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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 25, 2017)
OFF PAGE ONE HOUSING: Council retains conditional approval Page 8A East Oregonian Continued from 1A in the works for the empty lots, but city planner Clint Spencer said when a devel- oper asked that mini-storage be added to the zone, the planning commission felt it was a good opportunity to also add multi-family dwell- ings as an allowable use to the area. “That property has been vacant for a very long time with commercial zoning,” he said. Steve Richards of Eastern Oregon Development, LLC told the council if mini- storage were added to the allowable uses in the zone, he plans to build a storage facility with 300 to 370 units on a parcel just east of the Gotta Stop Mini Mart. Richards owns mini-storage facilities in Pendleton and Stanfield and said his Stan- field facility has about 20 Hermiston customers who could not find room at a Hermiston facility. Richards said a study by appraiser Doug Barak showed Hermiston’s storage facilities are at about 95 percent capacity at any given time. He also offered up a 100-signature petition from residents on the west side of town supporting a mini storage facility in his proposed location. “Of all of them I approached, two of them declined to sign the peti- tion,” he said. Spencer reported that at the planning commis- sion’s hearing, a neighbor expressed concern about increased traffic and loitering, but other neigh- bors said they would appre- ciate any development that reduced the dust and weeds. The council unanimously approved the overlay, noting that since storage facilities and apartment buildings were approved as conditional uses, the city would still have a large amount of control over approving proposed projects based on their details. Adding multi-family dwellings to the zone was an example of the type of changes the planning department and commis- sion hope to continue to make after the city council named promoting housing development one of their top priorities during a January goal-setting session. On Monday the council also approved a recommen- dation from the planning commission to “direct city staff to begin research and preparation of residential code amendments and initiate changes to the zoning ordinance to promote residential development.” Spencer said the plan- ning commission recently had a “very productive, very open-ended” round- table discussion with area developers about what their biggest barriers are in keeping up with Hermis- ton’s housing demand. Developers at the meeting named three main barriers: High demand has pushed buildable land in Hermiston to such a high price that it becomes difficult to make a profit on new homes, a contractor shortage in the area has pushed labor costs up and infrastructure can also be cost prohibitive. Spencer said the planning commission has noted the city has “very conservative” requirements for easements and setbacks that, if reduced, could help developers turn more of a profit on putting in new housing developments. If setbacks were changed from seven feet to five feet, for example, more houses could be built in a single development, giving more of an incentive to start building. Troy White, who owns property near the Herm- iston Cinema, testified the changes Spencer was talking about would help make development of his land more attractive because he could fit 20 homes there instead of 16. Spencer also said the planning commission wanted to start looking on a case by case basis at “infill” properties, which are surrounded by residential development but some particular problem has held back development of that single empty lot or two. Adding more overlays, like the council approved earlier in the night for the property off Highland Avenue, could be one tool for addressing that, Spencer said. Tuesday, April 25, 2017 Trump slaps tariff on Canadian lumber WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration moved Monday to impose a 20 percent tariff on softwood lumber entering the United States from Canada, esca- lating an intensifying trade dispute between the two countries but giving hope in the Northwest where lumber sales have lagged. The president announced the decision during a gath- ering with conservative media outlets at the White House Monday evening. Trump’s initial comments were relayed by four people who were in the room and confirmed by an administration official. The Commerce Depart- ment later announced it had reached a preliminary deter- mination and would impose countervailing duties ranging from 3 percent to 24 percent on imported softwood lumber, with an average of about 20 percent. One person in the room said Trump threatened that dairy could be next. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is the top Demo- crat that oversees trade policy and on the panel that has delayed a vote on Robert Lighthizer, Trump’s nominee for the U.S. trade representative. “Today’s announcement sends the message that help is on the way,” Wyden said in a statement Monday to the Wall Street Journal. “America needs continued tough trade enforcement and a durable solution to the Canadian policies that distort trade and hold American lumber businesses back.” The U.S. and Canada typi- cally enjoy a friendly trading relationship, but things have soured in recent months. Trump has been railing against Canada’s decision to change its policy on pricing domestic milk to cover more dairy ingredients, leading to lower prices for products, including ultra-filtered milk. SCIENCE: 300 show up for fair in Roy Raley Park SEARCH: Replacement sought for Andy Kovach Continued from 1A Continued from 1A That’s especially true in agriculture, added Smiley, who continues to do research on behalf of wheat growers at the Columbia Basin Agri- cultural Research Station near Adams. Literally everything on the farm, from the tiniest soil microbes to the final harvested crop, is rooted in science, he said. “The development of that plant is totally dependent on scientific information,” Smiley said. Back at the park, the Community Science Fair featured 19 different booths and vendors, including a table hosted by Blue Mountain Community College where instructors led a number of kid-friendly science experiments — perhaps most noticeably two pig lungs attached to an air pump, showing the capacity of a pink healthy lung versus a black smoker’s lung. Kristen Oja, a biology and general science instructor at BMCC, said getting involved in science allows Staff photo by Kathy Aney Hal McCune holds up a sign as he participates in the March for Science on Saturday morning in Pendleton. children to begin uncovering mysteries all around them. “It’s important for them to become interested, because there’s science is our everyday lives,” Oja said. Casey Brown organized the fair, and said they had more than 300 people turn out over the afternoon. “This is what makes a community stronger, when you come together and do things like this,” Brown said. Representatives from Pendleton Parks & Recreation, the Pendleton Tree Commission and the Umatilla National Forest also gave away free seedling trees as part of the city’s “Pendleton Plant 1,000 Trees Initiative” that started back on Arbor Day in 2009. Dave Powell, chairman of the Pendleton Tree Commis- sion and a retired Forest Service silviculturist, said they decided to do the tree giveaway during the Science Fair this year, anticipating a larger crowd. Of the 500 sugar pine, ponderosa pine, water birch and ninebark seedlings on hand, they gave out a total of 370 on Saturday. Planting trees comes with a host of public benefits, Powell said, providing shade and improving the health of communities. To date, Pend- leton residents have planted 993 trees, just seven shy of their goal. While he did not get to march, Powell, who also serves on the Eastern Oregon Climate Change Coalition, said he was pleased by the turnout at the event. “This is something I really support,” he said. “If you think about just the full gamut of things we take for granted every day ... it’s hard to look around and see something where science has not had some hand. ——— Contact George Plaven at gplaven@eastoregonian. com or 541-966-0825. CRACKDOWN: Job seekers must show documents Continued from 1A security but also mercy toward laborers who are not dangerous criminals. Farming uses a higher percentage of illegal labor than any other U.S. industry, according to a Pew Research Center study. Immigrants working illegally in this country accounted for about 46 percent of America’s roughly 800,000 crop farmworkers in recent years, according to an Associated Press anal- ysis of data from the U.S. Departments of Labor and Agriculture. Stepped-up deportations could carry “significant economic implications,” a 2012 U.S. Department of Agriculture study said. If America’s unauthorized labor force shrank 40 percent, for example, vege- table production could drop by more than 4 percent, the study said. The American Farm Bureau Federation says strict immigration enforcement would raise food prices 5 to 6 percent because of a drop in supply and because of the higher labor costs farmers could face. In addition to proposing a wall at the Mexican border, Trump wants to hire 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement offi- cers and has served notice that he intends to be more aggressive than the Obama administration in deporting immigrants. ICE agents have arrested hundreds of immigrants since Trump took office, though how much of a change from the Obama administration that represents is a matter of debate. Field hands have been among those targeted, with apple pickers detained in upstate New York and Guatemalans pulled over in Oregon on their way to a AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus In this March 30 photo, Moses Maldonado poses for a photo in front of a statue depicting pioneers in front of the Oregon Capitol in Salem. forest to pick a plant used in floral arrangements. It doesn’t appear the arrests themselves have put a sizable dent in the agricul- tural workforce yet, but the fear is taking its toll. Some workers in Oregon are leaving for job sites as early as 1 a.m. and staying away from check-cashing shops on payday to avoid dragnets. Farm employers are worried about losing their workforces. “They say, ‘Don’t go out, don’t get drunk, don’t do nothing illegal’ because they need us too. They worry too,” said Moses Maldonado, who is in the U.S. illegally and has worked for nearly four decades tending wine grapes and picking fruit in Oregon. In Los Banos, California, asparagus farmer Joe Del Bosque said workers are so afraid of being arrested in the field that he struggled to find enough hands in March to pick his crop. When immigration attorney Sarah Loftin held a recent seminar in the Oregon wine-region town of Newberg to talk about immi- grants’ legal rights, she was surprised to see about half of those present were winery owners or farmers. By law, job seekers must provide documents establishing their eligibility to work in the U.S. But the papers are often fake. Many agricultural employers say that it’s not their responsi- bility — and that they lack the expertise — to determine if they’re genuine. At the same time, they say that U.S.-born workers have little interest at laboring in the dirt and the cold at the crack of dawn. As 18 Guatemalans in hoodies and rubber boots toiled in such conditions recently in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, their boss expressed admiration for their willingness to do the back-breaking work he said native-born Americans won’t do. “Homeless people are camped in the fir forest over there,” the farmer said, pointing to a stand of trees. “And they’re not looking for work.” He lamented that crack- downs may force him to retire because he won’t be able to find workers. Fearing reprisals from federal agents, he spoke on condition of anonymity and didn’t want even his crop identified. Some immigration hard- liners say people who are in the U.S. illegally steal jobs from Americans. But a 2013 study by an economist at the Center for Global Devel- opment looked at farms in North Carolina and found that immigrant manual laborers had “almost zero” effect on the job prospects of native-born U.S. workers. “It appears that almost all U.S. workers prefer almost any labor-market outcome — including long periods of unemployment — to carrying out manual harvest and planting labor,” Michael Clemens wrote. While lobbying for visa and immigration reforms, agricultural employers are also looking into contingency plans such as mechanization or a switch to less labor-intensive crops. In Vermont, officials are considering a vocational program to train inmates in dairy farming. Dudley, the vineyard owner, isn’t optimistic about some of the alternatives. “I don’t trust that temps off the street, or jailhouse labor, or whatever alter- native they come up with would work,” she said. six years has been the assistant superintendent at Longview School District in Washington. The district has 6,500 students. He also was executive director of leadership and learning for three years and high school principal for six years in Longview. Fritsch was a social studies teacher for 15 years before becoming an administrator. During his tenure as a high school teacher, he served as the head football and head wrestling coach. Fritsch has a bachelor’s degree in social sciences and legal studies from Pacific Lutheran University and a master’s in school adminis- tration from Portland State University. • James T. Stroder since 2012 has been superinten- dent of Gardiner School District in Montana, which has an enrollment of 250 students. His previous administrative experience includes three years as superintendent at Ingram Independent School District, Texas, with 1,100 students, and five years as superintendent/principal at Camas County School District, Idaho, which has about 250 students. His teaching experience includes five years in a self-contained classroom for at-risk students. He has an education specialist degree in education leadership from the University of Idaho and both a bachelor’s degree in earth science and a master’s in education from Baylor University. He is working toward completion of a doctorate in education lead- ership from Montana State University. • James M. Wagner has been the superintendent for three years at Kimball Area Schools in Montana, which has an enrollment of 800 students. Before Kimball, he was a high school principal in the Albert Lea School District, Minnesota, with 3,200 students. Wagner also served five years in other leadership positions in Minnesota. Wagner’s teaching expe- rience includes nine years as a secondary science teacher. He has an education specialist degree for his superintendent certification from St. Mary’s University and a master’s in education curriculum from the College of St. Scholas- tica, both in Minnesota. The district is seeking to replace Andy Kovach, who was selected through a similar process last spring and started as superinten- dent on July 1, 2016. He resigned the position Feb. 13 but agreed to staying on through June 30. The district contracted Windows to Leadership LLC to recruit in candidates for the position, the same company it used in 2016. The board and a screening committee of staff and community members reviewed an applicant field of 21 candidates, according to the district’s statement, and the board interviewed several of them. The school district will conduct background and reference checks for each of the finalists before they come to Pendleton next week. McBee said the May schedule for their visits is not set, but she anticipated the public period to talk to the candidates and ask them questions would be during the afternoon. The school board also will interview with each candidate in a closed-door executive session to finish the visits and expects to announce the next steps in the superinten- dent search in early May. McBee had a meeting Friday at the district office with Kovach, which Pend- leton police chief Stuart Roberts also attended. McBee said Roberts’ presence was related to the meeting with Kovach, but she could not talk about why she asked Roberts to be there. Roberts said he had no interaction with Kovach, and Kovach did not return a call seeking comment. Staff at the district office said he was unavailable Monday. TWO HOURS every morning paid off my credit card debt. Summit Springs Village Assisted Living & Memory Care Condon, OR Pleasant, Comfortable, Individual Rooms AVAILABLE NOW Become an East Oregonian Carrier. Call Cindy Sara - 541-384-2101 or Email: hesscindy70@gmail.com visit our website: summitspringsvillage.org 211 SE Byers Ave. Pendleton or call: 541-276-2211 1-800-522-0255