REGION
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Friday, January 8, 2016
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
The Umatilla County Fair
has a new director.
Don Slone, director of the
Harney County Fair for the
past 25 years, will take over
management of the Umatilla
County Fair starting Feb. 1.
Slone is also the pres-
ident of the Oregon Fairs
Association, which county
commissioner Larry Givens
said made him an ideal
candidate.
“He’s got a vast amount
of experience not only with
the Harney County Fair, but
with fairs around the state,”
Givens said.
He said Slone has visited
the Umatilla County Fair-
grounds and worked with
local fair staff in his capacity
as president before.
Slone is replacing Peggy
Anderson, who announced
her resignation in August
in order to take a job as
fair director in Josephine
County, where she grew up.
At the time, the fair board
announced that the position
would likely be reduced
from full-time to part-time
in light of the planned move
to the Eastern Oregon Trade
and Event Center, where
business manager Heather
Cannell could take on some
duties previously associated
with the fair director.
On Thursday Givens said
the decision to use the current
fairgrounds for an additional
year means Slone’s position
will be full-time for 2016.
After that, Givens said, it is
undecided exactly what the
position will look like while
Slone helps the fair transi-
tion to the EOTEC grounds.
Slone is a graduate of
Eastern Oregon University.
According to a news release,
during his tenure at the
Harney County Fair he
helped attract 34,000 volun-
teer hours at the event.
Givens said Slone is
a respected leader in the
county fair world and the
county commission and fair
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the experience necessary
to take on the challenges
associated with moving the
Umatilla County Fair to a
new venue in 2017.
“We’re just excited to
have Don with us,” he said.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
East Oregonian
Page 3A
PENDLETON
BMCC to host safety summit
East Oregonian
Dozens of government
entities and community
organizations from across
Eastern Oregon have been
invited by Blue Mountain
Community College to
discuss security at the Pend-
leton Convention Center.
According to a press
release, the upcoming
regional safety summit
was spurred by the Oct.
1 Umpqua Community
College shooting in Rose-
burg.
“That tragedy hit very
close to home for us since
UCC is another Oregon
community college and
many of our staff have
colleagues who work there,”
BMCC President Cam
Preus said in a statement.
“We’ve learned from that
incident that there is a big
reliance on the community
to step forward to provide
assistance and resources, so
BMCC wants to make sure
we have those partnerships
in place ahead of time
throughout our district.”
BMCC has invited
school
districts,
law
enforcement
agencies,
emergency personnel, city
and county governments,
hospitals
and
health
districts, prison personnel
and other interested parties
from across Umatilla,
Morrow and Baker Coun-
ties to the event.
Attendees will hear a
speech from Mary Schoen-
feldt, a Marysville, Wash.,
specialist in school system
emergency
management
and crisis response.
At a more local level,
Umatilla County Emer-
gency
Manager
Jack
Remillard and Oregon State
Police Sgt. Mark Banks will
hold a discussion the 2013
tour bus crash on Cabbage
Hill.
After those talks, orga-
nizers will break attendees
into
regionally-based
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identify resources and draft
formal safety partnership
agreements.
The safety summit
be held at the Pendleton
Convention Center Jan. 21
from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
BRIEFLY
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Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Grass-fed gobblers
A rafter of wild turkeys forage for food in a stand of tall grass near the Umatilla River on Thursday outside Rieth.
ENERGY: Wind prices have dropped by two-thirds since 2009
and strong group of folks
who have come together in
of their energy mix by agreement on this,” Schwark
2030. That’s no small feat, said. “It was relatively swift
since coal makes up nearly coming together.”
one-third of PGE’s energy
The legislature won’t have
portfolio and two-thirds for much time to consider the
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bill during this year’s short
A coalition of environ- session, which convenes Feb.
mental groups and clean 1 and adjourns March 6. If it
HQHUJ\ DGYRFDWHV KDV ¿OHG passes, clean energy advo-
ballot measures to make cates said they will withdraw
Oregon coal-free by 2030. their ballot measures for
5DWKHUWKDQ¿JKWDFRVWO\DQG November.
contentious battle at the polls,
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3DFL¿F3RZHUVSRNHVPDQ5\ moving toward more clean
Schwark said parties came to energy and less coal in its
the table to negotiate.
most recent long-range
The result, Schwark said, energy plan, though oppo-
is a policy that accomplishes nents of coal said the tran-
the same renewable energy sition wasn’t happening fast
goals while including safe- enough.
guards to protect rates and
Schwark said the trend has
reliability for customers. The been aided by falling prices
plan is supported by envi- of wind and solar, along with
ronmental groups such as the utility’s involvement in
the Sierra Club and Oregon a shared energy market with
Environmental Council, as California and other Western
well as the Citizens’ Utility utilities.
Board, the state’s primary
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advocate for residential of regionalizing the grid in
ratepayers.
the West is the volatility of
“We have a very broad renewables can be smoothed
Continued from 1A
out over a wider footprint,”
Schwark said.
The new clean energy plan
also includes safety valves to
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jumps in power rates for
customers. The plan main-
tains a 4 percent incremental
FRVWFDSPHDQLQJWKDW3DFL¿F
Power and PGE won’t have
to add renewables if the cost
is more than 4 percent higher
than the cost of developing
non-renewable power.
Steve Corson, spokesman
for PGE, said the plan’s
schedule also provides a
more balanced path and
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in renewables and phasing
out coal plants.
“We feel comfortable we
can do this,” Corson said.
“This is a path we’ve been on
for a little while.”
Brad Reed, spokesman
for Renew Oregon — the
coalition behind the ballot
measures — said wind prices
have fallen by two-thirds
since 2009, and the price of
solar panels has gone down
85 percent over the same time
frame, making those projects
more cost-competitive than
ever.
Reed said negotiations
were not easy, but the
agreement ultimately moves
Oregon closer to its clean
energy goal, which by 2050
calls for reducing carbon
emissions to 25 percent of
1990 levels.
“I think the bottom line
is this is what Oregonians
want,” Reed said. “It’s
become increasingly clear
to people the effects carbon
pollution are having on our
way of life.”
In particular, Reed pointed
to last summer’s drought that
hurt agriculture and raised
water temperatures in rivers
enough to kill some popula-
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“These things are in the
DNA of the Northwest,”
Reed said. “People see the
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going forward.”
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
%$,/287Ongoing investigation into agency’s handling of tax credits
Wheeler asked Brown to
suspend the loan program
begin in 2019 and could so the state can review it
cost taxpayers at least $15.3 and issue recommendations
million, according the Trea- to the Legislature on how to
sury. The cost could increase proceed.
if more loans go into default.
The state created the small
“As a result, to cover scale energy loan program in
loan payments, money will 1981 to provide low-interest
be allocated away from loans to governments and
vital public services such as businesses. The program’s
education, public safety and problems are not new and
human services programs,” despite its name, the loans
the Oregon State Treasury were not what many people
wrote in a press release.
would consider small.
Brown’s press secretary
Wheeler pointed to the
Chris Pair said Thursday that default several years ago of
WKH *RYHUQRU¶V 2I¿FH ZDV an $18 million loan to an
examining the loan program ethanol plant in Clatskanie,
as part of a broader review of which went bankrupt, as an
the Department of Energy.
example of why the program
“Governor Brown has now requires a bailout. Other
concluded that lingering large loans have since gone
residual issues have inter- into default and been written
fered with the Department of off as non-collectible, “which
Energy’s ability to focus on has further deteriorated (the
Oregon’s future energy-re- program’s) balance sheet and
lated needs,” Pair wrote in an reserve balances,” Wheeler
email. “The agency review wrote in the letter to Brown.
currently being conducted
The State Debt Policy
E\ WKH *RYHUQRU¶V 2I¿FH LV Advisory
Commission,
assessing the Small Scale which includes members
Energy Loan Program and, of the Oregon House and
along with the Legislature’s Senate, repeatedly raised
recently-formed
joint
committee, will ensure that
SALE IN
these issues are addressed
PROGRESS
responsibly and carefully.
SAVINGS
As Governor Brown has said
UP TO 50%
before, while we want to
AM-6 PM Mon.-Sat. • 12 PM-4 PM Sun.
move expeditiously, we must 8 613
N Main St., Milton Freewater, OR
541-938-5162 • www.saagershoeshop.com
ensure that we do it right.”
Continued from 1A
concerns about the loan
defaults including last year,
when the commission warned
in a report that payments by
loan recipients might not
cover debt. Wheeler said
in his letter to Brown that
he asked former Gov. John
Kitzhaber three years ago for
money to offset losses from
defaults in the program.
“In 2012, after a review
of projected loan payments
versus debt service require-
ments, I recommended to
Governor Kitzhaber that the
program’s depleted loan-loss
reserve be replenished to
safeguard the State against
future potential defaults,”
Wheeler wrote. “Instead, the
program continued without
augmented reserves.”
Wheeler, who is an
H[RI¿FLR PHPEHU RI WKH
commission, will formally
present recommendations on
the energy loan program at
the commission’s scheduled
Jan. 19 meeting.
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sent the letter to the governor
DZHHNEHIRUHWKH¿UVWVFKHG-
uled meeting of a new legis-
lative committee which will
consider whether to overhaul
or eliminate the Department
of Energy, following years of
news reports about problems
at the agency. The governor
also announced in December
that she planned to pursue a
review of the agency.
The Oregon Department
of Justice has an ongoing
criminal investigation into
the energy agency’s handling
of tax credits. In September,
a top administrator at the
Department of Energy who
was brought in to run the loan
program and other renewable
HQHUJ\DQGHI¿FLHQF\LQFHQ-
tives resigned.
Tonia Mulcare
PENDLETON — The
Umatilla County Sheriff’s
2I¿FHZLOOEX\WZRQHZ
SUVs. But the department
will have to ask local
dealers to bid on a pair of
other vehicles.
Sheriff’s Capt. Dave
Williamson told the county
board of commissioners
at its Dec. 30 meeting the
patrol division needed
two 2016 Ford Explorer
all-wheel drive vehicles,
the marine patrol needed
a 2016 Ford F-250 super
cab pickup and the civil
division needed a pair of
2016 Ford Fusions, all to
replace older vehicles.
The Explorers would
cost $60,999, the F-250
would be $28,991 and the
Fusions totaled $36,384.
The vehicles would come
from a Gresham dealer
via a state contract and
the money would come
from the county’s vehicle
replacement fund.
Commissioner Bill
Elfering pointed out the
county has no obligation to
use the state contract, and
while the state might be
able to offer a better price,
WKHVKHULII¶VRI¿FHQHYHU
asked local businesses to
offer bids.
County counsel Doug
Olsen said local dealers
do not carry the required
vehicles, so commissioners
voted 3-0 allow that
purchase. Then they voted
3-0 to have the sheriff’s
RI¿FHVHHNELGVIRUWKH
other vehicles.
During the same
meeting, the board also
gave authorization for
the Community Justice
Department asked to spend
$28,884 on a 2016 Ford
Sedan police car.
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PENDLETON —
People of all ages are
invited to participate in
craft activities each week
at the Pendleton Public
Library.
Crafternoons is offered
Tuesdays at 4 p.m. at the
library, 502 S.W. Dorion
Ave., Pendleton. It’s free
and advance registration
Hermiston/Pendleton • stratton-insurance.com
HERMISTON — A
selection of American art
masterpieces will be on
display throughout the
month at the Hermiston
Public Library.
Provided by the
National Endowment
for the Humanities,
the collection seeks to
introduce Americans to
their artistic heritage and
inspire them to become
more informed citizens.
The organization carefully
selected the masterpieces
as a starting point to learn
more about our nation’s
artistic legacy. Well known
artists such as John James
Audubon and Norman
Rockwell are among the
many American artists
whose works are included
in the collection.
The library is open
Monday through Thursdays
from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
and Friday and Saturdays
from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It’s
located at 235 E. Gladys
Ave., Hermiston. For more
information, call Marie
Baldo or Jodi Hansen at
541-567-2882.
1HZFOXEIRFXVHV
RQSKRWRJUDSK\
HERMISTON —
Shutterbugs of all skill
levels are invited to join the
Hermiston Public Library’s
photography club.
Anyone with a passion
for photography or an
interest in improving
picture-taking ability is
invited to attend the second
Tuesday of each month at 5
p.m. at 235 E. Gladys Ave.,
Hermiston.
There will be photo
assignments, guest speakers
DQG¿HOGWULSV7KHFOXELV
free and open to the public.
For more information,
contact Jodi Hansen at
541-567-2882 or jhansen@
hermiston.or.us.
SUBMIT COMMUNITY NEWS
Submit information to: community@eastoregonian.
com or drop off to the attention of Tammy Malgesini at
333 E. Main St., Hermiston or Renee Struthers at 211
S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton. Call 541-564-4539 or 541-
966-0818 with questions.
9:00
PM
FRIDAY,
JANUARY 8
Tonia Mulcare
541/289-3300 • 800/225-2521
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DUWPDVWHUSLHFHV
Live Music
Auto
Health
Home
Life
The Stratton Agency
isn’t required.
The public is invited
to drop in for different
activities each week.
Sometimes the craft will
be a group effort and
other times it will be an
individual project.
For more information,
call 541-966-0380 or visit
www.pendletonlibrary.
weebly.com.
Family Insurance Agent
8 S.E. COURT, PENDLETON
541.278.1100
Evan Egerer