the bank for trying to force Gold Digger into receivership, which end- ed up in bankruptcy. The co- op was handicapped by high transportation costs and two years of crop damage caused by poor weather, she said at the time. Gold Digger laid off vir- tually all of its seasonal and year-round employees and the bankruptcy trustee sold the 2016 fruit crop to Gebbers Farms, she said. Gebbers then leased the co-op’s fruit packing lines from the bankruptcy court for the 2016 season, rehiring many of the employees. Stepping in to help keep the orchards growing during the heat of summer was crit- ical to their survival, and get- ting the cherry line running with harvest starting just three weeks after the bankruptcy shutdown “required quick action and everyone pulled together,” Gebbers said. In past years, depending on crop size or harvest tim- ing, Gold Digger packed ap- ples and cherries for Gebbers Farms and was always good to work with, he said. “So it was a natural fit and made sense to continue utiliz- ing the storage and packing capacity in Oroville, where there was an existing base of Gold Digger had more than 44 grower-members. It packed about 1 million boxes of apples and pears annually and 300,000 boxes of cherries. It had 613,456 square feet of fruit storage and packing fa- cilities with a cherry packing line and an apple-pear line. It also owned 500 acres of or- chard and leased 250 acres. Beside the packing lines, Northco bought three of the Gold Digger orchards, other buyers bought the other four and local growers took over the orchards that Gold Digger leased, Gebbers said. Chelan Fruit Cooperative had for several years rented Plant No. 2 to serve its grow- ers in Oroville so it made sense for the co-op to buy that plant, he said. Generally, Gebbers will pack fruit from its orchards in Oroville, and the area’s inde- pendent growers will go with Chelan Fruit Cooperative, he said. About 85 to 90 percent of the growers who were with Gold Digger have joined Chelan Fruit, and all came as non-members last season, said Reggie Collins, general manager of Chelan Fruit. They will deliver their fruit to Plant No. 2, saving them the cost of hauling it 72 miles south to Brewster or 97 miles to Chelan. Chelan Fruit will pay to truck cherries to Brewster and apples to Pateros or Chelan and pears to Beebe near Chel- an. “It’s worked out well for everybody. The town would have suffered. Growers would have had longer hauls but the main thing is saving the jobs up there in Oroville,” Collins said. Chelan Fruit already had 300 grower-members before the Gold Digger members joined. It packs the fruit its growers produce on about 13,000 acres from Oroville to south of Chelan. Other pieces With its acquisitions, Geb- bers and its Northco opera- tion now own approximate- ly 13,000 acres of orchard in Okanogan County. They hire 1,800 H-2A visa foreign guestworkers annually to prune trees and thin and har- vest fruit. Gebbers doesn’t disclose its production vol- umes. Altogether, the family now has orchards, storage, packing sheds, cattle, 25,000 acres of timberland and a golf resort. Trump has used executive orders aggressively over past 3 months TRUMP from Page 1 Native Americans and home to tens of thousands of archaeo- logical sites, including ancient cliff dwellings. Republicans in the state have asked Trump to take the unusual step of reversing the designation, arguing it will stymie growth by closing the area to new commer- cial and energy development. The Antiquities Act does not give the president explicit power to undo a designation and no pres- ident has ever taken such a step. The order is one of a hand- ful the president is set to sign this week as he tries to rack up accomplishments ahead of his 100th day in office. The presi- dent has used executive orders aggressively over the past three months, despite railing against their use by Obama when he was campaigning. Zinke said that the order would cover several dozen monuments across the country designated since 1996 that to- tal 100,000 acres or more, from the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah to the Bears Ears in south- eastern Utah. He’ll provide an interim re- port in 45 days in which he’ll provide a recommendation on Bears Ears and a final report within 120 days. Over the last 20 years, Zin- ke said, tens of millions of acres have been designated as national monuments, limiting their use for farming, timber harvesting, mining and oil and gas explora- tion, and other commercial uses. Zinke said that while designa- tions have done “a great service to the public,” the “local com- munity affected should have a voice.” Some, including Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, have hailed the order as the end of “massive federal land grabs” by presidents dating to Bill Clinton. But Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said that if Trump tru- ly wants to make America great again, he should use the Antiqui- ties Act to protect and conserve America’s public lands. In New Mexico, Obama’s designation of Rio Grande del Norte National Monument and Organ Moun- tains-Desert Peaks National Monument have preserved im- portant lands while boosting the economy, Heinrich said, a story that has been repeated across the country.