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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 4, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Thursday, August 4, 2016 OTHER VIEWS Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW BMCC pool needs a life raft Blue Mountain Community is a pretty darn good price for one of College’s pool is treading water — the best facilities in the region. barely — and its future is in serious Yet it does seem unfair that those doubt. groups were not given advance Some members of the community warning of the pool’s dire straits. have come to rely on the pool, built Casey White-Zollman, vice in 1974, for health and recreation president of public relations at BMCC, said the and competition. school irst realized Yet during that this winter the same time, BMCC Facing $2.3 had serious changed its focus million in repair building air circulation and nixed all of its Fixing those academic offerings costs, the future issues. issues is most of the at the pool. of the pool is in $2.3 million cost, Now that it is in need of serious and they represent doubt. repair, it is clear the biggest hurdle that ixing the pool to opening the pool is higher on the this year. Little priority list of some community action has been taken thus far. And groups than BMCC’s administration. with the school year right around The cost of doing the ixing is the corner and swim season close signiicant — north of $2 million — to diving in, there are plenty of and that’s not money the community unanswered questions. college has laying around. Were it Voters did have an opportunity to somehow further delay needed to boost the pool’s budget, and they and possibly required maintenance, chose not to. BMCC estimated $85,317 in annual The college loated a bond in costs for operating the pool and only 2013 that included an $850,000 $2,960 in revenue. earmark for the pool. That Some disagree with those money would have been used for numbers. At Tuesday’s Pendleton maintenance, decking replacement School Board meeting, and HVAC work. But voters rejected superintendent Andy Kovach called the bond, and the line item was the cost estimate “a little bit out removed in the later incarnation that there” and other board members passed in 2015. insinuated inlation and questioned White-Zollman said that pool BMCC’s desire to help ind a upgrades were not important solution. to many community members But Kovach also noted that surveyed, and the college felt that Pendleton has not been paying their leaving it out of the bond was fair share. prudent. That feeling has traveled “You can’t also deny that we, the to the college, where its board has Pendleton School District, aren’t to deal with the “have-to-haves and paying anything for use of the pool,” the like-to-haves.” It’s clear the pool he said. “We haven’t for years. It has is a “like to” and it’s also clear the to cost something.” money doesn’t go that far. Perhaps some people took the If Umatilla County wants an pool for granted — few high school indoor, competition-quality pool, programs, and none in Eastern it can no longer expect BMCC to Oregon, have one as nice. And free provide it. Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. OTHER VIEWS State timber harvest declines The (Corvallis) Gazette-Times T he Oregon Department of Forestry last week announced that timber harvests in the state declined about 8 percent in 2015 when compared to the year before. It was the irst time in three years that Oregon’s timber harvest came in at less than 4 billion board feet. Last year’s tally from the state’s forests worked out to be about 3.79 billion board feet. If that sort of number boggles your mind, the state provided this helpful fact: One board foot of lumber is 1 foot wide, 1 foot long and 1 inch thick. The construction of a house that’s about 1,800 square feet requires about 10,000 board feet. So now, we’ll do the math for you: Oregon’s 2015 timber harvest would be suficient to build about 379,000 houses. We often have argued that Oregon’s economy would be healthier, especially in the state’s rural areas, if we were able to put more people back to work in our forests. The report from the Department of Forestry starts to suggest some of the reasons why that isn’t happening, and while some of those are our making, other factors are out of our control. First, consider this: According to the state, about half of Oregon (49 percent) is forested. (It works out to be about 30.2 million acres of forested land.) About 60 percent of those forests are under federal control, either by the U.S. Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management. We already know how dificult it can be to get timber sales approved on federal lands. The harvest on BLM land dropped about 8 percent in 2015. The harvest on Forest Service land dropped about 5 percent. In an ironic (but somewhat encouraging) note, the Forest Service actually reported an increase in the harvest in certain eastern Oregon counties, notably Grant and Harney. That work there is being driven by stewardship contracts. But the Forest Service harvest in western Oregon declined, dragging down the totals. It makes you wonder if the stewardship examples in eastern Oregon can help unlock the federal forests in the western part of the state. State-owned forests make up just 3 percent of the total in Oregon. Interestingly, the timber harvest on these state lands was up about 26 percent, according to the Department of Forestry, jumping from about 230 million board feet to about 290 million board feet — important, but just a fraction of the harvest from federal forests. Industrial forests make up 19 percent of Oregon’s total, and family forests add another 15 percent. Harvests on these private lands were down in 2015: Industrial harvest was down about 9 percent, the state said, while the harvest on nonindustrial private lands (essentially family forests) was about 453 million board feet, a decline of about 19 percent. The Department of Forestry attributed much of the decline in the timber harvest to factors that have little, if anything, to do with the long-running environmental battles in the United States: The main culprit is the slowdown in timber exports to Asia. As Asian economies cool, so does the demand for logs. We still believe that it would be helpful to Oregon’s economy to get more people working in our forests. But the state report suggests some of the reasons why that task is more complex than it might appear. LETTERS POLICY The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com. How Clinton could knock Trump out M preparation for the presidency, relying aybe I just missed it. But in all the testimonials at instead on feeding tweets to an anxious the Democratic convention Republican base. His candidacy should about what Hillary Clinton has done be over by now. But it isn’t. for other people, I don’t recall anyone It scares me that people are so fed saying, “I started a business because of up with elites, so hate and mistrust Hillary Clinton.” Or, “I hired someone Clinton and are so worried about because of Hillary Clinton.” the future — jobs, globalization and We heard from irst responders, Thomas terrorism — that a bare majority could veterans, grieving parents and victims Friedman still fall for this self-infatuated carnival of terrorism, rape and various forms barker if he exhibited half a political Comment of discrimination. There was just brain. one group that was conspicuously And that leads to my second reason absent: the people who drive our economy by for pushing Clinton to inject some capitalism inventing things or by borrowing money to into her economic plan: The coalition she start companies that actually employ people. could lead. If there is one thing that is not Watching the convention, you would never going to revive growth right now, it is an anti- know that what also makes America great is trade, regulatory heavy, socialist-lite agenda that generation after generation, people full the Democratic Party has drifted to under of ideas risk their savings to start companies the sway of Bernie Sanders. Socialism is the that provide work and paychecks. And only by greatest system ever invented for making generating more of these risk-takers will more people equally poor. Capitalism makes people people get hired for the good jobs Clinton unequally rich, but I would much rather grow promised. our pie bigger and faster and better adjust the The only things that were remotely slices than redivide a shrinking one. growth-related in her speech There are a lot of center- were glancing references right, business Republicans to a government-led today feeling orphaned by infrastructure investment Trump. They can’t vote program (Go for it!) and for him — but a lot of her vow “to give small them still claim they can’t businesses a boost. Make it bring themselves to vote easier to get credit.” for Hillary, either. Clinton To do that, though, should be reaching out to would run smack into the them with a real pro-growth, anti-bank sentiment of the startup, deregulation, Democratic Party, since entrepreneurship agenda and small community banks give them a positive reason provide about half the loans to vote for her. to small businesses, and it It makes sense is precisely those banks that politically: Take Trump have been most choked by on at his self-proclaimed the post-2008 regulations. We need to prevent strength. And it makes sense economically: If recklessness, not risk-taking. Clinton wins, she will need to get stuff done, I raise this for two reasons. The irst: not just give stuff away. Donald Trump may not stay stupid forever I get that she had to lean toward Sanders (although he might!), and therefore Hillary and his voters to win the nomination; their will have to beat him on the central economic concerns with fairness and inequality are issue of growth. Trump spent the past few honorable. But those concerns can be days trashing the parents of a heroic Muslim addressed only with economic growth; the American soldier who lost his life in Iraq. The rising anti-immigration sentiments in the parents had — rightly — criticized Trump. country can be defused only with economic But in his return ire, Trump shot himself in growth; the general anxiety feeding Trumpism both feet, losing support in his own party. can be eased only with economic growth. Trump defended his Twitter tantrum Sanders had no plan whatsoever for against the soldier’s parents with a sixth- growth. Trump doesn’t, either, but he can fake grader’s playground defense: “He called me it. It’s time that Hillary pivoted. The country a name.” He forgot that his own convention today doesn’t need the irst female president. engaged in a mad chant of “lock her up” about It needs the irst president in a long time who Clinton, but she ignored it and stayed on her can govern with a center-left, center-right message. That’s what adults do. coalition, and actually end the gridlock on Mind you, I hope Trump remains in his iscal policy in a smart way. total whack-job mode, because it distracted If Trump continues to melt down into a attention from the latest economic news — puddle of bile, more and more Republicans that was perfectly set up for Trump to take will be up for grabs. With the right pro-growth political advantage of — that the economy economic policies, Clinton would have an grew an anemic 1.2 percent in the second opening to not only enlist them to help her quarter, and growth in the irst quarter was win, but to build a governing coalition for the revised downward. That economic news was morning after. teed up for Trump, the self-styled job-creator, ■ and he shanked it deep into the woods, for it Thomas L. Friedman won the 2002 Pulitzer never to be heard from again. Prize for commentary, his third Pulitzer for Trump has gone amazingly far without The New York Times. He became the paper’s having done an ounce of homework in foreign-affairs Op-Ed columnist in 1995. Trump may not stay stupid forever and Hillary will have to beat him on the central economic issue of growth.