Friday, August 26, 2022
CapitalPress.com 5
Snake River Sugarbeet Growers
Association gets new director
Gosar, R-Ariz.
Parrott said her predecessor “did an
incredible job with the association in
BOISE — The Snake River Sugar- terms of brand awareness.” She aims
beet Growers Association has a new to “continue on with the great work he
executive director.
has done....”
Samantha Parrott started Aug. 22
“I plan to use existing relationships
at the Boise-based association. It rep- to hit the ground running,” she said.
resents about 700 growers and 180,000
Parrott during the rest of the year
acres in Idaho, Oregon and
plans to meet with board mem-
Washington.
bers, tour their farms and under-
Parrott has more than a
stand the “direction they think
decade of fundraising and rela-
the association should go.” She
tionship-building experience.
aims to learn more about the
She worked nearly seven years
industry and prepare for the
for the University of Idaho,
2023 Idaho legislative session.
including the past four as the
Next year, she plans to orga-
College of Agricultural and Samantha nize grower fl y-ins to Washing-
Parrott
Life Sciences development
ton, D.C., to advocate main-
director.
taining current federal sugar
While at the UI ag school, she was policy in the new farm bill.
instrumental in raising more than $9
Another goal is to develop and cir-
million, including $3 million to expand culate a grower-engagement survey
the Parma Research and Extension centered on how beet growers would
Center.
like to get involved in the association,
Parrott succeeds Brad Griff , who and their priorities.
was executive director from January
“I am very passionate about the
2019 until June, when he and his fam- agricultural industry, and I can’t wait to
ily moved to Houston, where he took a work directly with growers to tell their
government aff airs job with an energy story and advocate on their behalf,”
company.
Parrott said.
Griff earlier worked for U.S. Sen.
“Agriculture is one of the main
Mike Crapo and former Rep. Raul industries that fuel our economy. It is
Labrador, both R-Idaho, and Rep. Paul extremely important to advance pol-
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
O’Delia Linden/East Columbia Basin Irrigation District
East Columbia Basin Irrigation District Manager Craig
Simpson speaks during a ceremony May 27, 2021, for
the new EL 47.5 delivery system, replacing declining
well water with water from the Columbia Basin Project.
Stakeholders seek funding
for bottleneck bridges
in irrigation system
problems with water deliver-
ies, Simpson said.
“We probably have just
Eastern Washington agri- a few years before another
cultural leaders are seeking system would come on that
funding to replace a hand- would put us in a position that
ful of bridges that will create would actually cause us some
bottlenecks in new canals problems,” Simpson said.
used to distribute irrigation
Progress hinges on how
water from the Columbia quickly farmers’ groundwater
River.
replacement systems are built,
Pushing past an obstruc- Simpson said.
tion causes the water ele-
A bridge in Grant County
vation to rise in canals needs to be addressed “sooner
and creates safety con- than later,” as it causes “some
cerns, said Craig Simpson, backwater” and is at a point in
secretary-manager of the the system that all the water
East-Columbia Basin Irriga- goes past it, Simpson said.
tion District in Othello.
The district is working
The district would
with county offi cials.
have to interrupt or
“I’m not overly
ration water deliver-
concerned, as long as
ies to avoid backups.
we’re making eff orts,
“It’s not optimal,”
...” Simpson said.
Simpson said. “If it
“That’s a good start,
was unchecked ...
at least we recognize
the elevation would
some work needs to
Sara
rise, overtop the
be done there and
Higgins
canal and the canal
we’re trying to fi gure
would fail because
out how to address it.”
it would erode out the side.”
According to the irrigation
Eight of the bridges that district’s analysis, only eight
need to be lengthened are in of the 10 bridges may wind up
Adams County, which can- needing to be replaced, Simp-
not aff ord to replace them, son said.
the Columbia Basin Devel-
“We’re going to do more
opment League says.
measurements and surveying
The total cost of the eight this winter to confi rm that,”
bridges, plus two others in he said. “(It) would be fantas-
Grant County, is more than tic for everybody.”
$42 million.
The league will continue to
“Only so much construc- seek state and federal fund-
tion can occur in a given year, ing, Higgins said.
and Congress will only fund
“The support both state
what can be obligated within and federal legislators have
one year and spent within shown for this project con-
fi ve years,” league executive tinues to be enormously
director Sara Higgins said. appreciated,” she said. “It
“We want to see more than simply wouldn’t be happen-
one bridge funded in a year, ing without their eff orts.”
but all 10 at once probably
Simpson is optimistic
isn’t realistic.”
about future funding.
The bridges do not qual-
“There’s a lot of eff ort
ify for funding from other going on right now, and it’s
sources such as the U.S. just trying to fi nd the funding
Department of Transporta- source that gets us there,” he
tion’s Bridge Investment Pro- said. “It may just be that we
gram, as they are not in a sig- need to keep knocking on a
nifi cant state of disrepair.
door until we fi nd the right
Currently, the Adams door to get in.”
County bridges don’t cause
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Pendleton fl our mill fi re
cause under investigation
By DAKOTA CASTETS-DIDIER
EO Media Group
PENDLETON,
Ore.
— Investigators continue
working to determine what
sparked the fi re more than a
week ago that tore through
the Grain Craft fl our mill in
Pendleton.
Assistant Chief Anthony
Pierotti with the Pendle-
ton Fire Department said a
structural engineer is analyz-
ing the mill and Grain Craft
“is going to fi nd a demoli-
tion company.”
Pierotti also said an
investigation into the cause
of the fi re continues. The fi re
department is keeping a fi re
truck at the scene to “knock
down” the smoke and com-
bat any fl are-ups.
“All is status quo,” he
said.
Although the situation
has remained unchanged,
roads surrounding the mill
have reopened, and Grain
Craft dispatched members
of its leadership team to
walk the site last week.
James Reeder, owner
of the Outlying Perspec-
tive, a drone operator from
Athena, fl ew a specialized
drone on Aug. 17 on behalf
of Grain Craft into and over
the mill to create a 3-Dimen-
sional model of the building
to help determine its struc-
tural integrity and fi nd any
remaining hot spots.
A timeline for demolish-
ing the 100-year-old struc-
ture has yet to be determined.
icies that benefi t our agricultural pro-
ducers,” she said. “As the West con-
tinues to become more urban, we must
continue to educate the general public
about why agriculture is important.”
The former Idaho Sugarbeet Grow-
ers Association last January expanded
to include growers in Oregon and
Washington, and renamed itself.
Board president Randy Grant said
the association is “very excited to have
Samantha Parrott join us in promoting
the sugar beet industry as well as agri-
culture in general.”
Parrott grew up in Rigby, Idaho,
where she participated in FFA. Her
grandparents farmed in eastern Idaho.
She was the 2011-12 student body
president at UI, where she earned a
bachelor’s degree in agribusiness and
a master’s degree in adult organiza-
tional learning and leadership. She
also earned a UI certifi cate in human
resource development. She interned
in 2009 for Wada Farms Marketing
Group, Idaho Falls.
As a UI alumna and longtime staff
member, it was “incredibly hard to
leave the University of Idaho,” Par-
rott said. “I’m proud of everything we
accomplished.”
She and her husband, Stephen, who
is also involved in agriculture, live in
Nampa with their three children.
Sugar beet crop shows good promise
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Dave Reynolds’ sugar
beets look better than he
thought they would, and he
wishes he had planted more.
“The beets we do have
look pretty good, really,” the
Kuna, Idaho, farmer said Aug.
16. “And the price is strong.
Capital Press File
I’m sad we don’t have more.”
The approximately 700 The sugar beet crop is doing well, growers report.
grower-owners of Boi-
se-based
Amalgamated erative own acreage shares
“The sugar company
Sugar
planted
around they can shift among them- adapted to the situation,”
180,000 acres of beets in selves, such as by leasing to said Reynolds, who planted
Idaho, Oregon and Washing- one another.
fewer acres of beets than he
ton, similar to the 2021 total.
Some of this year’s crop fi rst intended.
Amalgamated needs a was shifted to take best
“We started out this year
consistent supply for its three advantage of irrigation sup- and we were kind of sick
processing plants in southern plies, given that a low-water about what it was going to
Idaho. Members of the coop- year was initially expected.
look like” due to the ini-
tial water outlook, said Ben
Jantz, who farms in the
Nampa, Idaho, area.
But
water
supply
improved in many locations
thanks to unusually wet, cold
conditions in April, May and
part of June. Sugar beet plant-
ing was slowed due to those
conditions and heavy wind.
The crop is “so much bet-
ter than we were expecting
back in March,” Jantz said.
He said he had to replant
some of his sugar beets, “but
even my replants, I’m happy
with the way they look right
now.”
Progress is a little
behind that of a normal
year, “but overall I would
say that the crop looks
good,” Jantz said.
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