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About The Baker County press. (Baker City, Ore.) 2014-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 2016)
THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS — 3 FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016 Business & Ag County: Graffiti issue Friday, August 12, 2016 — Eastern Oregon CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Prior to a significant discussion about graffiti, among other topics were concerns from Sappington about mailboxes being shot at in the Virtue Flat Mine area, which he said is a federal offense. He said the County needs to respond in some man- ner, and he said that signs indicating that the mine, and certain areas, are not open to the general public, are being made. Ash and Lohner began a discussion about area graffiti, and Ash said the old Lime plant, just off I-84, is one of the major sites where individuals are trespassing, and defacing structures with graffiti. He encouraged the County to start prosecuting for trespassing, and for caus- ing damage (he said there are No Trespassing signs in the area), in order to keep individuals away from the property. Lohner also encour- aged the County to enforce trespassing and other laws, — Weekly Hay Report — Prices trended generally steady compared to week ago prices. Most demand lays with the retail/stable hay. Many hay producers are selling or have al- ready sold most of their first and second cutting hay, and are working on later cutting(s) resulting in higher volumes of hay moving. All prices are in dollars per ton and FOB unless otherwise stated. Tons Price Range Wtd Avg Alfalfa — Large Square Supreme 280 135.00-135.00 135.00 Alfalfa / Orchard Mix — Small Square Premium 5 185.00-185.00 185.00 USDA Market News Service—AMS.USDA.gov — Cattle Market Report — Wednesday, August 10, 2016 Vale, Oregon Cattle sold through the auction: 298 Todd Arriola / The Baker County Press. Sheriff Travis Ash addresses the Commissioners while Baker City Police Chief Wyn Lohner waits seated to add to the discussion. and he said that the graffiti issue is edging closer and closer to the City, some- thing he pointed out in a letter to the Board. “The last thing I want to see, is it end up in our commu- nity. I know you gentle- man don’t want to see that, either, much less, out in the County,” Lohner said. He echoed Ash’s comments, and he asked the County to bolster security at the Lime plant, to keep people away from the property, to pros- ecute any violators, and to draft a graffiti ordinance to address the issues. SEE GRAFFITI PAGE 5 Marijuana informational meeting held in Huntington Steer Calves 300-400# Bulk 152.00-168.00 Top 171.00 400-500# Bulk 141.00-150.00 Top 152.00 500-600# Bulk 138.00-153.00 Top 156.00 Heifer Calves 300-400# Bulk N/A Top N/A 400-500# Bulk N/A Top N/A 500-600# Bulk 123.00-131.00 Top 132.00 Yearling Steers 600-700# Bulk 127.00-138.00 Top 139.00 700-800# Bulk 122.00-137.00 Top 141.50 800-900# Bulk 123.00-135.00 Top 136.75 900-1,000# Bulk N/A Top N/A Yearling Heifers 600-700# Bulk 122.00-131.00 Top 135.00 700-800# Bulk N/A Top N/A 800-900# Bulk 119.00-128.00 Top 129.75 900-1,000# Bulk N/A Top N/A BY EILEEN DRIVER Thin Shelly Cows 61.00 - 71.00 Butcher Cows 72.00 -79.00 Butcher Bulls 75.00-86.00 Pairs Young N/A Hfretts. 86.00-102.00 Stock Cows Young - N/A Eileen@TheBakerCountyPress.com Do to the overwhelm- ing requests from other Eastern Oregon cities and towns about how Hunting- ton was faring since allow- ing Marijuana businesses to open here, a meeting was held on Thursday, Au- gust 11 at the VFW Hall. Deputy City Recorder Shellie Nash said,” We wanted to dispel the er- roneous information these towns were getting about what was happening in Huntington and answer all their questions about what ordinances we put in place such as time, place and- manner, business license regulation and taxes all at one time.” Three different cities reported to Huntington officials that they were hearing from at least one official in the County that Huntington’s crime rate had tripled, that property values had fallen and that children are afraid to leave their yards because of the influx of marijuana users. That official did not respond to communication in time for print. Huntington wanted to show those concerned that this was simply not the case, that crime rates are the same, property values have actually risen and the children are still free to roam the parks and town as usual. An invitation was sent out to all City officials and League of Oregon City members to attend a Marijuana Industry Social Gathering & Tour and RSVPs came back imme- diately. All who attended were given copies of all ordi- nances and resolutions Huntington has passed to allow and regulate their marijuana industry and to gain the taxes allowed by the state. Present to answer ques- tions for the City of Hun- tington was City Recorder ProducersLivestock.com 541-473-3136 — Log Price Report — Price per 1,000 board feet: Northeast Oregon Eileen Driver / The Baker County Press. City officials from around eastern Oregon toured Burnt River Farms, among other locations. Tracy McCue, Deputy City Recorder Shellie Nash and City Councillor Eileen Driver. To answer questions concerning the businesses themselves was Shawn Mckay of Burnt River Farms, Jeremy Breton and Steven Meland of Hot Box Farms and Nick Ducote of Ducote Consulting. Present to learn and ask questions was Marie Oden and Doro- thy Jordan from Monu- ment, Samantha Rowan, Julie Mckinney and Kathy Vinson from Sumpter, Nick Green from John Day, Judy Erwin of Hines and Patty Verbovanec and Ron Verbovanec from Mitchell. Nick Ducote from Ducote Consulting out of La Grande handed out the results of independent research studies done by UCLA, Regis Univer- sity, University of South Florida, University of Colorado and the New York City Criminal Justice Agency that showed that crime rates surrounding marijuana dispensaries were lower than in the rest of the surrounding areas. Studies by the Los Ange- les Police Department and the Denver Police Depart- ment also showed that statistically burglary and robbery rates for dispensa- ries are on par with phar- macies and considerately lower that of liquor stores or banks. After the question and answer period attendees were taken on a tour of Hot Box Farms, which is a new dispensary currently reno- vating the former Candy’s Corner market, to show the “skeleton” of what it takes to make the business and product inside secure. Then the tour went to Burnt River Farms, a commercial grow opera- tion currently operating in Huntington, where they got to see the crops in the growth stage and got infor- mation on the seed to store controls put in place by the state and how it helps keep the “black market” from infiltrating the industry. From there they were given a tour of Hunting- ton’s current dispensary 420ville by owner Scott Matthews. Scott took them through and showed them how the safeguards put in place keep everything very or- derly and safe for not only the town but the customers and workers as well. While all those who attended have varying degrees of interest in the different parts of the mari- juana industry, some in the retail side, some in the manufacturing or agricul- tural side, all went away with more knowledge of the industry as a whole and found that Huntington hasn’t changed as a com- munity, other than it has several new businesses and their original business are busier and more of their citizens are working and more jobs are becoming available. They also learned that the only downside for Huntington so far are parking issues, the lack of available rental housing as more and more people are wanting to move here and a need for more commer- cial property. Currently the local log market is flooded with fire salvage logs. The log buyer for Malheur Lumber Co. stated they have all the logs they need under contract and are not accepting any new purchases. BCC/LLC of La Grande has receive so many burned fire salvage logs they are no longer accepting logs at the La Grande log yard. Any additional pine logs have to be delivered to the Elgin Log yard cut in plywood lengths and to a 8 inch top. For these pine logs cut in plywood lengths, BCC is offering $280.00/mbf. They are also paying $420.00/ mbf for Doug Fir & Western Larch. For White Fir they are offing $325.00/mbf. At the Pilot Rock Saw Mill BCC is offing $360.00/mbf for a 12 to 15 inch top, for 16 to 19 inch top $400.00/ mbf & offing $425.00/mbf for 20 inch plus top Courtesy of Arvid Andersen, Andersen Forestry Consulting — Precious Metals Report — Price per ounce, USD Gold: $1,352.30 Silver: $19.84 Platinum: $1120.00 Palladium: $699.98 Bloomberg.com — Ag Commodities — Corn: $337.25/bu/USD Wheat: $439.50/bu/USD Soybeans: $1007.25/bu/USD Oats: $187.20 bu/USD Rough Rice: $10.44/cwt/USD Canola: $465.60 CAD/mwt Live Cattle: $113.40/lb./USD Feeder Cattle: $142.78/lb./USD Lean Hogs: $59.85/lb./USD Bloomberg.com