Page 8A
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East Oregonian
PGG: Co-op lost $7.9 million in 2014
the long term, not just the
short term,” he said. “We
Meanwhile, soft white
could either be a marginal
wheat prices have fallen to
company, or merge some of
$5.69 per bushel in Portland,
these assets and be a good,
compared to $7 last year.
strong company.”
With such lean margins,
Jim Williams, a third-gen-
farmers have started hedging
eration Helix farmer, said his
their bets with other grain
family has worked through
handlers in Umatilla County,
PGG since the co-op’s incep-
including Gavilon, owned
tion. He said the grain division
by the multi-billion dollar
is the hub of the company,
Marubeni Corporation.
and he’s disappointed to see
“They can be pretty
where the co-op stands today.
price-competitive,” Jacobson
Williams said he has tried
said. “Some growers had that
to stay away from the rumor
EO fi le photo
additional option.”
mill, and refuses to place
Jeff Newtson, who farms This 2014 fi le photo shows the PGG farm supply store blame for what’s gone wrong.
7,500 acres around Helix, in Athena. The property, along with numerous build- He said he’s always felt safe
said he started using both ings in Pendleton, are headed to auction.
marketing his wheat through
PGG and Northwest Grain manage PGG following the as well as the automotive PGG, and will miss the local
Growers, based in Walla resignation of former CEO service center in Pendleton. It hands-on experience.
Walla, to market and sell Allen Waggoner in May DOVR VROG WKH DJURQRP\ ÀHHW
“This year especially, I felt
his club wheat. As rumors 2012. Waggoner’s resig- to Crop Production Services it was important to support a
swirled around PGG over nation came three months based in Colorado.
company I had generations
summer, he said some after the U.S. Department
All together, the co-op of equity in,” Williams said.
growers began forging rela- of Agriculture suspended lost $7.9 million in 2014. “I hope something comes of
tionships with other compa- PGG’s warehousing license However, Jacobson remains this that’s positive for all the
nies just in case something based on discrepancies found optimistic, pointing out growers.”
like this should happen.
There is no timetable for
during a routine audit of PGG’s total earnings at the
“You see them selling off grain transactions.
end of June were $4 million a decision about the grain
different parts of the busi-
division. The PGG board
Waggoner, who now better than last year.
ness. We saw Gavilon and works for CHS Inc. in Pilot
PGG has consolidated its will evaluate offers before
Northwest Grain Growers 5RFNDQGVHUYHVDVSUHVLGHQW debt through CoBank and bringing any proposal to a
coming in and taking parts of of the Agricultural Coopera- secured a $20 million line of full vote of the members.
the wheat harvest,” Newtson tive Council of Oregon, did credit in June. Jacobson said Until then, PGG will continue
said. “The writing was on the not return messages seeking other aspects of the business, to buy grain and operate as
wall there a little bit.”
including seed, energy and normal until a transaction is
comment.
Umatilla County farmers
In an article published irrigation subsidiary Preci- completed.
grow the most wheat in Aug. 27 in the Capital Press, VLRQ 5DLQ FRQWLQXH WR GR
Williams said PGG has
Oregon by a wide margin. Jacobson said PGG “didn’t well.
always done a great job of
PGG was incorporated in attend to business as they
PGG signed an agreement making money for local
1930 after the stock market should have” in the past. The in June with McCoy Grain wheat farmers. It scares him
crash a year earlier, as local co-op recently overhauled Terminal LLC, of Colfax, to think that service could be
growers united to protect its business model, slashing Washington, to market its lost.
themselves against falling retail and agronomy divi- grain handle for potentially
“I hope it’s not the end of
wheat prices.
sions while laying off 158 higher bids. Selling the grain the co-op,” he said.
But the co-op has suffered employees.
———
division is not a catastrophe,
WKURXJK GLI¿FXOW WLPHV LQ
Contact George Plaven at
Since last year, PGG Jacobson said, but rather a
recent years. Jacobson was closed all six of their retail prudent decision.
gplaven@eastoregonian.com
brought out of retirement to stores across Eastern Oregon
“You have to look at or 541-966-0825.
Continued from 1A
WHITE CASTLE: 10 other inductees also honored at dinner
Continued from 1A
not like to eat anything but
White Castle, so my mom
and dad would take me there
to make sure I ate,” he said.
“That’s what started it.”
When the family moved
to the north side of the city,
picking up a bag of White
Castle sliders meant an
hour-long drive, but that
didn’t stop them. Neither
did an eventual move to
Seattle, where the nearest
White Castle was thousands
of miles away.
“We would get freshly
cooked White Castles and
put them in our luggage and
take them back to Seattle,”
Snyder said. “The smell
would permeate the whole
cabin.”
His wife Karen said the
tradition of bringing White
“We would get freshly cooked White
Castles and put them in our luggage
and take them back to Seattle. The smell
would permeate the whole cabin.”
—
Gene Snyder, White Castle Cravers Hall of Fame
Castle sliders back from
vacation continued after the
couple married.
“We used to bring them
home by the hundreds,” she
said.
He said out of all the foods
that he missed after moving
away from the Midwest,
the reason he missed White
Castle sliders the most was
the restaurant’s unique way
of cooking the mini-burgers
in a steamer surrounded by
juicy onions.
“It’s a whole different
taste,” he said.
Today the sliders are
available in the frozen food
section of some grocery
VWRUHV LQ WKH 3DFL¿F 1RUWK
west, but it’s not quite the
same.
“I’m working on how to
reconstitute these to make
them taste like the new
ones,” Snyder said, holding
up a box. “I’m really close.”
When he saw a notice
on one of the boxes calling
for people to submit their
stories of White Castle
cravings he sent something
in and then forgot about it,
¿JXULQJ DW PRVW KH ZRXOG
get a few coupons for free
sliders.
Instead, the company
contacted him with free
round-trip tickets to the
restaurant’s
headquarters
in Columbus, Ohio, where
Snyder and his wife were
put up in a Hyatt hotel and
treated to everything from a
VIP museum tour to a buffet
lunch of everything from
White Castle’s menu.
The trip culminated in a
formal dinner where Snyder
and 10 other inductees were
honored by the restaurant
and given a stack of gifts,
including a book of recipes
for White Castle menu
items.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
WORLD BRIEFLY
Army blimp breaks loose,
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MUNCY, Pa. (AP) — An
unmanned Army surveillance
blimp broke loose from its mooring
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Pennsylvania for hours Wednesday
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triggering blackouts across the
countryside as it dragged its tether
across power lines.
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blimp eventually came down in at least
two pieces near Muncy, a small town
about 80 miles north of Harrisburg, as
people gawked in wonder and disbelief
at the big, white, slow-moving craft.
No injuries were reported.
Fitted with sensitive defense
technology, the radar-equipped blimp
escaped from the military’s Aberdeen
Proving Ground around 12:20 p.m. and
drifted northward, climbing to about
16,000 feet, authorities said. It covered
approximately 150 miles over about
3½ hours.
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and two F-16s were scrambled from
a National Guard base in New Jersey
to track it. But there was never any
intention of shooting it down, said
Navy Capt. Scott Miller, a spokesman
for the nation’s air defense command.
The blimp — which cannot be
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and settled back to Earth on its own,
according to Miller. He said there was
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was not deliberately activated, and it is
unclear why the craft went limp.
Jimmy May/Bloomsburg Press Enterprise via AP
An unmanned Army surveillance blimp fl oats through the air while dragging
a tether line south of Millville, Pa., Wednesday. The 240-foot helium-fi lled
blimp came down near Muncy, about 80 miles north of Harrisburg.
President Bashar Assad, Tehran has
been shunned from all previous talks
on Syria. Its inclusion now marks
recognition by the United States that
no discussion on Syria’s future can
succeed without Iran at the table.
News of Iran’s attendance
outraged Syrian rebels, who said its
participation will only prolong the
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The gathering, which takes place
Thursday and Friday in Vienna,
will also put Iran in the same room
with its most bitter regional rival,
Saudi Arabia, raising the potential
for tensions. The kingdom, along
with other Gulf countries, has been
funneling weapons to rebel factions,
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and military advisers to ensure Assad’s
survival.
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newfound place in the international
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community following the nuclear deal
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this year. It also shows the seismic
in international talks on Syria for the
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military involvement in Syria since
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more than 4-year-old civil war that has launching a campaign of airstrikes
VRIDUGH¿HGHYHQWKHVOLJKWHVWSURJUHVV on behalf of Assad last month. That
intervention has emboldened Assad’s
toward peace.
supporters.
A crucial backer of Syrian
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VIENNA (AP) — Austria, a
strong critic of fences built to cope
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Wednesday announced it is joining
other nations that have either already
erected border barriers or are planning
to do so.
Austrian Interior Minister Johanna
Mikl-Leitner insisted the move was
aimed solely at bringing order to the
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the country, telling parliament there
were no plans “to build a fence around
Austria.”
Still the project is a major shift
for the country, which has preached
the sanctity of unimpeded internal
EU borders since the migrant crisis
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Leitner herself used the world “fence”
in earlier comments announcing
construction plans at the border.
Slovenia, the main entry point
into Austria, also said it was ready
to build a fence, while Hungary has
been championing the success of its
razor-wire border fences with Serbia
and Croatia and plans another one with
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Thursday, October 29, 2015
TAX: Umatilla County’s
largest taxpayer was
Hermiston Power LLC
previously belonged to
a disabled veteran who
fell to $496,630. Chalmers had a tax exemption. She,
said that value is based on however, did not qualify
what is happening in the for that exemption.
real estate market, and it
Still, Avocette said,
ÀXFWXDWHV FRQVLGHUDEO\ $2,400 a year in taxes for
The county, again, taxes a manufactured home with
the smaller of those values, a yard that has erosion
thus the decrease in the tax problems seemed high.
bill.
Chalmers said the tax rate
Then this year, the real is the same across the board
market value for the home no matter the zone, from
increased to $572,690 residential to commercial
and the assessed value to industrial.
carried over from last year.
Farmland, though, is the
Murdock’s tax bill, then, exception. Chalmers said
shot up to $9,828, about a under Oregon law farm-
6 percent increase.
land is taxed on production
“There’s lots of things I values not on real market
could do with that money or assessed values.
besides paying taxes,”
And as usual, the largest
Murdock said. “But taxes taxpayers in the county are
are the price of living in a corporations, according to
civilized society.”
the assessment and taxation
New bonds also added RI¿FH 7KLV \HDU¶V WRS
to the bill. Voters last and their tax amounts are:
year passed a bond for
1) Hermiston Power
Blue Mountain Commu- LLC — $3,276,314
nity College at a rate of
2) Hermiston Gener-
23 cents per $1,000 in ating Co. — $2,187,866
assessed value. So a home
3DFL¿&RUS ²
with an assessed value of $1,957,142
$150,000, for example,
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would generate $34.50 for road Co. — $1,744,407,27
the bond. In Murdock’s
5) Wal-Mart Stores East
case, the bond accounted LP — $617,639
for about $123 of the bill.
6) ConAgra Foods
Exemptions also play a Lamb Weston Inc. —
role in property taxes, as $504,815
Wynn Avocette of Pend-
7) Snack Alliance Inc.
leton found out. She saw — $490,149
her property taxes jump
8) Charter Communica-
$640 for a 1,300-sqaure- tions — $464,153
foot manufactured home at
9) Century-Link —
Overlook Terrace. She said $424,152
she bought the home in a
10) Northwest Pipeline
private sale last year and Corp. — $401,472
found the $1,788 property
And if you think there
tax bill to be fair.
is a problem with your
This year she was property value, Chalmers
stunned to receive a bill for said the back of your tax
$2,426.
statement explains appeal
After a lot of fretting, rights.
hand wringing and hair
———
pulling, she said she
Contact Phil Wright at
talked to Chalmers, who pwright@eastoregonian.
explained the home had com or 541-966-0833.
Continued from 1A
SCHOOL: Teachers and
staff received 3,318 stars
Continued from 1A
In addition to submitting
comments, survey takers
were also allowed to rate
the comments of other
participants using a star
system.
The district received a
strong sample size, with
730 people participating in
the survey, three-quarters
of which were parents and
the rest mostly school staff.
Survey takers deemed
class sizes the biggest
issue facing the district,
with parents and teachers
of primary school students
expressing
the
most
displeasure.
“I started the school
year with 30 second
graders,” a Sherwood
Heights Elementary School
teacher wrote. “Last year
I had 24 students. It is
surprising what a differ-
ence 6 students can make.
I believe we accomplished
more last year and students
had a better understanding
of material.”
Student behavior and
discipline was also a large
area of concern for partic-
ipants, many of whom felt
behaviorally challenged
children were disrupting
class to the detriment of
other students and not
enough was being done to
address bullying.
“We
are
getting
increasingly large amount
of students with severe
behavior issues,” one
commenter wrote. “These
issues make it very hard
to teach that student along
with the other students.
I feel there is very little
support from parents
and administration and
teachers are left to handle
it on their own.”
The Smarter Balanced
test and Common Core
took a particular beating
from parents, who felt
teachers were dedicating
far too much class time to
testing and test preparation
rather than teaching other
academic subjects like
social studies and science.
The comments directed
toward the school district
weren’t all critical.
The top subject of
praise by an overwhelming
margin was the quality of
teacher and staff, which
received 3,318 stars.
Almost every school
in the district received
strong praise from parents,
with Sherwood Heights
Principal Theresa Owens,
former McKay Creek
Elementary School Prin-
cipal Aimee VanNice and
WKH IURQW RI¿FH VWDII DW
Sunridge Middle School
singled out especially.
VanNice has since become
the principal of Wash-
ington Elementary School.
To a lesser degree,
parents were also grateful
for the variety of ways
staff and administration
communicate with them,
which now includes email,
text message and online
access to report cards.
Superintendent
Jon
Peterson said in a state-
ment that the survey gave
the district some valuable
input.
“These results help us
identify those areas that
people appreciate about
our schools and what is
working well and give
us insight into areas for
improvement,” he said.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.
Halloween
Costume
Contest
Oct. 31 st
10:00 pm
Sundownbar&grill
233 SE 4th St.,
Pendleton, OR 97801
541-276-8500