REGION
Saturday, December 21, 2019
Jazz Band and Swing Choir perform at Pendleton schools
East Oregonian
Review of B2H project
remains unfi nished
By ALEX CASTLE
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
The trumpet section of the Pendleton High School Jazz Band performs during a concert at Sherwood Heights Elementary
School in Pendleton on Friday afternoon. The band, and the school’s Swing Choir, performed throughout the district Friday.
Port of Morrow wrapping up busy year
Facility has plans
to continue in 2020
with rail project
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
BOARDMAN — It was
a busy year on many fronts
for the Port of Morrow.
The port at Boardman
added capacity for water,
sewer, cold storage and
more in 2019 and heads into
2020 with big plans for rail.
Port Manager Ryan Neal
said the projects make it
easier to draw new employ-
ers to the area with the
promise that infrastructure
to support their project is
already in place.
“It’s important to show
people a site that shows it
really can happen here,” he
said. “Before, it took a lot of
faith that we would be able
to get it done, because we
were just looking at fi elds.”
This year the port added
its fi rst well in 15 years, add-
ing 2,300 gallons a minute
to its water capacity. It also
added an additional 5 miles
of pipeline to its wastewater
system and a lift station.
Construction got under-
way this past summer for
an expansion of the port’s
warehousing facilities. Neal
said the expansion adds
about 10,000 additional pal-
let positions at refrigera-
tion temperatures — unique
among Eastern Oregon’s
dry storage and frozen stor-
age options.
In August, the Port
of Morrow got the good
news that it had received a
Marine Highway Designa-
tion from the U.S. Depart-
ment of Transportation’s
Maritime Administration.
The designation opens up
new opportunities for fed-
eral grants for infrastruc-
ture improvements.
Contributed photo by Port of Morrow
The Port of Morrow expanded its freezer warehouse in 2019, adding a refrigeration section for
approximately 10,000 pallets.
The port will be using
state and federal grant dol-
lars awarded in late 2018 for
the Columbia River Barge
Terminal Rail Access Proj-
ect, which will allow the
port to offer rail-to-barge
shipping capabilities. Initial
projects will include 27,000
feet of additional track on
East Beach and develop-
ing Terminal 1 and Termi-
nal 3 with rail access to the
Union Pacifi c mainline.
The port is part of the
Columbia River High, Wide
and Heavy Corridor Coa-
lition, which is working
to educate shippers with
“high, wide and heavy”
loads from overseas about
the time savings in using
the Columbia River instead
of their current practice
of running loads through
Houston, Texas.
Neal said the port is also
fi nalizing an agreement
with a solar project that will
cover approximately 760
acres near the airport.
Neal continues to par-
ticipate in the Columbia
BRIEFLY
Hermiston
cancels city
council meeting
HERMISTON — The
Dec. 23 Hermiston City
Council meeting has been
canceled.
The council usually
meets on the second and
fourth Monday of the month
at 7 p.m. at city hall, but
during their Dec. 9 meeting
the council voted to forgo
their second meeting of the
month because people would
be traveling for the holidays.
After the decision, city
hall was closed unexpect-
edly until Jan. 6 due to a
fi re in the heating system on
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Milton Freewater, OR
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12/20-12/24
Cineplex Show Times
Development
Authority
on planning infrastructure
for when the U.S. Army
transfers the former Uma-
tilla Chemical Depot to the
CDA, which will develop
parts of the property for
industrial use.
“We anticipate sometime
in the fi rst half of 2020 that
will occur,” he said.
On the workforce side,
Neal said the port is put-
ting together an internship
program called Columbia
Works that will offer col-
lege students the chance to
intern with the port start-
ing next summer. That
opportunity complements
the teacher externships and
high school internships that
are relatively new to the
port.
“The high school pro-
gram has been a huge suc-
cess,” Neal said.
The Neal Early Learn-
ing Center added another
9,000 square feet of class-
rooms and a multi-purpose
room, allowing the center
to serve additional children.
The center is a collabora-
tive effort between the Port
of Morrow, InterMountain
Education Service District,
the Morrow County School
District and Umatilla-Mor-
row Head Start and stands
adjacent to the Blue Moun-
tain Community College’s
Workforce Training Center.
Neal said he is encour-
aged at seeing growth in
the housing and commer-
cial sectors in Boardman.
Two new hotels are in the
works, along with about 20
new homes and additional
phases of the Port View
Apartments.
“They’ve been a great
addition to attract workers,”
he said of the apartments.
The Port of Morrow is
developing a new strate-
gic plan after they “accom-
plished most everything on
the last one” that was writ-
ten six years ago.
2019 was Neal’s fi rst full
year as general manager for
the port after he was tapped
in August 2018 to succeed
his father, Gary Neal.
PENDLETON — The
next step in the contro-
versial Boardman to
Hemingway Transmis-
sion Line project and its
pursuit of state approval
will have to wait at least
another month.
The Oregon Energy
Facility Siting Council
fi nished just a quarter of
its review process for the
project’s draft proposed
order at its monthly meet-
ing held on Thursday and
Friday at the Red Lion
Hotel in Pendleton, mean-
ing the review period will
continue at January’s
meeting in Hood River.
“This is a big and com-
plex project,” said Todd
Cornett, the assistant
director for the Oregon
Department of Energy,
who also served as coun-
cil secretary. “But it’s a
really important part of
the process for the coun-
cil to be able to evaluate
what’s been done and ask
questions.”
Idaho Power, a Boi-
se-based company, is
leading
the
permit-
ting aspect of the proj-
ect, though Pacifi cCorp
and Bonneville Power
Administration are also
involved in trying to
construct the 300-mile,
500-kilovolt transmission
line that will run through
fi ve Oregon counties and
one in Idaho.
To continue with the
proposed project, Idaho
Power must secure a site
certifi cation from the
EFSC, which oversees
the development of large
energy facilities through-
out the state.
During the two-day
meeting, the EFSC met
to review the draft pro-
posed order, the public
comments on the draft
— of which there were
more than 470 individ-
ual commenters — and
Idaho Power’s response to
those comments. While
changes and suggestions
for the order have already
been made by DOE staff,
which is recommending
the council approve the
order, this month’s meet-
ing allowed for the coun-
cil to clarify their own
concerns to staff and pro-
vide other feedback.
Ultimately, the pur-
pose of the council is
to evaluate the applica-
tion from Idaho Power
within the context of over
a dozen standards that all
energy facilities in the
state must meet.
“It’s a standards-based
review,” said Kellen Tar-
daewether, a senior sit-
ing analyst, who has
worked as one of the proj-
ect’s staff leaders for the
DOE. “The applicant has
the burden of proof of
demonstrating whether or
not they’ve met the stan-
dards. The council isn’t
discretionary. Everything
is based in rules, statutes
and ordinances, and there
must be legal authority
for the decision-making
process.”
Though the other proj-
ects on the council’s
agenda pushed much
of the review until next
month, the council did
get through discussions
of general, organization,
structural, land use and
soil standards, which
included public concerns,
such as wildfi re risks,
erosion and blasting.
Other topics of pub-
lic interest like pro-
tected areas, noise, fi sh
and wildlife habitats, and
visual impact will con-
tinue to be reviewed at
next month’s meeting.
One of the problems
with B2H, however, is
that many of the public’s
concerns of it can’t ade-
quately be addressed by
the EFSC even if they
wanted to.
“For all of those folks
that commented about
land access, or having an
easement on their prop-
erty, or whether or not
Idaho Power has con-
tacted them to have con-
versation about any of
that, the council doesn’t
have jurisdiction over
that,” Tardaewether said.
“There’s nothing the
council can do to address
that issue.”
Irene Gilbert, co-chair
for the Stop B2H Coa-
lition in La Grande,
attended the meeting
both days and continues
to be disappointed with
the council’s response to
potential issues the public
is raising.
“They do it with every
standard, which they’re
supposedly
evaluating
in a black-and-white sort
of way,” she said. “They
identify the problems
with it, and then decide
that none of the problems
are substantial. So it isn’t
an objective process, it’s
very subjective.”
Cornett,
however,
stressed that the proj-
ect still isn’t at a deci-
sion-making stage quite
yet.
Once the council fi n-
ishes its review, the proj-
ect will move into a con-
tested case stage, where
people who submitted
“relevant” verbal or writ-
ten comments by the pub-
lic comment deadline
may further contest the
order.
Once the contested
order has been heard and
any fi nal recommenda-
tions have been made,
then the fi nal order may
be issued and voted on by
the council. If approved,
an appeal to the order will
go directly to the Oregon
Supreme Court.
If you were suddenly transported into
the presence of God and you heard a
prosecuting attorney listing all the reasons you
should be sent to hell, how would you plead?
Guilty or not guilty?
The apostle Paul said, “All have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God? (Romans 3:23). That
makes us guilty as charged. What is the penalty for
our sin? “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of
God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord?
(Romans 6:23)
What could we say in our defense? “God
demonstrates His own love towards us, in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”
(Romans 5:8)
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Because Jesus became our substitute, the penalty
has been paid. But we must accept His forgiveness
as a gift. The only requirement is that we recognize
our need and accept His offer.
“If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and
believe in your heart that God has raised Him from
the dead, you will be saved… For ‘whoever calls
on the name of the LORD shall be saved”
(Romans 10:9, 13)
If you haven’t done so before, tell Jesus that you
believe He died as your substitute and accept
the free and undeserved gift of forgiveness.
That’s the only way to be right about
your wrong, to be accepted by God,
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