REGION
Saturday, December 16, 2017
Eastern Oregon commissioners
to weigh in on forest plan in D.C.
By KATY NESBITT
For the EO Media Group
ENTERPRISE — Eastern
Oregon county commis-
sioners will make their voice
heard Dec. 12-14 when
Pacific Northwest Regional
Forester Jim Peña presents
the Blue Mountains Forest
Plan Revision in Washington,
D.C.
The Blue Mountains
Forest Plan has been under
revision since 2003 and
is a guiding document
for the Malheur, Umatilla
and
Wallowa-Whitman
national forests. Susan
Roberts, chairman of the
Eastern Oregon Counties
Association, said a draft of
the plan released in June
had significant changes in
grazing requirements from a
draft released in January.
“We were concerned that
those changes would have
an economic impact on our
local communities,” Roberts
said.
Fearing increased stubble
height along endangered
species-bearing streams in
public grazing allotments
would reduce grazing and
harm local economies,
Harney County Commis-
sioner Mark Owens and
other members of the
association asked Rep. Greg
Walden, R-Hood River, to
intervene on their behalf
with the federal agencies.
“We want to make
sure they are addressing
economic conditions as well
as ecological in the plan’s
revision,” Owens said.
Roberts said the asso-
ciation members wanted
an opportunity to speak
directly to federal fisheries
staff face-to-face instead of
communicating through the
Forest Service, a request
that was somewhat out of
the ordinary.
“The plan had not gone to
E.J. Harris/EO Media Group
Representative of counties will accompany Forest Service official presenting plan
revision in Washington.
formal consultation with the
regulatory agencies and we
wanted to get some things
ironed out before that,”
Roberts said.
Justin Discigil, Walden’s
communications director,
said the congressman has
worked closely with Eastern
Oregon counties throughout
the 14 years the Blue Moun-
tains Plan has been under
revision.
Discigil said Walden,
at the association’s behest,
raised the counties’ concerns
with the Blue Mountains
Plan with the new chief of
the Forest Service, Tony
Tooke, shortly after he was
appointed this fall.
“Congressman Walden
wants to make sure the
voices of the people on the
ground are heard in this
process,” Discigil said.
Seeing
significant
headway
in
meetings
with the federal agencies,
Wallowa County Commis-
sioner Todd Nash said he
asked if Eastern Oregon
could send a representative
to meet with Forest Service
officials when Peña presents
the plan to Forest Service
leaders in Washington, D.C.
“When we started to see
effective changes with all
of the agencies in the room
I thought it was of value,
as cooperating agents, for
someone from one of the
counties to be in that presen-
tation,” Nash said.
In a rare move, Peña
extended an invitation for
one commissioner to join
him in Washington.
“It’s important for our
agency to be transparent
about this process and
everything it entails, so I was
happy to extend this invita-
tion,” Peña said. “Many of
these counties have signed
a memorandum of under-
standing to formalize their
role as a cooperating agency
with the Forest Service
as part of this forest plan
revision, and all of them are
important partners in this
effort.”
Owens, who will repre-
sent Eastern Oregon coun-
ties, said having cooperating
agency status means more
than having an opportunity
to review an agency’s plan
and submitting comments.
“The biggest challenge
with any federal manage-
ment plan is not being at the
table during consultation,”
Owens said. “Cooperating
status doesn’t do any good if
we can’t drive the direction
of an alternative.”
Along with Peña, Owens
said he will attend a Forest
Service
director
staff
briefing, a deputy chief
briefing and a briefing with
Chief Tony Tooke. Nash and
Owen will both meet with
Dan Jiorn, Acting Deputy
Under Secretary for Natural
Resources and Environ-
ment.
“We will meet with him to
talk about grazing the areas
we did not have success like
pace and scale of timber
harvest, transportation and
elk corridors,” Owens said.
ODOT requests 153 positions for transportation projects
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — The Oregon
Department of Transpor-
tation plans to request 153
new positions in February
to help deliver $5.3 billion
in transportation projects
lawmakers agreed to fund
earlier this year.
It was unclear Friday
how much the new positions
will cost, but they equate
to nearly 78 full-time
employees,
said
Leah
Horner, ODOT government
relations manager.
The 153 jobs would start
in the next two years and
would augment 35 new
full-time-equivalent posi-
tions the state Legislature
already approved in July.
ODOT is in the midst of
hiring for those positions.
The agency estimates it
could ask for another 113
positions for 2020 and 2021.
The request comes as
ODOT is gearing up to boost
outsourcing to deliver road
and bridge projects in the
transportation package.
Agency officials said
Friday they plan to increase
outsourcing,
currently
EO Media Group file photo
The Oregon Department of Transportation plans to
request 153 new positions in February to help deliver
$5.3 billion in transportation projects lawmakers
agreed to fund earlier this year.
about 50 percent, to about
70 percent on preliminary
engineering work.
The strategy — a national
trend — is designed to hold
down costs and circumvent
a labor shortage in the engi-
neering industry.
“We are relying on
outsourcing to limit the
number of positions in the
agency,” said Paul Mather,
ODOT highway division
administrator. “We also want
to capture the innovation
and expertise of the private
sector.”
However, a preliminary
report by ODOT and
the Oregon Council of
Engineering
Companies
indicates relying more
heavily on outsourcing by
transportation departments
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in other states has produced
some negative results.
Those have included an
increase in costs, recruit-
ment of agency employees
to private consulting firms,
less oversight, increased
risk of missing errors and
potential conflicts of interest
in consultants’ work.
The negative effects “we
found from other states is not
consistent with our experi-
ence here in Oregon and thus
will not be included in the
final version,” Mather said of
the preliminary report. The
final version of the report,
“Transportation
Program
Delivery Approach,” is
scheduled to be released next
month, he said.
Mather said ODOT can
avoid the risks of outsourcing
by clearly communicating
expectations in contracts
and putting the agency’s
practices and procedures in
contract language for which
contractors can be held
accountable.
A management review
of ODOT earlier this year
recommended that the
agency clarify contract
language to improve project
outcomes.
East Oregonian
Page 3A
HERMISTON
Man arrested in drug bust
has extensive criminal history
Highland Avenue and
South First Street for a
The Hermiston man who traffic violation. The driver
was arrested Wednesday for did not stop and, after a
possessing 75 pounds of short pursuit, the officer
marijuana has been charged lost sight of the vehicle.
Hermiston and
with drug-related
Oregon
State
offenses before,
Police
officers
according to state
eventually found
court records.
Rhoades inside
Wi l l i a m
an apartment on
Richard Rhoades,
West
Sunland
27, was charged
Avenue. Inside
in June 2016
the
apartment,
with possession
they found more
of methamphet-
than 75 pounds
amine. He has a
of
marijuana,
hearing for that Rhoades
as well as items
charge on Dec. 21.
He also has several criminal related to illegal marijuana
charges in Multnomah sales. These included pack-
County, including posses- aging materials, scales, and
sion of tobacco by a minor, items used to make butane
burglary, theft, possession honey oil, a product made
of marijuana, and assault in from marijuana extracts.
the third and fourth degree. The process for making the
Rhoades was arrested oil is highly volatile, and
after a failed traffic stop can cause explosions.
Hermiston Police Chief
in Hermiston Wednesday
morning.
According Jason Edmiston said there
to a Hermiston Police were no other arrests so far
Department press release, related to the bust. He said
officers attempted to stop the identification found
a car around 1 a.m. near in the vehicle belonged to
the intersection of West Rhoades’ girlfriend.
East Oregonian
BRIEFLY
Minam River Lodge adds CEO
Patricia Lee has been named CEO of the Minam River
Lodge, as the revamped wilderness lodge readies for its
second season.
Lee is the former manager and
partner of the Steamboat Inn on the
North Umpqua River, where she
worked for more than 30 years.
She will now oversee strategic and
business operations of the Minam
River Lodge, which is located in the
Eagle Cap Wilderness.
“Pat has a wonderful history of
accomplishment, not just in hospitality
Patricia Lee
management but also in creating
very special places that help people
experience Oregon’s natural treasures,” said Barnes Ellis,
owner of Minam River Lodge.
The lodge reopened in May 2017 after a six year
restoration project. It is accessible only by 8.5-mile hike,
horseback ride or charter flight to its private grass airstrip.
Hermiston School District swaps land
parcel with Irrigation District
HERMISTON — Whenever the Hermiston School
District builds its next elementary school, it will be on a
new site — due to a land swap with the Hermiston Irriga-
tion District conducted at this week’s school board meeting.
The board exchanged their parcel of land, a 19.24-acre
plot on East Theater Lane, with a parcel of identical size at
the corner of East Theater Lane and Northeast 10th Street,
formerly owned by the Irrigation District.
“The purpose was that the access to the site was much
more favorable for the school district, with access to both
Theater and 10th Street,” said Hermiston School Board
chair Karen Sherman. “The access to the property we held
was very narrow, except from Theater Lane.”
Sherman said the topography of the new site was also a
little flatter, meaning less money would have to be spent to
excavate the property once a school is built there.
The district will eventually have to pave all of East
Theater Lane, and put in a sewer line. Hermiston Director
of Operations Brad Wayland said no immediate work
would be done on the property, and any work such as
paving or sewer line installation would only be done as part
of a school construction project.
Reward offered in investigation of
poaching death of two mule deer
BEND (AP) — The Oregon State Police is asking for
the public’s help to find the person or people who poached
two mule deer earlier this year in Central Oregon.
Investigators said Friday they believe the first animal
was killed around Oct. 29 south of Pine Mountain in
Deschutes County.
The second deer was found dead in the Three Rivers
community near Lake Billy Chinook in Jefferson County.
Troopers believe the two incidents are not related.
A reward of up to $500 is being offered by the Oregon
Hunters Association.