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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 2016)
FOOTBALL/1B OPINION/4A 75/52 OREGON TRIBES SUPPORT SIOUX BUCKS PREP FOR SEASON OPENER No guns for marijuana card holders NATION/2A THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2016 140th Year, No. 229 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD BOARDMAN Coal plant to try full day of biomass Will switch to biomass by 2020 or shut down By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian EO fi le photo This fi le photo shows the Portland General Electric coal fi re plant in Boardman. PGE will use nothing but woody debris to power the station for one full day as the utility continues to test alternative fuels at the 550-megawatt facility. Cleaning up forest clutter might be good for more than just curtailing large wildfi res in Oregon. It might just be the answer Port- land General Electric is looking for to convert the Boardman Coal Plant to 100 percent biomass. Later this year, PGE will use nothing but woody debris to power the station for one full day as the utility continues to test alternative PENDLETON fuels at the 550-megawatt facility. A successful test burn was conducted last year at Boardman using a 10-to-1 mix of coal and biomass, which has project leaders feeling optimistic. But this will be the fi rst time the plant is fed exclusively biomass for 24 straight hours, See BIOMASS/8A Public records reform could spark suits By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau Staff photo by E.J. Harris The play structure at Kiwanis Park on Southeast Byers Avenue is surrounded by a temporary chain link fence Wednesday in Pendleton. Hitting a grant slam Will take years for city to replace equipment deemed a liability By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian With almost one-third of Pendleton’s public play- grounds closed or removed because of safety and liability issues, a city steering committee is looking at grants that could help replace the aging play equipment. But it will likely take years to do so. The playground at Kiwanis Park is the most recent struc- ture closed. A specialist in town for the construction of playgrounds at the new Wash- ington and Sherwood Heights elementary schools inspected the Kiwanis structure and said it was a liability. Although it may look like it is in good condition, Parks and Recreation Director Donnie Cook said there are not enough wood chips on top of the concrete base. Cook also said the 15-year-old equipment’s plastic is starting to brittle. Kiwanis joins Aldrich, May and Vincent parks in having their playgrounds closed. To replace all of the play equipment in one fell swoop, parks and recreation staff are looking into “bundling” the projects together under one grant application to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Depart- See PARKS/8A “You can build all the dream worlds you want. But I guarantee in 15 years, if you don’t take care of it, it’s going to be a piece of garbage.” — Donnie Cook, Pendleton Parks and Recreation Director SALEM — The state will face more lawsuits from local governments if lawmakers pass public records reform in 2017 without a supermajority vote, according to a lobbyist who represents county governments. Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum earlier this month submitted draft legislation that would for the fi rst time set a deadline for public bodies to respond to records requests. The bill gives public bodies 10 business days to furnish requested records, with certain exceptions. Rob Bovett, a lobbyist for the Association of Oregon Counties, said some county offi cials might see that deadline as an unfunded mandate because they might have to pay overtime or hire people to meet the deadline. Some counties have “grown increasingly frus- trated with the regularly unfunded mandates” from lawmakers, Bovett said. “They’re not taking it anymore; they’re actually suing, so it’s a different universe,” he said. Nine counties in May fi led a lawsuit against the state alleging that a requirement to give 40 hours of paid sick leave to employees is an unfunded mandate. The lawsuit is based on a 1996 amendment to the Oregon Constitution that requires lawmakers to reimburse local governments when new require- ments with a fi scal impact are adopted without supermajority support. In Oregon, three-fi fths of the members of the House and Senate must vote in favor to make a supermajority. “In order to avoid getting struck down as uncon- stitutional, we need to have this bill go through the Legislature by overwhelming majorities, so we have to build consensus on this,” Bovett said. “Otherwise, we are going to be litigating pieces of this as an unfunded mandate.” Bovett made the comments during a discussion Wednesday about possible changes to the bill. Lobbyists who represent local governments asked Rosenblum Wednesday to revise the bill to give public bodies 15 business days to provide requested records. Michael Kron, special counsel to the attorney general, said some of the revisions to the bill will include the longer 15-day deadline but also language to emphasize records should be provided as soon as possible. Zika cases climb in Oregon 26 travel-related cases this year By WILL DENNER East Oregonian More than two dozen travel-related cases of Zika virus have been confi rmed in Oregon in 2016. According to the Oregon Health Authority, the fi rst case of the year was confi rmed in February. There have now been 26 cases this year alone. OHA spokesman Jonathan Modie declined to disclose which Oregon counties have confi rmed positive tests for the virus, citing patient confi den- tiality. Each Oregonian who contracted Zika in 2016 did so when traveling, primarily in Zika-infested Central and South American countries. Zika is mostly spread to humans from mosquitoes carrying the virus. Two mosquito species — aedes aegypti and aedes albopictus — have been identifi ed as carriers. Florida is currently the only U.S. state to have cases that came from local mosquitoes. Zika symptoms often mimic the fl u and include fever, rash, muscle aches and headaches. An unknown percentage of patients manage their symptoms from home, choosing not to see a doctor. “Many individuals who contract it may not know they have it,” said Sarah Williams of Umatilla County Public Health. Williams said no cases of Zika have been found in Umatilla County. To keep it that way, Williams said the best thing people can do is to avoid traveling to Zika-infested areas, especially women who are pregnant or may become pregnant. Pregnant women infected with Zika are at risk of passing the virus to their fetuses, which can cause birth deformities. Morrow County Health See ZIKA/8A Cynthia Goldsmith/CDC via AP This digitally-colorized electron microscope image shows the Zika virus, in red, about 40 nanometers in diameter.
