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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (March 15, 2017)
63/41 THE RACE TO PRESERVE CORAL REEFS BUCKS BEAT HANFORD WORLD/8A SOFTBALL/1B WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 2017 141st Year, No. 107 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD UMATILLA Electric co-op asks to push solar into farmland Board of Commissioners to discuss land use exception By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian The Umatilla County Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing Wednesday morning to discuss whether the Umatilla Elec- tric Cooperative should expand its Moyer-Tolles Solar Station over 80 acres of high-value farmland. UEC unveiled the solar farm, located on the south side of the highway east of Umatilla early last year. At the time, it was permitted for fi ve acres totaling 3,952 panels and 1.3 megawatts of electricity. The facility began generating on Feb. 9, 2016. Now, the utility wants to fi nish building out over the remaining 80 acres but requires a land use exception from the county, since the property is classifi ed as high-value farmland within the Columbia Valley American Viticulture Area. The rule, known as a Goal 3 exception, caps the size of solar facilities on high-value farmland at 12 acres. In its application, UEC See SOLAR/10A EO fi le photo The Umatilla Electric Cooperative now has the largest consum- er-owned solar project in the state with their 1.3 megawatt solar array near Umatilla. Court weighs Vanessa Logman’s mental state on day of attack Bills would ease new dwellings on farms Critics say the proposals would disrupt agriculture By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Bureau been playing on the Slip ‘N Slide in the yard. Unbeknownst to Dan, Vanessa, who has bipolar SALEM — Two bills aimed at expanding affordable housing in rural Oregon would make it easier to build dwellings or permanently reside in recre- ational vehicles on farmland. Advocates of House bills 2937 and 2938 say the proposals would help mitigate the state’s housing shortage without under- mining protections for farmland. However, critics argue the bills would disrupt agricultural operations without having much impact on housing and could be counterproductive by encouraging short-term rentals. “It’s just not the best use of farmland,” said Mary Anne Nash, public policy counsel for the Oregon Farm Bureau. Proponents of the bills said lawmakers need to be creative in fi nding solutions to Oregon’s housing problem. There are limits to what can be accomplished with legislation focused on landlord-tenant relations, said Julie Parrish, R-West Linn, during a March 14 legislative hearing. “It doesn’t put new units in the mix,” she said. Oregon’s land use system was intended to preserve farmland but not to create insuffi cent housing and perpetuate home- lessness, Parrish said. Meanwhile, HB 2937 and 2938 have restrictions that limit new dwellings and won’t “upset the land use apple cart in any signifi cant way,” she said. Under HB 2937, a single “accessory dwelling” can be sited within 100 feet of an existing home in a rural residential zone, or in a “exclusive farm use” zone with a See LOGMAN/10A See FARM/10A Staff photo by E.J. Harris Vanessa Logman stands next to her attorney Michael Breiling during a pre-trail hearing Monday at the Stafford Hansell Government Center in Hermiston. Case made for return home Judge will decide whether Logman stays in community or goes to state mental hospital By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian The case of Vanessa Logman is one tiny step closer to a conclusion. At stake is where she will live when it’s over. Nine months after cutting a man’s throat near Pilot Rock, the Pendleton mother of four attended another pre-trial hearing Monday so judge and attorneys could compare notes on the case. Logman has undergone two independent psychological examinations to determine her mental state when she attacked a Hermiston man near Pilot Rock. Before the assault, the Pendleton woman had a record marred only by a single traffi c violation several years earlier. “Both doctors have argued in essence she was suffering from a mental disease at the time. It would seem an easy thing to say that someone who has never been in trouble before is owed a second chance.” — Dan Logman, husband of Vanessa Logman On June 4, all that changed. Her husband, Dan, arrived home from work the night before to fi nd dinner prepared and evidence that his boys had MISSION Fire takes down another local home By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris A Pendleton fi refi ghter on Tuesday works to extinguish a house fi re at 45542 Mission Road east of Pendleton. Another house fi re drove out another local family. The blaze erupted Tuesday around 9:55 a.m. in the one-story manufactured home of Michael and Jackie White- sall at 45542 Mission Road, a few miles east of Pendleton. According to Kricket Nich- olson, Jackie’s mother, the fi re was ignited when a heat lamp warming chicks fell into the sawdust in a closet area and spread to clothes. Jackie went for a fi re extin- guisher, saw the fl ames were too big and turned her attention to getting the fi ve children, ages 2-13, out of the home. The Whitesells have three children of their own and are taking care of two children of a neighbor who is in the hospital. All fi ve children are home schooled. The Umatilla Tribal Fire Department arrived minutes after the fi re started and were the fi rst on the scene, then See FIRE/10A