A8 OFF PAGE ONE East Oregonian Friday, January 17, 2020 Help: ‘You always have to make sure your neighbors are taken care of’ Continued from Page A1 the woods, it’s just part of the deal,” Campbell said. Year after year, winter weather of some kind ren- ders the region’s highways dangerous, Campbell said, and year after year he ends up helping people who get stuck trying to find another way to travel. Campbell, who is a for- mer Pendleton Round-Up director, often helps plow his neighbors’ driveways and said that he’s happy to help the travelers who need it, many of whom come from out of town and aren’t familiar with the area’s back roads. However, he’d rather that common sense prevail and have people stay off back roads, which he said are just as bad if not worse than major roadways during closures. “If you don’t have to be on these roads, then don’t be,” he said. Even the professionals needed some assistance get- ting through the challenging conditions on Wednesday night. While other agencies like Oregon State Police and municipal police stay within their jurisdiction of the state highways or their own cities, the Umatilla County Sher- iff’s Office handles many of the calls for help out on the area’s more remote roads. Luckily for the respond- ing deputies and those in need of help on Wednes- day night, Umatilla Elec- tric Cooperative had line Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Tygh Campbell uses his tractor to clear snow drifts from a section of Gerking Flat Road near Athena on Thursday afternoon. workers tending to scat- tered power outages on and near Weston Mountain. And when authorities weren’t able to reach stranded vehicles themselves, the line work- ers stepped up and used their own snowcats to transport emergency personnel to the scenes of crashes. “That’s huge,” Lt. Sterrin Holcomb said. “Those are things that make a big difference.” According to Umatilla Electric Cooperative repre- sentative Steve Meyers, the company’s crews are trained to protect themselves and avoid becoming a liability to first responders in the event of an emergency. But when called upon to help, crews are able to assist if possible. “We are appreciative when our crews go above and beyond the call of duty,” Meyers wrote in an email. “And [we’re] grateful when they are able to help in any way.” When it comes to help- ing agencies coordinate responses, Umatilla County Emergency Manager Thomas Roberts said the county primarily takes a sup- port role during severe win- ter weather. “Generally speaking, we’ll monitor conditions and step in to provide support to response agencies and coor- dinate with local and state resources,” Roberts said. Roberts said the coun- ty’s emergency management department, which is housed in the sheriff’s office, has some of its own resources, such as two ATVs that are equipped with traction tires to help reach stuck vehicles in remote areas. One is also outfitted to transport people if needed. Roberts added the depart- ment has access to the coun- ty’s search and rescue team, which has a snowmobile and other resources they can deploy too. The department also works closely with the county’s road department and ODOT for coordinat- ing road closures and traffic issues. Both lanes of Interstate 84 from Pendleton to Ontario opened by 7:30 a.m. Thurs- day, while Highway 204 and Highway 245 remained closed to all but local traffic until later in the day, accord- ing to ODOT. Tom Strandberg, a spokesman for ODOT, said traffic remained slow along I-84 and advised travelers to expect delays and to stay off of it if possible. Standberg said Highway 11 between Pendleton and Milton-Freewater opened earlier Thursday morning, though he wasn’t sure exactly when. But as the roads begin to thaw and road conditions improve, Roberts said the county’s emergency manage- ment department has more work to do. “My office has to main- tain the big picture,” he said. “More snow means more snowpack, which means more that will melt in the spring.” The department will work alongside the National Weather Service and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to analyze how this week’s win- ter storms may influence future events, Roberts said, so the county is prepared for whatever emergency strikes next. Housing: Housing permit goals exceeded in the past; 2019, however, not so much Continued from Page A1 ment of time and money will be of value to the city in bringing this eyesore back to life, providing much needed workforce housing, and increased property value over the long term,” he wrote. While Pratt called the building an eyesore, Pendle- ton Economic Development Director Steve Chrisman used an even blunter term for the former federal govern- ment building: “an absolute train wreck.” Staff told the council they were supportive of the proj- ect and Pratt’s proposal, and Chrisman listed some of the reasons why. Chrisman said Pendle- ton residents wanted three things: retail, industry, and increased school enroll- ment. Pendleton wouldn’t get any of these things, Chris- man said, without adequate housing. Chrisman said the prop- erty tax revenue the city is forgoing — estimated at $15,766 over five years — would be a low price to pay for more housing. The rebate would only apply to the city’s share of the property tax rev- enue and not other taxing entities, like the Pendleton School District. “No one is crawling over themselves to come build in a market that is extremely slow growth,” he said. “The only way you’re going to fix that is to incentivize people to come in here.” Councilor McKennon McDonald said she wor- ried about the perception of the city continuing to strike special deals with certain developers. “Everything you said sounds great and sounds like it makes sense, but we still haven’t addressed the ele- phant in the room: Do we make something that’s uni- versal that everyone can have?” Mayor John Turner con- tinued his defense of the city’s use of incentives, say- ing he didn’t want a “cookie cutter approach” to incen- tives because each housing project was different. Despite some of the “NO ONE IS CRAWLING OVER THEMSELVES TO COME BUILD IN A MARKET THAT IS EXTREMELY SLOW GROWTH. THE ONLY WAY YOU’RE GOING TO FIX THAT IS TO INCEN- TIVIZE PEOPLE TO COME IN HERE.” Steve Chrisman, Director of Economic Development debate, the council will con- sider Pratt’s request at its Tuesday meeting. After experiencing some years where the city issued less than 20 permits for new housing construction, Pend- leton has seen an uptick in activity. In 2017 and 2018, the city exceeded its goal of issuing more than 50 housing per- mits per year. Pendleton fell off in 2019, only issuing 25 permits, but in an interview after the meeting, Turner attributed the decline to the first phases of the Pendleton Heights addition and Westgate apart- ments being delayed until 2020. He was confident housing permits would pick up again once those projects started this year. Project updates I & E Construction is the Clackamas-based company behind the 200-unit apart- ment complex on Westgate. In an interview, City Manager Robb Corbett said I & E was in the process of completing the planning pro- cess with the city. The East Oregonian reached out to I & E twice for comment, and although com- pany representatives said an employee with knowledge of the project would provide a follow-up call or email with more information, there was no response. Pendleton Heights devel- oper Saj Jivanjee is con- tinuing to work on starting the first 20 apartments of a planned 100-unit apartment complex at his property. The city fronted some of the money for infrastructure improvements for the prop- erty, which also includes 32 townhouses. Although Jivan- jee has been late in paying back the city what he owes, Finance Director Linda Car- ter said he made his most recent payment. In an interview, Jivan- jee said he plans to start the first phase of the apartments once public improvements are completed, but he didn’t want to provide a timeline because of previous negative media coverage. The city was also involved in the development of new homes at Sunridge Estates. Because of a foreclosure, the city ended up owning several lots at the subdivision off of Tutuilla Road. In 2017, the city sold the lots to Pend- leton developer Dusty Pace for $660,000, about $100,000 less than what the city owed Banner Bank for a local improvement district. In an interview, Pace said he’s built houses on 30 of the 45 lots the city sold him. Demand for the new houses has been good, and he expects to finish the entire project within the next couple of years. One of the few housing projects the city isn’t involved in is Sunset View Estates, a planned 116-home subdivi- sion near Southwest Hailey Avenue and 30th Street. Longview, Washington, developer Hal Palmer got approval from the Pendle- ton Planning Commission in 2018, but there’s been little activity at the site since then. Palmer said the project is still in a holding pattern while he tries to find funding and a development partner. While it may be easy to find developers in the Port- land metro area, Palmer said it was a lot more difficult to find one willing to go east of the Cascades. Palmer said he’s continu- ing to meet with potential developers for the project. Climate: In response to Republican concerns, new bill includes significant changes Continued from Page A1 listen to them. “As long as we can sit down and collaborate and work on common goals, on issues, I am 100 per- cent behind doing that,” said Sen. Lynn Findley, R-Vale, the newest member of the Senate and its envi- ronment committee. “And that’s (what) I believe that we should all be here for ... But if it’s, ‘My way or the highway,’ then that’s a diffi- cult decision to make.” Rep. David Brock Smith, a Port Orford Republican who served on the com- mittee that considered last year’s proposal, said he was not involved in crafting the new legislative concept released last Friday. “Not being included in the new discussions was rather unfortunate,” Brock Smith said in an interview, “Because we might have been able to mitigate some of the issues that this bill has.” Republicans seem to want to focus on nudging Oregonians to sign on to cleaner energy sources. “We have to have a car- rot, perhaps wrapped in chocolate icing, before you go with the stick,” said Findley, who was sworn in as a senator just last week, jumping over from the House to fill the seat of a resigning lawmaker. “And right now, we don’t. So I think I think it’s imperative that we do that.” Brock Smith said Wednesday he has gathered bipartisan support for a bill that would boost incentives for Portland-area residents to buy electric cars and hybrids. The greenhouse gas proposal’s architects, Sen. Arnie Roblan, D-Coos Bay, and Sen. Michael Dem- brow, D-Portland, said the new plan includes signifi- cant changes in response to Republican concerns from last year, like phasing in new regulations for trans- portation fuels. Yet before fielding ques- tions Wednesday, Baertsch- iger made a forlorn speech — his cadence that of a priest resignedly lamenting the state of the world to his congregation. “We talk about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer,” said Baertschiger, “We see that all the time. Well, I think this is kind of an example. Because the average work- ing family just don’t have the ability to deflect these costs. They’re stuck. I think because of the polariza- tion of this particular piece of legislation — we can’t seem to come to any agree- ment, we can’t even move towards any agreement — that maybe it’s just time to let the voters make the decision.” Baertschiger said Republicans have discussed a direct referral to voters and indicated there could be some support among Republicans for that. But the draft legisla- tion contains an emergency clause, which means that the bill can’t be referred to voters by lawmakers. Vot- ers could still use the initia- tive process to force a pub- lic vote. Dembrow said that mak- ing the legislation effective immediately after legisla- tors approve it would allow the state to prepare for the program’s launch in 2022, even if an initiative is set in motion. Asked what specific pol- icy ideas Republicans had tried to suggest but hadn’t “stuck,” as he phrased it, Baertschiger said his col- league, Sen. Fred Girod, R-Stayton, had “worked on quite a bit about, you know, electrification and some credits, tax credits and stuff with that.” Incentives could help electric companies accommodate demand on the grid as transportation starts using more electric- ity, Baertschiger said. “You know, the prob- lem with fossil fuels is when it comes to the natu- ral resource sector is there’s nothing out there in tech- nology yet that replaces the brute horsepower we need to produce the natural resources, whether it’s trac- tors or fishing boats or any of those kind of things,” Baertschiger said. “There’s nothing really out there yet. And I think we ought to keep trying to incentivize new technology to be able to replace that. But those are things that are going to take a long time.” Dembrow said that Dem- ocrats have been making efforts to include Repub- licans, pointing to Girod’s involvement in early talks on the current proposal. “We have been listening to and to a certain extent working with other Repub- licans as well,” Dembrow said. “But I’m not going to go into detail on that. But I will say that their concerns and ideas are included in this bill and were the grounds for the changes that we made.” Brock Smith isn’t con- vinced that rural Orego- nians would be spared the effects of anticipated higher fuel costs in metro areas if the legislation passes. “The initial increase in cost of transportation fuels will still fall to rural Orego- nians in the costs of goods and services, right?” Brock Smith said. “An apple that someone buys, or an arti- cle of clothing that some- body buys in Brookings, is going to be more expen- sive because it costs more to bring it there from Port- land. And so they’re not mitigating any of those financial impacts.” Dembrow said the pro- posal prohibits fuel import- ers from passing the costs associated with complying with the new regulations to customers in areas of the state that aren’t subject to the regulations. The proposal would reg- ulate fuels beginning in the Portland metro area in 2022, and in 2025, extends to metro areas of the state and cities where at least 10 million gallons of fuel are imported. “Whether or not they can vote for the bill, is, that’s up to them,” said Dembrow of Republicans. “They have to do what’s right for their val- ues and the way they per- ceive their constituency.” He said that while he can’t speak for Republi- cans, he “would expect” them to try to affect what the bill looks like, and then vote against it if they still didn’t support it. “I vote on a lot of things I wish I didn’t have to vote on ... But if you have majority support, you have majority support. And, you know, I think people need to respect that,” Dembrow said. “And let me just add, that given the changes that we’ve made in the bill, if Republicans don’t show up, I’m not sure how much of it is about the program itself and how much of it is really about politics and ideology.”