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NORTHWEST East Oregonian A2 Saturday, June 22, 2019 Oregon intermodal proposals face further scrutiny By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press SALEM — Oregon transportation officials are currently leaning against funding truck-to-rail inter- modal projects aimed at improving agricultural exports from the Willamette and Treasure valleys. However, the Oregon Transportation Commis- sion has postponed making a final decision on the pro- posals for another month to give sponsors more time to answer questions in detail. Information gaps about the financial sustainability of the intermodal facilities are currently too large to commit $25 million to either of two competing proposals in the Willamette Valley or $26 million to the Treasure Valley proposal, said Mat- thew Garrett, director of the Oregon Department of Transportation. “I cannot at this time rec- ommend advancing any of the three projects,” Garrett said at the commission’s June 20 meeting in Salem. Rather than reject the proposals outright, the commission voted unani- mously to extend the deci- sion-making process until its next meeting on July 18, when more specifics about Capital Press/Mateusz Perkowski, File A container truck loaded with straw pulls away from a pressing facility owned by the Boshart family in Salem. Straw is one of the agricultural exports that could benefit from an intermodal facility that switches containers from trucks to rail in the mid-Willamette Valley. The facility is intended to allow agricultural goods and other exports to bypass traffic congestion in Portland. rail prices and service are expected to be available. “I’m not looking for cer- tainty but we need more confidence that it will be viable,” said Tammy Baney, the commission’s chair. Oregon lawmakers authorized ODOT to spend $51 million on the two facil- ities in 2017, but an indepen- dent transportation consul- tant has since found that all the proposals face substan- tial challenges in operating without subsidies. “None of these projects really control their own destiny,” said Dan Smith, principal of the Tioga Group consulting firm. “Neither yet has a viable business plan.” The intermodal facility serving agricultural ship- pers in the mid-Willamette Valley would be based in Brooks or farther south in Millersburg, with the lat- ter proposal winning tenta- tive support from an ODOT review committee earlier this year. Both proposals intend for farm products, such as straw and seeds, to be shipped by rail from the mid-Wil- lamette Valley, allow- ing trucks to avoid traffic in Portland on the way to marine ports along Wash- ington’s Puget Sound. The Treasure Valley site would allow onion produc- Forecast for Pendleton Area TODAY SUNDAY MONDAY Warmer with some sun Partly sunny, breezy and nice 81° 52° 76° 49° TUESDAY Partly sunny and pleasant WEDNESDAY Nice with some sun Pleasant with some sun PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 77° 49° 76° 48° 79° 49° HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 86° 58° 81° 53° 82° 52° 81° 52° 84° 57° OREGON FORECAST ALMANAC Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows. PENDLETON through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Seattle Olympia 63/53 73/51 84/54 Longview Kennewick Walla Walla 81/56 Lewiston 69/54 86/57 Astoria 64/53 Pullman Yakima 85/56 69/49 79/56 Portland Hermiston 75/56 The Dalles 86/58 Salem Corvallis 75/51 Yesterday Normals Records La Grande 75/47 PRECIPITATION John Day Eugene Bend 79/51 77/44 76/46 Ontario 82/55 Caldwell Burns 72° 54° 81° 54° 100° (1970) 41° (2014) 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date Albany 76/52 Boardman Pendleton Medford 85/53 Trace Trace 0.46" 4.42" 5.10" 5.57" WINDS (in mph) 77/52 75/44 0.04" 0.09" 0.93" 9.37" 6.49" 7.44" through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Pendleton 71/44 77/54 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date HERMISTON Enterprise 81/52 78/58 65° 49° 80° 53° 102° (1973) 34° (1893) PRECIPITATION Moses Lake 69/53 Aberdeen 75/51 81/59 Tacoma Yesterday Normals Records Spokane Wenatchee 69/54 Today Sun. WSW 8-16 W 8-16 WSW 10-20 WSW 10-20 SUN AND MOON Klamath Falls 78/42 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019 Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today 5:06 a.m. 8:48 p.m. 12:02 a.m. 10:11 a.m. Last New First Full June 25 July 2 July 9 July 16 ers to load their contain- ers directly onto railcars in Nyssa, rather than truck- ing them to an intermodal facility in Eastern Wash- ington, which is meant to reduce transportation costs while boosting the region’s economy. The Tioga Group found that proponents of the Trea- sure Valley site may have been “overly optimistic” about how much volume would move through the facility, while the compet- ing intermodal proposals in the Willamette Valley would have trouble operat- ing profitably without subsi- dies from ocean carriers. Currently, ocean carriers subsidize similar intermodal facilities in Portland by effectively paying for empty containers to be moved to those sites, according to the Tioga Group. “It appears ocean carri- ers have been reluctant to extend that subsidy south of Portland,” said Smith, the company’s principal. Before the commission decided to delay its decision, supporters of all three pro- posals touted the feasibility of their projects. “It’s our chance to hit a home run and we’re try- ing to hit a grand slam, not just a home run,” said Larry Wilson, a Malheur County commissioner who supports the Treasure Valley project. Kevin Mannix, a main proponent of the Brooks intermodal facility, said the site would be best positioned to take trucks off the road that are currently serving an existing base of agricultural exporters. “We are trying to take that shipping business and put it on rail,” he said. Key information about the viability of the business plan for the Millersburg facility is proprietary, while some aspects would firm up as the project is closer to being operational, said Roger Nyquist, chairman of the Linn County Board of Commissioners. HB 2001 takes critical step forward By MARK MILLER Oregon Capital Bureau SALEM — Single-fam- ily homes have long domi- nated the housing market in Oregon. But could a legislative proposal from one of Ore- gon’s most powerful law- makers, which took a criti- cal step forward Thursday, change that? House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, presided over the passage of one of her top priorities this year, House Bill 2001. The bill would effectively end sin- gle-family home zoning in more than 50 Oregon cities. It passed 43-16 with biparti- san backing, and now goes to the Senate. If HB 2001 becomes law, by July 2021, cities with more than 10,000 residents will have to allow a duplex on any lot now limited to a single-family house. By July 2022, cities with more than 25,000 residents, as well as cities and coun- ties in the Portland metro area, will have to allow tri- plexes, quadplexes, town- houses and cottage clusters in single-family residential neighborhoods. Kotek’s goal is to fos- ter what she calls “missing middle” housing, priced for working- and middle-class households. “It’s going to be import- ant to have more housing choice and more housing options in all of our commu- nity, and limiting new con- struction in residential areas to only single-family homes is not going to help us pre- pare for the future and pro- vide more housing,” Kotek said Monday, June 10. As of the last census, nearly two-thirds of Ore- gon’s homes were sin- gle-family houses, and ris- ing real estate prices have many housing advocates worried about Oregonians being “priced out” of buy- ing a home. Townhouses and condominiums are typi- cally less expensive alterna- tives to standalone houses. The bill doesn’t out- law single-family homes or require existing homes to be torn down or converted into duplexes. So far, Kotek’s plan has survived criticism from local governments that see it as infringing on their right to plan their own communi- ties. The League of Oregon Cities has been lobbying against it. “We feel like there’s been a lot of work to address the issues of local government,” Kotek said. Cities can apply for an extension under the bill, giving them more time to change their land use rules, if needed. Several Democrats split with Kotek and voted against HB 2001, includ- ing Reps. Paul Holvey and Nancy Nathanson of Eugene, whose city officials have been particularly criti- cal of the bill. “I would really like to see this proposal be more geared toward the arterial streets or closer to bus routes, those sorts of applications, than across all lots throughout a neighborhood,” Holvey said at a committee meeting Tuesday, June 18. Another Eugene Demo- crat, Rep. Julie Fahey, spoke in favor of HB 2001 on Thursday. “I represent the neigh- borhoods in Eugene that are most impacted by the hous- ing crisis,” Fahey said, add- ing, “We need more housing, and more affordable housing options, in our community.” NATIONAL EXTREMES Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states) High 105° in Midland, Texas Low 19° in Daniel, Wyo. NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY BRIEFLY House moves to scrap state’s nonunanimous jury system Man gets more than 6 years prison for drug explosion SALEM (AP) — The Oregon House has approved a measure that would ask voters to overturn the state’s decades-long practice of allowing split juries to convict felony defen- dants, an anomaly within the American criminal justice system that reform advo- cates have targeted as racist. The Oregonian/ OregonLive reports House Joint Resolution 10 passed the chamber 56-0 on Thursday. The resolution, which proposes chang- ing Oregon’s Constitution to require juries to reach unanimous verdicts in all criminal cases, now goes to the state Senate. Should it pass there, Gov. Kate Brown’s likely sig- nature would then send the referendum to voters in 2020. PORTLAND (AP) — An Oregon man who was burned in an explosion caused by combustible materials used to illegally make marijuana oil has been sentenced to more than six years in prison. The Oregon U.S. Attorney’s Office says Eric Scully of Cottage Grove was sentenced Thursday after previously pleading guilty to endangering human life and illegally possessing and manufacturing marijuana. He was also ordered to forfeit personal property used in his crimes, which includes a truck, trailer, and over $25,000 in cash. Scully was treated for serious burns after a butane honey oil explosion at a storage facility in Cottage Grove in November 2017. Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. 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