Page 8A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
U.N. chief: U.S. will be replaced EOCI: Amsberry said she enjoys
getting to know the inmates
if it disengages from world
UNITED NATIONS (AP)
— Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres warned the Trump
administration on Tuesday
that if the United States
disengages from many issues
confronting the international
community it will be replaced
— and that won’t be good for
America or for the world.
Guterres made clear to
reporters at his first press
conference here since taking
the reins of the United Nations
on Jan. 1 that proposed cuts
in U.S. funding for the U.N.
would be disastrous and create
“an unsolvable problem to the
management of the U.N.”
But the U.N. chief stressed
that he is not afraid to stand up
to President Donald Trump,
citing his vocal opposition to
the U.S. leader’s withdrawal
from the Paris Climate
Agreement. He said the
mobilization of U.S. business
and civil society in support of
the climate deal is “a signal
of hope that we very much
encourage.”
Looking at the array
of global crises, Guterres
expressed concern that there
could be a direct confronta-
tion between the United States
and Russia over Syria and
urged a de-escalation of the
dispute between Washington
and Moscow over the U.S.
downing of a Syrian jet.
This is very important,
he said, “because these kind
of incidents can be very
dangerous in a conflict situ-
ation in which there are so
many actors, and in which the
situation is so complex on the
ground.”
“So, indeed, I am
concerned, and I hope that
this will not lead to any
escalation of the conflict that
is already as dramatic as it
is,” Guterres said.
The U.N. chief said he
has been actively involved in
trying to promote “effective
mediation” in a large number
of global conflicts including
South Sudan, Congo, Central
African Republic, Syria,
Libya and more recently
Afghanistan and Cyprus.
“That doesn’t mean that
problems are easy to be
solved,” he said. “In a world
where power relations are
unclear and where impunity
and unpredictability tend to
prevail, what we see is that
the capacity of prevention
and conflict resolution of the
international community as a
whole, but also of the U.N. in
particular, are today severely
limited.
Nonetheless,
Guterres
said: “I intend to go on very
actively engaged in these kind
of contacts.”
COMPOST: Water right turned out to be
a larger gamble than expected for Ostrom
Continued from 1A
180 tons of mushroom
compost — or substrate
— every week, though the
material would have had
to be shipped to another
farm where Ostrom’s would
grow and harvest the actual
mushrooms.
The deal with Sunnyside
allows Ostrom’s to construct
both the compost and mush-
room growing facilities on
the same site, which Mabbott
said they were not able to do
near Athena without access
to natural gas.
Mabbott, who met with
Knudsen last week, said
regulatory issues also played
a role in Ostrom’s decision
to pull out of Oregon. First,
the water right turned out
to be a larger gamble than
expected after the Oregon
Water Resources Depart-
ment placed additional regu-
lations on groundwater wells
in the Walla Walla subbasin,
declaring a Serious Water
Management Problem Area
on May 11.
The declaration means no
new agricultural wells will
be approved in the 30,000-
acre subbasin in order to
curb groundwater declines,
even though Mabbott said
the facility would use rela-
tively little water — roughly
equivalent to four residential
homes.
Ostrom’s also faced
the highest level of public
scrutiny possible to secure a
composting permit through
the Oregon Department
of Environmental Quality.
Jamie
Jones,
natural
resource specialist with
DEQ, said the agency
assigned the permit as a
“Category 4,” or the same
risk level as a landfill.
Composting permits take
into account things like
surface water and ground-
water contamination, as well
as off-site odor. The higher
the risk category, the more
the public has the chance
to weigh in and provide
comments.
“We wanted to make sure
everybody had the ability to
participate before we started
drafting the permit,” Jones
said.
About 15 people attended
a community meeting on
June 6 in Athena, hosted
by DEQ, to discuss the
Ostrom’s proposal. Jones
said most questions at the
meeting centered on odor.
Ostrom’s has since notified
DEQ they no longer intend
to pursue a permit at this
time.
While Mabbott said odor
is a subjective and nebulous
thing, she had previously
visited the Ostrom’s farm
in Olympia and found the
smell to be mild.
“It’s nothing compared
to even a small feedlot,”
Mabbott said.
Despite
the
recent
agreement with the Port of
Sunnyside, Mabbott said
she holding out hope that
the county may still be able
to lure Ostrom’s back with
the right incentives.
The
$25
million
Sunnyside development is
expected to bring 200 new
jobs to the area, according
to the Herald-Republic.
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
Continued from 1A
She started out as a
telephone operator, then
move over to the security
side and worked her way up
the ranks. By 2013 she was
superintendent at TRCI,
and in 2014 she moved
back over to EOCI to serve
as superintendent there.
Thirty-four years ago
women were not even
allowed to work most
jobs in Oregon prisons,
so having two female
superintendents in a row at
EOCI is a sign that times
have changed. Department
of Corrections institutions
administrator Mark Nooth
acknowledged that moving
up the ranks in such a tradi-
tionally male-dominated
field has not been easy for
many female corrections
employees, but said today it
is “not all that unusual” for
prison administrators to be
women.
“I think the department
should be very proud,” he
said. “We’ve worked hard
on the diversity piece.”
Taylor said when she
worked as a telephone
operator for EOCI in the
1980s women were “just
starting to be allowed” to
work in men’s prisons.
“I had some very coura-
geous women who came
before me, some of whom
I cam proud to call my
mentors, who fought for the
right to be treated equally,”
she said.
Nooth said that Taylor
has become a mentor
herself, and that her retire-
ment is a big loss to the
Department of Corrections.
“Leaders like that don’t
come along every day,” he
said.
Working inside a prison
isn’t for everyone, but both
women said the people are
what makes the job worth
it. There’s a camaraderie
that comes with working
together in such a high-stress
environment, and Amsberry
said working in corrections
is a “truly honorable career.”
“We’re here to keep the
public safe, to keep our
staff safe, but also here to
release a person we hope to
never see again,” Amsberry
said. “We don’t want them
to come back.”
She said she enjoys
getting to know the
inmates, some of whom
she has known since she
first started at EOCI. One
of her favorite parts of
the job is shaking hands
with someone about to be
released. She also gets to
know the inmates’ families
when they come for a visit.
“I talk to a lot of the
moms,” she said, noting
she’s a mother too. “They’re
not incarcerated but they’re
greatly affected.”
Taylor said it has been
fun watching the “metamor-
phoses” of many inmates.
Some misbeaver, then
take more responsibility
for their actions. Others
went through the prison’s
electrical
apprenticeship
program, got released and
have now successfully
established themselves in
the outside world.
She said the prisons are
always trying to do more
with less as costs go up and
funding goes down. She
said the job was a “heavy
lift” sometimes, but she
will miss the challenge.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
TAX: Fails to meet requirements of the constitution
Continued from 1A
Hence,
Legislative
Counsel now considers
revenue-raising proposals
to mean only measures that
would change a tax rate.
A change to the tax base
alone needs only a simple
majority vote, Legislative
Counsel Dexter Johnson
told lawmakers on the
House Interim Committee
on Revenue last year.
The Senate Bill 28
passed the House and
Senate without a three-
fifths majority. The vote
in the House Monday was
34-to-23. The bill was
approved in the Senate
17-to-13.
If signed by the
governor, the bill could
face a legal challenge, said
House and Senate Republi-
cans Monday.
The bill’s passage fails
to meet the requirements
of the constitution for
a measure that raises
revenue,
said
House
Minority Leader, Mike
McLane, R-Powell Butte.
“I swore an oath to
uphold the Oregon Consti-
tution, even when it might
be inconvenient. I am not
willing to risk violating
that oath by supporting
this bill,” McLane said
Monday.
Senate
Republican
spokesman Jonathan Lock-
wood accused legislative
Democrats of “trampling
on the constitution.”
“Oregonians can’t afford
any more tax increases,
and a lot of this is hidden,”
Lockwood said.
“These pile up before
they hit the consumer,” he
added.
House Democrats who
passed the bill Monday
didn’t issue a formal
response to Republicans’
assertions.
Scott
Moore,
a
spokesman for House
Democrats, referred to the
Oregon Supreme Court
ruling.
“I kind of think the legal
argument speaks for itself,”
Moore said.
———
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
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