NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Tuesday, January 4, 2022
Idaho Power goes to court, seeks property access for survey
Utility wants to
survey Baker
County properties
for B2H powerline
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — An
Idaho-based utility is asking
a judge to order the owners
of five Baker County proper-
ties to allow the company to
survey their land as part of
its plan to build a major elec-
tric transmission line through
Northeastern Oregon starting
as early as 2023.
Attor neys represent-
ing Idaho Power filed civil
petitions regarding two of
the properties on Dec. 17 in
Baker County Circuit Court,
two others on Dec. 21, and
one on Dec. 28.
At t or neys Ti mot hy
Helfrich and Zach Olson, of
the Ontario law firm Yturri
Rose, represent the company
in each case.
The company has been
working since 2007 on the
Boardman to Hemingway
project, a 293-mile, 500-kilo-
volt line that would run from
near Boardman to Heming-
way, near Murphy in Owyhee
County, Idaho.
Although sections of the
proposed route runs through
public property — Idaho
Power has received permis-
sion from the federal govern-
S. John Collins/Baker City Herald, File
The proposed Boardman to Hemingway power line would follow the route of an existing line
that crosses Highway 86 between Baker City and the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.
ment to do so — the line, as
proposed, also would cross
several dozen parcels of
private land in multiple coun-
ties, including Baker, Union,
Wallowa and Morrow in
Oregon.
Idaho Power would have
to pay private landown-
ers for an easement to build
the power line across their
property. This would be a
one-time payment, not an
annual lease, according to
the boardmantohemingway.
com website.
Sven Berg, a corporate
communications specialist
for Idaho Power, said the line
would affect about 30 private
landowners in Baker County,
who combined own about 60
separate parcels.
Court filings
The properties listed in
the five recent court filings
include parcels owned by
Hans and Susan Finke, of
Wilsonville, Justin and
Savannah Gyllenberg, of
Baker City, Dean, Rex and
Susan Nelson, of Baker City,
the Harrell Land and Cattle
LLC, of Baker City, and Mike
Ragsdale, of Baker City.
TODAY
SATURDAY
Frigid; a little
morning snow
Very cold with low
clouds
MONDAY
High clouds and
chilly
TUESDAY
A little a.m. snow,
then showers
Rain and sleet in
the afternoon
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
18°
4°
22° 12°
35° 30°
43° 32°
36° 30°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
23°
0°
20° 15°
26° 24°
39° 32°
OREGON FORECAST
39° 30°
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
34/20
11/0
24/6
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
17/2
Lewiston
35/17
21/5
Astoria
38/25
Pullman
Yakima 19/-4
33/18
20/4
Portland
Hermiston
37/21
The Dalles 23/0
Salem
Corvallis
42/24
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
22/-7
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
42/26
29/9
26/5
Ontario
29/-2
Caldwell
Burns
32°
16°
42°
28°
66° (1949) -13° (1990)
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
41/22
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
39/22
0.09"
1.73"
1.08"
6.80"
4.57"
8.60"
WINDS (in mph)
27/2
26/-7
0.23"
1.94"
1.45"
9.32"
13.27"
13.18"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 20/-4
40/23
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
18/-4
29/12
33°
9°
41°
28°
63° (1920) -12° (1968)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
32/15
Aberdeen
11/-5
15/2
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
31/19
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
| Go to AccuWeather.com
SUNDAY
Today
Sat.
NE 4-8
NNW 4-8
SSW 3-6
SW 6-12
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
30/7
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
7:36 a.m.
4:21 p.m.
5:23 a.m.
2:17 p.m.
New
First
Full
Last
Jan 2
Jan 9
Jan 17
Jan 25
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 91° in Cotulla, Texas Low -33° in Rolla, N.D.
Denied access
Berg said Idaho Power
typically sends three letters
to each property owner
before filing petitions in
court.
“We prefer to work
directly through landown-
ers, and we encourage people
(who are respondents in court
filings) to contact us as soon
as they can,” Berg said. “We
much prefer to handle it out
of court. We don’t want to
force the issue in court.”
Berg said the owners of
about 65% of the private
land in Baker County that
are along the line’s proposed
route have given Idaho
Power access for surveys and
inspections.
Of the remaining 35%,
most have not responded to
the company’s requests, he
said.
Two property owners have
denied access to their land,
Berg said.
He declined to say
whether either of those prop-
erty owners is among the five
who are the subject of the
company’s court petitions.
The petitions seek access
to the properties through
Oregon Revised Statute
772.210, which states power
companies can “enter upon
lands for the purpose of
examining, locating and
surveying the line thereof
and also other lands neces-
sary and convenient for the
purpose of construction
of service facilities, doing
no unnecessary damage
thereby.”
That law also enables
power companies to acquire
real property for the purpose
of building and maintaining
transmission lines.
The petitions ask a judge
to grant Idaho Power access
to the five properties, as well
as a judgment for “Idaho
Power’s costs and disburse-
ments incurred herein and
for any other relief the court
deems appropriate.”
Cattle, calves rescued in Imnaha snows
Due to technical issues, the weather graphic for Tuesday, Jan. 4, was not available.
Forecast for Pendleton Area
The parcels range in size
from about 50.5 acres to 941
acres.
Savannah Gyllenberg
said she and her husband
have lived on their property
for about seven and a half
years. She said they received
packages from Idaho Power
a few months ago with forms
to sign granting the company
access, but the couple haven’t
had time to review the docu-
ments.
Gyllenberg said an exist-
ing Idaho Power transmission
line crosses their property,
and they have never objected
to company workers entering
the property to maintain the
line.
In each petition, Idaho
Power states either the
company or its contractor,
Cornerstone Energy Inc.
21, acting on the company’s
behalf, has “contacted the
Respondent several times
to request access to survey,
test, and sample the Property.
Respondent has not granted
Idaho Power access to the
Property.”
Berg said the company
needs access to the proper-
ties to do a variety of surveys.
“Because construction
on the B2H project is sched-
uled to start as early as 2023,
Idaho Power must begin
surveying, testing, and
sampling the Property in
2022,” each of the four peti-
tions states.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
IMNAHA — An investi-
gation is ongoing into possi-
bly neglected cattle — many
of which had young calves —
in deep snows on U.S. Forest
Service land in the Upper
Imnaha area, Wallowa County
Sheriff Joel Fish confirmed
Friday, Dec. 31.
Fish stated in an email the
investigation was started after
learning the magnitude of the
situation Dec. 19.
“Wallowa County is
moving toward seizing the
Dean Oregon Ranch cattle for
neglect, and we are investigat-
ing possible criminal charges,”
Fish said in the email.
Fish said the sheriff’s office
is “assisting with the retrieval
of the cattle on the Forest
Service grazing permits on the
Marr Flat C&H Allotment. We
have had deputies on snowmo-
biles assisting since that date.”
There have been numer-
ous volunteers helping in the
rescue efforts, as confirmed
by county Commission Chair-
man Todd Nash and volunteers
with the Wallowa County
Humane Society.
Social media alert
One of the first widespread
alerts came in a Facebook post
by Craig Stockdale, who was
one of the first to discover the
cattle on the 200 Road south of
Salt Creek.
“I just came upon them
snowmobiling,” Stockdale
said Jan. 1.
He said the post mobilized
rescuers — both those out
finding the cattle and those
with facilities to care for the
rescued livestock — and he
has since taken it down.
Kathy Gisler Reynolds, a
volunteer with the Humane
Society, shared a post of the
cattle Dec. 29. Photos posted
on Facebook showed a cow up
to its neck in snow and unable
to move.
She listed several people
who were involved in rescu-
ing and caring for the cattle
and their calves, calling some
of them “heroes.”
“Some were too weak to
even move,” she said of the
cattle, adding that although
rescuers were able to retrieve
calves, a number of the adult
cows had to be euthanized.
Stockdale and Anna
Butterfield, who with her
husband Mark, ranches north-
east of Joseph, confirmed the
cattle are on the Bob Dean
Oregon Ranch managed by
B.J. Warnock.
Dean lives in the Deep
South and Warnock was not
at liberty to provide contact
information.
The ranch
Warnock issued a state-
ment on the situation by email
Jan. 2.
“I am not aware of any
plans or attempts to seize any
assets,” he said.
He also described the
situation, explaining Dean
Oregon Ranches cows were
all purchased in Oregon and
Washington and began arriv-
ing on Dean Oregon Ranches
property in October 2020 and
continued arriving through
July 2021.
“The cows were a mixture
of spring and fall calvers,”
Warnock said. “They were
all acclimated to this climate,
but not all acclimated to this
specific terrain.”
He also said the cows are
not calving in the snow; the
ranch’s fall calving season was
October through November.
He acknowledged bovine
casualties in the recovery
efforts.
“Despite the efforts of our
crew and the community, 10
cows have been found unre-
coverable,” he said, adding
that “1,548 Dean Oregon
Ranches mother cows were
successfully gathered by Dean
Oregon Ranches crew before
the snow. After the snow, 34
mother cows have been gath-
ered through the joint efforts
of our crew and the commu-
nity. Of those, 26 were Dean
Oregon Ranches cattle; the
others were owned by neigh-
boring ranches.”
Warnock expressed his
gratitude to fellow ranchers
assisting in the recovery and
said they plan to continue
aerial searches and hope to
bring in the majority of the
remaining 29 mother cows.
IN BRIEF
Sex crimes trial in Union
County set for May
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LA GRANDE — A trial for a Cove man
facing sex abuse charges was delayed to the
spring.
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of first-degree sexual abuse.
The indictment detailed accusations of sexu-
ally explicit conduct with minors under the age
of 14 between October 2014 and January 2020.
The Union County Circuit Court scheduled
the 12-person jury trial to start Dec. 13 in La
Grande. But Circuit Judge Thomas Powers
granted a defense motion to postpone due to
ongoing issues with discovery and unresolved
pretrial motions.
The trial’s new date is May 16.
Powers also granted the defense motion for
a lower bail, reducing the amount to $150,000
and setting conditions for release, including
prohibiting Normandy to have any contact with
alleged victims, their mother and place of resi-
dence, and no contact with places where minors
are known to congregate.
Normandy is set to appear in person April
22 for a settlement conference.
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