Page 8A
BUSINESS
East Oregonian
Saturday, October 13, 2018
Local measures aim to seize on strong economy
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — While state-
wide attention is focused on
controversial ballot mea-
sures, many Oregon voters
face local decisions on issues
that go above and beyond
core public services.
A total of 104 city and
county measures are on bal-
lots across the state Nov. 6.
They range from whether
the Astoria School District
should raise $70 million
for school improvements to
whether to allow chickens
and rabbits inside Lafayette
city limits.
Many local measures on
the ballot this year reflect the
state’s humming economy,
according to Jim Moore, a
political scientist and direc-
tor of the Tom McCall Cen-
ter for Policy Innovation at
Pacific University.
“The ballot measures that
are out there now tend to be,
‘Economic life is fine for
most of us, let’s try to make
it better with these ballot
measures,’” Moore said. He
added, “It’s also a good time
to take your three-year lev-
ies to the voters for school
districts and things like that.
Economic anxiety is low in
a relatively good economy,
whereas these things are
really hard to pass if there’s
a recession and people are
worried about their jobs.”
For example, in boom-
ing Portland, voters will con-
sider imposing a 1 percent
surcharge on large compa-
nies to fund renewable and
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
A few participants chat at the end of the April 21, 2018 Second Amendment rally
at Til Taylor Park in Pendleton. Voters in Umatilla, Baker, Douglas, Klamath, Lincoln,
Linn, Lake and Columbia counties will consider measures that would prevent each
county from using local resources to enforce state or federal laws that would in-
fringe on gun rights granted by the Second Amendment.
efficient energy projects and
jobs.
But in a roundabout way,
some measures continue
to mirror deeper economic
challenges in rural Oregon.
While a county museum
might to some seem like a
fluffy cause to pay for with
bond money, supporters of
this year’s Klamath County
“heritage district” bond,
which supports the county
museum, have sought to
fund the museum that way
because the county can’t.
The county slashed its
budget for the museum in
2010. Voters responded by
keeping the museum afloat
with bonds approved in 2011
and 2014. They need to be
renewed again.
Richard Touslee, interim
president of the Klamath
County Historical Society,
said he expects the bond —
5 cents on every $1,000 of
assessed property value —
will pass again.
“The cost is not exactly
overburdening, in addition
to any cost taxpayers have
to pay for any variety of
things,” Touslee said. “It is
an addition, but a very small
addition, and we think from
what the public gets, we
think they get great value.”
In the border city of
Ontario, voters are consider-
ing whether to lift a 2015 ban
on cannabis retailers. It’s one
of 25 cannabis-related mea-
sures on the ballot in cities
and counties.
Supporters of the canna-
bis measure in Ontario are
making an economic argu-
ment: they say tax revenues
could be a boon for the city,
which went through signifi-
cant budget cuts this year.
“Whether it passes or not,
there’s going to be cannabis
in Ontario,” said Dave Eyler,
a chief petitioner for the
measure. “You might as well
make some money off it.”
Not all of the cannabis
measures are lifting local
bans on pot, which Oregon
voted to legalize in 2014.
In Turner, for example, vot-
ers will consider banning
new cannabis businesses,
while in Culver, voters are
being asked whether to pro-
hibit marijuana businesses
altogether.
Voters in Umatilla, Baker,
Douglas, Klamath, Lin-
coln, Linn, Lake and Colum-
bia counties will consider
measures that would pre-
vent each county from using
local resources to enforce
state or federal laws that
would infringe on gun
rights granted by the Second
Amendment.
The Wheeler, Coos,
Curry and Wallowa county
commissions already have
directly implemented such
laws.
Meanwhile, measures in
Union and Jackson coun-
ties would expand the defi-
nition of a firearm to include
accessories and ammunition,
and would ban enforcement
of laws restricting posses-
sion of firearms, accesso-
ries and ammunition that are
deemed “unconstitutional”
by a county sheriff.
The spate of measures
to protect Second Amend-
ment privileges is in part a
reaction to efforts elsewhere
in the state to restrict gun
ownership.
Petitioners tried and
failed to get two gun safety
measures on the state ballot
BOARDMAN
BRIEFLY
Lost Valley to close despite new operator
Oregon Department
of Agriculture
managers say they
have lost trust in
owner Greg te Velde
Wym
Matthews,
center, man-
ager of the
Oregon De-
partment of
Agriculture’s
confined an-
imal feeding
operation
program,
speaks at
an Oct. 11
meeting of
the CAFO
advisory
committee.
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
EO Media Group
Oregon farm regulators
plan to shut down a contro-
versial dairy even if the new
operator manages to bring the
facility into compliance with
wastewater regulations.
Lost Valley Farm of Board-
man was recently put under
new management after its
owner, Greg te Velde, lost con-
trol over the facility’s opera-
tions in bankruptcy proceed-
ings and the reins were handed
to a federal trustee.
The Oregon Department
of Agriculture nonetheless
expects to proceed with its
revocation of the dairy’s “con-
fined animal feeding opera-
tion” permit even if the trustee,
accountant Randy Sugarman,
cleans up the facility’s act, said
Wym Matthews, manager of
the agency’s CAFO program.
“Our unwavering aim is to
revoke this permit. Whoev-
er’s name is on it, we’re going
to revoke it,” Matthews said
at a Thursday meeting of the
CAFO advisory committee in
Salem.
Lost Valley Farm is chal-
Mateusz Perkowski/
EO Media Group
lenging the revocation of its
CAFO permit through an
administrative process, and a
hearing on the matter is sched-
uled for Nov. 13.
Even if the dairy is brought
into regulatory compliance, its
past actions — such as manure
lagoon overflows — warrant
the revocation, and the ODA
has lost all trust in te Velde’s
management, Matthews said.
If the facility operated
properly over the short term,
the agency has no confidence
that te Velde could keep up the
compliance, he said.
The ODA anticipates argu-
ing in bankruptcy court that
its revocation of Lost Val-
ley’s permit isn’t subject to the
“automatic stay” that protects
the company against adverse
creditor actions under the
bankruptcy process, Matthews
said.
“Do you allow a facility to
continue to violate state and
federal laws?” he said.
While the facility does
have some design flaws, ODA
believes the wastewater prob-
lems were fundamentally
caused by improper opera-
tions, he said.
If the dairy is eventually
sold to repay te Velde’s cred-
itors, the new owner would
have to apply for a new CAFO
permit, Matthews said.
During the CAFO advisory
committee’s meeting, Mat-
thews also discussed a planned
legislative proposal to raise
the maximum fees for CAFO
permits.
The last time such an
increase was approved by Ore-
Thank You
to all who attended the
HERITAGE
LUNCHEON 2018
“Umatilla County Pioneers:
The Audacity of Eastern Oregon Wheat Growers”
We would like to extend a very special
Thank You to all of our sponsors!
GOLD SPONSORS
CHI St. Anthony Hospital • East Oregonian
IRZ Consulting • Umatilla Electric Cooperative
SILVER SPONSORS
Dr. Andrew Bower at the Northeast Oregon Surgical Clinic
Coldwell Banker Whitney & Associates • Hill Ranches, Inc
O’Hanlon Law Offi ce, LLC • Oregon Grain Growers Brand Distillery
Pendleton Electric • Prodigal Son Brewery & Pub
Rob Merriman Plumbing • Scarlett Oak Barrels
United Grain Corporation
this year. One would have
restricted the sale of cer-
tain types of semiautomatic
firearms in Oregon, and the
other would have restricted
the transfer of firearms and
how they’re stored and
secured.
Kenneth Wisdom, a log
yard operations manager
who lives in La Grande, is the
chief petitioner of the Union
County measure and said
that those petitions, as well
as other state laws, prompted
his local gun measure.
Wisdom said state law
that prohibits state employ-
ees from carrying weapons
in the workplace — unless
carrying a weapon is a part
of that employee’s assigned
duties — as a catalyst for the
measure.
“There’s just been so
many gun restrictive laws
that is wrong, that you never
know what’s coming next,”
Wisdom said. “And so we’ve
all decided that it was time to
just secure our counties at
this point and move on.”
Moore said those efforts
can be compared to a spate
of local measures in the early
1990s to ban public money
from being spent to “pro-
mote, encourage or facilitate
homosexuality.”
“It’s not really going to
change anything, it’s more to
express an opinion,” Moore
said.
“It’s not like the Sec-
ond Amendment is going
to be interpreted differently
because one county voted
one way and another county
voted another way.”
gon lawmakers was in 2010,
and the costs of implementing
the CAFO program have since
risen while fees haven’t kept
pace, he said.
Currently, 90 percent of the
program is paid for with money
from the state’s general fund,
while 10 percent is funded with
CAFO fees, he said.
The agency aims to fund
at least one full-time position
entirely from fees, but it’s cur-
rently about $50,000 short,
Matthews said.
Fees for CAFO opera-
tions regulated under a “gen-
eral permit” currently range
from $100 to $300 per year,
depending on the number of
animals at the facility.
For CAFOs with more
complex “individual” permits,
the current fee cap is about
$2,400.
Under the ODA’s legis-
lative proposal, general per-
mit fees would be raised to a
maximum of $500 to $3,500,
depending on operation size,
and up to $10,000 for individ-
ual permits.
The maximum fees would
be raised substantially to pre-
vent ODA from having to soon
return to the Legislature with a
similar request, Matthews said.
However, in the short
term, the fees for general per-
mit CAFOs would likely be
raised to $125 to $840 a year,
while the individual permit fee
would increase to $5,000.
Bank of EO announces third
quarter earnings
Bank of Eastern Oregon’s net income and
profits are up from 2017.
BEO Bancorp announced this week that
its third quarter 2018 consolidated net income
was $1,196,000 or $1.01 per share. That’s a
37 percent increase from $817,000 or 69 cents
per share for the third quarter of 2017.
Year to date earnings were $2,825,000 —
up 19.8 percent. Total assets were down 0.6
percent at $401.5 million, net loans of $323.8
million were down 1 percent from the same
period in 2017 and deposits were also down 1
percent year over year at $355.8 million.
Chief operations officer Gary Propheter
said in a statement that while the Federal
Reserve has continued to increase interest
rates it has had a minimal effect on deposits
so far, as has the volatility of the stock market.
CEO Jeff Bailey said it was an “interest-
ing” summer with a mixed bag of harvest
results and commodity prices.
“We are heading into renewal season with
a little more optimism than in the past few
years and we have seen good rains across the
region this past week,” he said.
Free class focuses on building
your business
HEPPNER — Current and future business
owners are invited to attend “Building Your
Business Class I,” offered by Eastern Oregon
University’s Small Business Development
Center.
Taught by the center’s director, Greg
Smith, the free session is Thursday, Oct. 18
at 5:30 p.m. at the Columbia Basin Electric
Co-op, 171 W. Linden Way, Heppner. Topics
include business development, starting a new
business, growing your business and more.
For more information or to register, contact
541-962-1532 or eousbdc@gmail.com.
GROCERY STORE TOUR!
Join Registered Dietitians,
Christine Guenther and
Melissa Naff, for this
FREE interactive tour!
We will help you:
• Understand food labels
• Eat healthy on a budget
• Make better choices
from aisle to aisle
Thursday, October 18, 2018 • 10:00-11:30 AM
Safeway – Pendleton • 203 SW 20th Ave
(Meet at the store in the produce section)
Space is Limited – Call (541) 278-3235 to register.