Wednesday, May 17, 2017
OFF PAGE ONE
PENDLETON: Ciraulo expects the new CARTY: PGE serves roughly 848,452
customers around the Portland, Salem areas
station to be built in next 18-20 months
Page 10A
East Oregonian
Continued from 1A
The bond also sets aside
$630,000 for new Jaws of Life
extrication equipment, heart
monitors, an ambulance and
other emergency equipment.
Ciraulo said heart moni-
tors would be one of the first
things purchased as soon as
the bonds are sold.
Firefighter/paramedic
Jeff Perry, the director of the
political action committee
that campaigned for the bond,
said the impact of its passage
could be felt for the next 60
years.
“We’re turning around the
history of Pendleton Fire,” he
said.
The PAC still raised
$15,146, which allowed
volunteers to spend time
and money on advertising,
yard signs, door-to-door
campaigning and phone
banking.
Perry credited the work of
the PAC’s 20-30 volunteers
and the additional presen-
tations Turner and Ciraulo
made to service groups across
town.
The success of the fire
bond ends the city’s prolonged
skid at the ballot box in recent
years.
A missed advertising
deadline sunk the last fire
bond attempt before it could
reach the ballot, which was
followed by a decisive defeat
of a 5-cent gas tax for city
road repairs in 2015. The
2016 measures to legalize
marijuana sales enjoyed
little council support beyond
putting it on the ballot.
Prior to Tuesday, the last
bond measure backed by
Pendleton voters was in 1996,
when they approved a parks
and recreation bond that led
to the construction of the
Pendleton Aquatic Center.
Turner encouraged the
room full of firefighters and
city councilors to continue
talking about the fire bond,
advising against smugness
while committing themselves
to being good stewards of the
bond funds.
Ciraulo said he plans to
meet with City Manager Robb
Corbett and other department
heads about beginning the
planning process Wednesday.
While the city already has
an option on the St. Anthony
property, they still need to
negotiate a final sale price
with the hospital. If every-
thing goes smoothly, Ciraulo
expects to have the new
station built in the next 18-20
months.
Despite the long-awaited
victory, Ciraulo said he’s
staking his reputation on
proving to the more than 1,200
people who voted against the
bond that the fire station was
a worthwhile investment and
that the city can handle their
tax money responsibly.
The bond will add 62 cents
per $1,000 of assessed value
to Pendleton property owners’
tax bills.
If citizens continue to
have concerns about the fire
station’s future location on the
Unofficial results
Continued from 1A
STANFIELD SCHOOL
DISTRICT, POSITION 4
Bruce Lemmon: 23.3%
Nikka McCann: 27.1%
Nanci Sandoval: 19.9%
Elizabeth Sperr: 29.6%
renewable energy over fossil
fuels.
“On the subject of envi-
ronmental responsibility, we
stand in solidarity,” Wallace
said. “Our voices are united,
and we say this project is
wrong.”
PGE has discussed
building two new units at
Carty to satisfy long-term
customer demand beyond
2020, when the Boardman
Coal Plant is scheduled to
close. The utility says it will
need to add 561 megawatts
of capacity to make up the
shortfall, as well as keep up
with future load growth.
However, PGE recently
suspended its efforts to get
site certificates for Carty II
and III, instead focusing on
buying the additional power
it needs from existing facil-
ities. Opponents of fracked
natural gas are nevertheless
pushing the PUC to outright
reject proposals for Carty
expansion in the PGE’s
latest Integrated Resource
Plan.
The PUC has until the
end of August to issue a final
order on PGE’s resource
plan, in which regulators
may acknowledge all or
parts of the proposal on
behalf of ratepayers.
Safety concerns
Worries over the Carty
plant have also extended to
the existing generation unit,
which came online last year.
A coalition of groups,
including Columbia River-
keeper, is asking the PUC
to investigate potential
problems at Carty, including
safety allegations raised by
one of the project contractors
and higher-than-expected
emissions of smog-forming
pollutants.
The first issue stems from
a building code complaint
filed by Newjac Inc., an
Indiana-based pipe manu-
facturer, with the Oregon
Department of Business and
Consumer Services. Newjac
supplied more than 17,000
feet of high-pressure pipe
for the power plant, which
was installed by then-gen-
eral contractor Abeinsa.
PGE later fired Abeinsa
in late 2015 and assumed
ATHENA-WESTON SCHOOL
DISTRICT, ZONE 5
Thomas Munck: 68.4%
Audra Lee Smalley: 31.4%
RIVERSIDE FIRE DISTRICT
Sue Petersen: 45.5%
Shannon Franklin: 54.5%
RIVERSIDE-MISSION WATER
CONTROL DISTRICT
Jay Rusher: 42.4%
Mark Petersen: 56.6%
ECHO CEMETERY DISTRICT,
POSITION 2
Ruben F. Harris: 51.3%
Patty Cisneros: 48.7%
MORROW COUNTY SCHOOL
DISTRICT, POSITION 7
Steve W. Partlow: 34.1%
Jacob Cain: 16.6%
Andy R. Fletcher: 49.3%
IRRIGON RURAL FIRE
PROTECTION DISTRICT,
POSITION 3
Robert Vandecar: 70.1%
Jim Zellars: 29.5%
east side of town or its overall
cost, Ciraulo said his door
remains open.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0836.
SCHOOL: Maiocco said the alternative to new
school buildings is more modular classrooms
Continued from 1A
iston school board chair on
Tuesday evening. Sherman
and board members Bonnie
Luisi and Jason Middleton
ran unopposed and retained
their seats, while a fourth seat
drew no candidates and will
be appointed by the board.
In a statement about the
bond failure, superintendent
Fred Maiocco echoed Sher-
man’s sentiments.
“We were extremely
disappointed to learn that
voters did not approve the
ballot measure,” Maiocco
said. “The election results
indicate that we have more
work to do in educating the
community about the chal-
lenges facing our growing
district.”
He said the district and
board would be looking for
other solutions to the facility
challenges facing the schools.
During the campaign he said
the alternative to new school
buildings in the growing
district was more modular
classrooms.
Sherman said she had
been optimistic about the
bond’s success.
“I was expecting it to
pass,” he said. “Not by a
large margin, but I thought
we’d run a good campaign
and focused on the need for
the kids.”
She said the district’s
goals remain the same.
“We’ll
continue
to
educate kids and do the best
with what we have, but it’s
going to be a real strain,” she
said.
The district previously
passed a $69.9 million bond
in 2008 with 53 percent of
the vote, which replaced
Sunset and West Park
elementary schools on their
respective sites, and replaced
Armand Larive Middle
School at district property
on Southwest 9th Street and
Gettman Road.
Photo contributed by Sara Quinn
Willa Wallace, a tribal activist from Pendleton,
testified Monday during a special hearing before
the Oregon Public Utility Commission in Port-
land, speaking out against expanding the natural
gas-fired Carty Generating Station.
“We conducted a thorough review of
the Carty documents. We knew their
claim was baseless.”
— Laurel Schmidt, a spokeswoman for PGE
control of the remaining
plant construction.
Newjac claims PGE did
not obtain the necessary
quality control records for
the pipe prior to state inspec-
tion, creating a “potential
life-safety issue for plant
employees.” Lawyers for
the company sent a letter in
October 2016 asking PGE to
pay more than $2 million for
those records, or they would
pursue further action.
Laurel Schmidt, a spokes-
woman for PGE, said there
is no basis for the complaint,
and Carty is in compliance
with all Oregon safety and
code requirements.
“We conducted a thor-
ough review of the Carty
documents,” Schmidt said.
“We knew their claim was
baseless.”
Schmidt said PGE is
currently conducting another
audit of construction paper-
work with the Department
of Business and Consumer
Services.
“We do not want to
operate a plant that is not
safe,” she said.
Dan Serres, conservation
director for Columbia River-
keeper, said the allegation
raises serious questions
about safety and reliability
at Carty, and ought to deter
the PUC from allowing
expansion on the ratepayer’s
dollar.
Seres also points to new
information that shows
Carty would emit 67 percent
more pollutants than initially
permitted by the Oregon
Department of Environ-
mental Quality.
“For us, it raises very
serious questions about the
rollout of fracked gas at
Carty,” Seres said.
Schmidt said PGE learned
about higher emissions
during startup and shutdown
at Carty based on informa-
tion provided by Mitsubishi,
which manufactured the
natural gas turbines. The
utility has applied to modify
its DEQ permit, and Schmidt
said drafts should be avail-
able for public review within
the next month or so.
“We’re currently in the
process,” she said.
Seres said there is no
guarantee DEQ will approve
the permit modification,
further increasing the unre-
liability of electricity from
Carty.
“For them to ask for that
level of increase ... it just
again raises very serious
questions.”
PGE serves roughly
848,452 retail customers
around the Portland and
Salem metro areas.
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