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About The Baker County press. (Baker City, Ore.) 2014-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 2017)
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2017 4 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS Opinion / Local County CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 Crawford’s note con- tinued, “According to Dawn (Kitzmiller, Build- ing Department Permit Technician), I don’t need a mechanical permit until we have fi nalized plans for heating the renovated rooms; and of course, other approvals shouldn’t be involved because the house still occupies the same footprint it’s had for at least a couple of decade— long before we purchased it, in any case. As soon as I have heard back from Dawn, I will submit pay- ment for those permits by phone. She suggested the turnaround time would be minimal. I am so sorry for any diffi culty you and your staff have experienced as a result of my negligence in this matter...” Harvey said, “For the re- cord, we were not notifi ed of this situation, because there was no information at the time we re-appointed Mr. Crawford to the Plan- ning Commission as it was misstated elsewhere ...” (Editor’s Note: Craw- ford was reappointed by a vote of Commissioners in September of 2017. The investigation regarding Crawford’s construction began in spring of 2017. Crawford’s original ap- pointment was in Decem- ber 2016.) OTEC Rates CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Beginning earlier this year, OTEC was informed by its primary power sup- plier, the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), of The Harvey said, “I made my recommendation of Mr. Crawford, based on my own assessment of his per- formance on the Planning Commission, and meeting with other members of the Planning Commis- sion. At that time, I had no idea there was an issue coming up, so, once it did come up, our Planning Department, and Building Department did deal with it, rightly, and I appreciate their efforts to go forward with this...” Bennett said, in referring to Assessor comments and photos of the additions, “... it is just a little more than I was aware of ... the chal- lenges that come up, be- cause it’s a quasi-judicial body (the Planning Com- mission), and anybody else that has an issue where, us- ing Mr. Crawford’s word, ‘negligence,’ and they come and they appeal to the Planning Commission, without us taking some kind of action, we leave the Planning Commis- sion, and then ultimately ourselves, in an interesting set of circumstances. My thought ... this is kind of an internal Planning Com- mission issue, and I like to see the committees ... deal with their membership, and that gives them more due process ... they can always appeal to us. I would like to send the matter to the Planning Commission. They can review it...My concern is that ... this is a little more major construc- tion...” Harvey agreed that a good fi rst step would be for the Planning Commis- sion to review the situa- tion, and then contact the Board for further action. Nichols asked how the footprint of the build- ing had changed, and Hall said that he wasn’t completely sure, and that he would need to inspect the property again. Kerns said that she and Hall are working on determining what the footprint actually is, among other details. Hall said that he’ll update the Board on the progress, since he now has author- ity to inspect the property more thoroughly. Kerns said, “We’ll continue to work with the property owner, to make sure that we can see compliance ...” and it’s her understanding the Board members wish to see the Planning Commis- sion review the situation. During Commissioner Update, Kerns and Bennett discussed the status of the Boardman to Hemingway (B2H) project, and ulti- mately, Harvey moved that Bennett and the Planning Department be authorized to send out a survey (yet to be drafted) of land owners affected by the route of the B2H line, to determine whether the County could receive approval from the majority of the land owners, so the County could represent them as one group, in negotiations with Idaho Power. Nichols seconded the motion, and it carried. an increase of approxi- mately 5.4 percent to its wholesale rate. BPA will apply this rate increase to OTEC’s wholesale power purchases October 1. This increase will be absorbed by the member- owned cooperative through the month of October, thanks to better-than-ex- pected revenues as a result of the harsh winter usage in January and February. As reported earlier in the year, BPA’s rate increase has been attributed in part to continued investments in their aging transmission infrastructure. Baker County Press Subscribe Today! Name: Address: City, State, Zip: Email address: So I was thinking ... About low expectations By Jimmy Ingram Special to The Baker County Press Long ago a wise old friend of mine let me in on a little secret. He said, “The secret to life is low expecta- tions.” While my initial thought was how unmotivating that may sound, I’ve learned he was (partially) correct. We all have expectations in life, some more than others. But with re- spect to his sage life advice, one has to admit there are moments in life where what we consider to be fairly low expectations can leave us unpre- pared for the reality that sometimes they should be lower yet. Rooting for a sports team. Odds are, most of you follow at least one professional or collegiate sports team. Odds also are, your team sucks. You’ve watched them lose, win, lose again, had hope for next season. You’ve criticized coaches, players, ownership, and wondered at times if you could have the hours back you’ve spent in your life shaking your fi st at your television. The reality is that your team has about 2% chance of “winning it all.” Considering this, keep your expecta- tions low, and then lower them some more. “Just don’t let them get blown out again” you say to yourself. Wel- come to fandom; learn to enjoy the mediocrity. Marriage. To the naive, unsus- pecting kind heart, marriage seems like a pending fairy tale. Constant togetherness, mutual understanding, romance. What most elder couples will tell you is that it’s good at times, and psychological warfare at other times. Holding hands and love notes (or texts, for you kids) are replaced with far more important logistical for- malities like, “Who’s cooking dinner tonight?” and unanswerable ques- tions like, “Why on earth would you buy a two-pack of toilet paper. Are we only buying enough for a day at a time now?” That’s not to say that marriage isn’t worthwhile because it is. It’s the ultimate lesson in learning to be patient, when to bite your tongue, Submitted Photo Jimmy Ingram is a local farmer and father of two who enjoys people watching within our wonderful community and beyond. and learning how to be supportive through anything and everything. Realistic expectations in marriage look less like “happily ever after” and more like “we’re good at putting up with one another. Aging gracefully. It’s unani- mous—we would all like to stay young forever. It’s also never hap- pened to anyone, anywhere, ever. We expect to get gray hair, wrin- kles, and maybe pack on a couple pounds. What we don’t expect is things like forgetfulness, nose hair, and weekly junk mail from AARP. The good news is that we always have the memory of our best selves from the past. Ask any man what he ate for dinner last night and he may not remember. Ask him how much he weighed in high school and he’ll be able to tell you within a pound. Getting older is a good lesson in balancing a more capable mind with a (hopefully only slightly less) capable body. Its not fun to discover new aches and pains, buy larger belts, and make trips to the eye doctor, but it’s life. Success. This is very much a per- sonal expectation. Some may consider a six-fi gure income to be successful. Someone else might be happy just to have programmed their DVR to record the game their team will undoubtedly lose (see above). Most of us probably fall some- where in the middle: Pay our bills, have some fun, watch our kids grow up and tell increasingly embellishing stories about all the things we did when we were younger, insisting we could do them still today if we really wanted to. I tend to agree with my friend’s statement about low expectations but think it should be amended to include the phrase “high hopes.” I can hope for the fountain of youth, a winning season, or a six- fi gure income, can’t I? — Contact Us — Phone: E-Only $29.95/yr. — Special Column — Print (Delivery) $39.95/yr. Print (Mail) $49.95/yr. Inside Baker City City Limits Only Outside Baker City City Limits Only 1. Make check payable to: Black Lyon Publishing, LLC 2. 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