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.
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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?
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