OFF PAGE ONE
Saturday, December 5, 2020
East Oregonian
A9
Boiler fails
at Hermiston
High School
Preliminary
quote shows new
boiler would cost
$200,000
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
HERMISTON
—
Hermiston School Dis-
trict is ending 2020 with
an unexpected expense
after staff discovered major
damage to the boiler in the
“92 wing” of Hermiston
High School.
The school board had
a brief emergency meet-
ing over Zoom on Thurs-
day, Dec. 3, to declare an
emergency regarding the
boiler, allowing the district
to immediately work with
its contracted heating and
air service to fix the prob-
lem rather than go through
its usual lengthy bidding
process.
The resolution passed
Dec. 3 described the boiler
failure as “catastrophic.”
Katie Saul, director of busi-
ness services for the dis-
trict, told the board that a
temporary fix was allowing
the boiler to provide some
heat for now, but the district
would need to purchase a
new boiler, which a prelim-
inary quote showed would
likely cost about $200,000.
“Right now we’re limp-
ing through with the cur-
rent boiler but it’s only a
matter of time before it
fails, and this time of year
we cannot be without heat
in that part of the high
school,” she said.
In an email to the East
Oregonian, Superintendent
Tricia Mooney said main-
tenance staff initially found
evidence of the boiler leak-
ing into a classroom, and
investigation of the leak
found a crack in the boiler.
She said the boiler heats
the wing of the school that
includes the gym, fitness
room, locker rooms and
about 15 classrooms. For
now, Mooney said, because
staff have temporarily
patched the leak and are
adding extra water to nurse
it along, no staff who are
teaching from the school
have been displaced from
that wing.
She said the money
for the new boiler and its
installation will come out
of the school district’s gen-
eral fund.
The section of the school
where the boiler failed was
built in 1992. Other sec-
tions of the school opened
in 2001 after the commu-
nity passed a bond in 1999,
and the district plans to add
another wing to the high
school using money from a
bond passed in 2019.
Myers: ‘He will be dearly
missed, but his vision will
most certainly live on’
Continued from Page A1
‘closed loop’ system where
nothing would be wasted,
and that remains the foun-
dation for the farm’s
remarkable and continued
success.”
Myers began working
with R.D. Offutt Co., based
in Fargo, North Dakota, in
1994 as a business develop-
ment manager focused on
agribusiness in the Western
United States. The com-
pany acquired Threemile
Canyon Farms in 1998, and
placed Myers in charge as
general manager.
Threemile
Canyon
Farms covers approxi-
mately 145 square miles
west of Boardman, and
grows 39,500 acres of irri-
gated crops, including
potatoes, onions, corn and
sweet peas.
The farm also runs four
dairies, with 33,000 milk-
ing cows and nearly 70,000
total cattle. The milk is
sold to the Tillamook
County Creamery Asso-
ciation, which operates a
large cheese-making plant
20 miles away at the Port
of Morrow.
Earlier
this
year,
Threemile Canyon Farms
was recognized for Out-
standing Dairy Farm Sus-
tainability at the 2020
U.S. Dairy Sustainabil-
ity Awards for its closed-
loop system, pioneered by
Myers, to minimize and
recycle dairy waste.
The system begins
with the cows themselves.
Manure is stored and later
reused as a source of nitro-
gen-rich fertilizer to grow
crops on the surrounding
farmland, including pas-
ture, alfalfa and animal
feed that goes right back to
the cows.
In 2012, Threemile Can-
yon Farms built an anaer-
obic digester to process
additional dairy manure,
capturing enough meth-
ane gas to generate up to
4.8 megawatts of electric-
ity. Solid waste left over
from the digestion pro-
cess is sterilized and recy-
cled as animal bedding for
the cows in the free-stall
barns.
The digester underwent
a $30 million expansion
in 2019, adding capacity
and installing new equip-
ment to convert methane
into renewable natural gas,
or RNG, a cleaner-burning
fuel that reduces harmful
emissions from vehicles by
80% or more compared to
diesel.
“Marty will be incred-
ibly difficult to replace,
but Threemile Canyon
Farms is fortunate to have
a highly skilled, long-
time leadership team who
are dedicated to ensuring
the continuity of business
at the farm,” Curoe said.
“This team will continue to
lead daily farm operations
until a formal interim plan
is announced.”
An Oregon native,
Myers was born and raised
in McMinnville. He earned
a bachelor’s degree in busi-
ness from Oregon State
University, before begin-
ning his career as a certi-
fied public accountant in
Portland.
Along with his posi-
tion at Threemile Canyon
Farms, Myers had served
on the Oregon Board of
Agriculture since 2015.
His second term was to
expire in 2023. Members
are appointed by the gov-
ernor and advise the state
Department of Agriculture
on policy issues.
Myers was also serving
a term as board chairman of
Potatoes USA, the market-
ing organization for 2,500
commercial U.S. potato
growers. He had previ-
ously served on the Oregon
Potato Commission, Ore-
gon Dairy and Nutrition
Council, Oregon Business
Association, The Freshwa-
ter Trust and Potato Grow-
ers of Washington.
“There
just
aren’t
enough kind words to use
when describing Marty,”
Curoe said. “He was
thoughtful, quick to laugh,
and someone who always
focused on what was pos-
sible. But most of all, I will
remember him as a friend
and a true partner. He will
be dearly missed, but his
vision will most certainly
live on.”
In lieu of flowers,
Myers’ family is encour-
aging donations to one of
two charities in his honor:
Blanchet House or the Ore-
gon Food Bank.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
The first bottle of Cabbage Hill aged wheat whiskey fills on a bottle filler at the Oregon Grain Growers Brand Distillery in
Pendleton on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020.
Whiskey: Another 8 barrels still aging
Continued from Page A1
for nearly a decade, said the
barrels react to the changes
in temperature, drawing
water in and out of the wood
from the spirit to give the
whiskey its color and flavor.
“It’s great — you get
the straight plain spirit and
you’re not sure what the bar-
rel is going to do to it — you
really have no idea,” said
Murack. “You just have to
trust the barrel and see what
happens.”
Murack said the barrels
served their purpose well
and provided the whiskey
the color and flavor he’d
been desiring.
“Luckily they’ve done
a really awesome job, they
gave it a bunch of good color
and a lot of great flavor,”
said Murack. “It’s crazy to
see two years later some-
thing that you put in and
weren’t sure what would
happen and it comes out and
you’re like, this is great. It’s
fantastic.”
Bullington said the orig-
inal plan was to launch the
whiskey during the 2020
Pendleton Round-Up, but
the cancellation of the event
threw a wrench in the plans.
While the delay was unex-
pected, Bullington said the
extra time helped to finish
off the whiskey nicely.
“We did some early tast-
ings and just didn’t feel
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Barrels of Cabbage Hill whiskey age in the basement of the Oregon Grain Growers Brand Dis-
tillery in Pendleton on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020.
PURCHASING A BOTTLE
Those wishing to taste or purchase a bottle of the whiskey
can do so at the Oregon Grain Growers Distillery at 511 S.E.
Court Ave. in Pendleton. The distillery is hosting food and
drink specials as well as whiskey tastings on its outdoor
patio through Sunday, Dec. 6, in celebration of Repeal Day.
like it was ready,” said
Bullington.
In search of a new launch
date, Bullington decided a
launch in honor of the repeal
of Prohibition would be a
fitting cause for celebration.
Prohibition, which began
on Jan. 16, 1920, ran for 13
years before its repeal under
the 21st Amendment on
Dec. 5, 1933.
In preparing for the
launch of the whiskey, it
was pulled from its barrels
and mixed with water to
bring the spirit down to 90
proof before being bottled
by an army of volunteers on
Thursday afternoon.
While the Dec. 3 bottling
run used about 3¼ barrels
to produce the roughly 800
bottles, the Bullingtons said
they have another eight bar-
rels still aging.
“As they age, we try the
different barrels and see if
we need to mix and match
barrels,” said Bullington.
Budget: ‘Mental health is huge in our state’
Continued from Page A1
Northeast Oregon in the
upcoming session were
all pleased the governor
included the two projects in
her budget proposal.
Bobby Levy, the Repub-
lican
representative-elect
for Oregon House District
58, said they were among
the projects she advocated
for when House Minority
Leader Christine Drazan
solicited input on capital
construction projects.
Levy said FARM II,
a proposed agricultural
classroom building com-
bined with an indoor rodeo
arena west of the Pendle-
ton Round-Up Grounds,
would be an important tool
to bringing new students
to BMCC. And the Uma-
tilla County Jail renovations
would provide new infra-
structure for people dealing
with mental health issues,
she said.
“Mental health is huge in
our state,” Levy said. “We
have a crisis.”
Although political lines
are already being drawn over
issues like funding for hospi-
tals and the Oregon Depart-
ment of Corrections, State
Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena,
said these projects would
only compete with other
capital construction projects
if they continued to be tied
with lottery funds.
Hansell said there’s been
discussion about prioritizing
projects that have already
East Oregonian, File
Jail uniforms sit out on a rack in the booking area at the Umatilla County Jail in Pendleton in
2018.
been vetted and approved
by the Legislature, which
would benefit the two proj-
ects in Pendleton.
Umatilla County Com-
missioner George Murdock,
a member of the local group
that lobbied for the projects,
said another point in favor
for the jail renovation is the
county has already done
the planning for the proj-
ect and is in position to start
construction as soon as it
secures the funding.
“We can’t start tomorrow,
but we’d be darn close,” he
said.
But Hansell said no one
knows what the 2021 legis-
lative session will look like
during the pandemic, and
lawmakers will still need
to look at upcoming bud-
get forecasts before making
financial decisions.
Having seen FARM II
funding fall short before,
BMCC President Dennis
Bailey-Fougnier said he was
“cautiously optimistic” the
college would secure the
money.
State Rep. Greg Smith,
R-Heppner, will play a sig-
nificant role in shepherding
the projects through the Leg-
islature through his position
on the Joint Committee on
Ways and Means.
While he supports both
projects, Smith said there
will be dozens of other leg-
islators with projects of their
own to contend with.
When the projects come
before him on Ways and
Means, Smith said he plans
to evaluate each project
on its merit, regardless of
whether it was approved in
the last session.
And while being included
in the governor’s budget can
be a huge boost to a capital
construction project or ini-
tiative, he said the budget
that emerges from the Leg-
islature can be significantly
different, referencing the
old adage, “The governor
proposes, the Legislature
disposes.”