LOCAL
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, October 28, 2020
A17
County backs using lodging DEQ fi nes Joseph over wastewater
tax for emergency services
forced the city to rework its
master plan for sewage treat-
ment and thus missed a DEQ
deadline, leading to the fi ne.
Braden said that given the
DEQ’s intention to “exer-
cise reasonable enforcement
discretion” in light of hard-
ships caused by the COVID-
19 pandemic, the depart-
ment will likely look upon
the fi ne as paid in-kind with
the approximately $3 mil-
lion the city will spend on its
new sewage treatment plant.
The plant is scheduled to be
online in 2023.
“We’re not in violation
currently,” Braden said.
“We’re compliant.”
He also said that the DEQ
is getting more restrictive on
older treatment plants, such
as Joseph’s, which is more
than 20 years old. He said
the new master plan for sew-
age treatment also will elim-
inate discharging treated
effl uent into nearby streams.
“It’s just kind of a formal-
ity,” Braden said of the fi ne.
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
Commissioners
support letter
that could lead
to legislation
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — A let-
ter supporting the use of some
transient lodging tax dol-
lars to fund law enforcement
and other emergency services
was approved by the Wal-
lowa County Board of Com-
missioners at its meeting
Wednesday, Oct. 21.
The letter supports a con-
cept that came from a let-
ter from Tillamook County
requesting a change to the
state’s Transient Lodging Tax
Statute that requires 70% of
lodging tax revenues be ded-
icated to tourism and tour-
ism-related activities, while
the other 30% could go for
other uses.
The Wallowa County let-
ter stated that the statute
“puts a burden on the abil-
ity of these local jurisdictions
to provide public safety for
numerous visitors we enter-
tain each year.”
Commissioner
Todd
Nash said the letter came
through the Association of
Oregon Counties and he got
the approval of the Wallowa
County Local Public Safety
Coordinating Council.
“They were in full support
of the concept, so I thought I
would bring that to the board
of commissioners here,”
Nash said.
Commissioner
Susan
Roberts compared what she
knew of the Tillamook let-
ter to Wallowa County’s
circumstances.
“The numbers are differ-
ent, but the story’s the same,”
she said.
The need in Wallowa
County arose this year at least
in part due to extended stays
by tourists reluctant to go
home because of the COVID-
585
$18,
Wallowa County Chieftain, File
The Wallowa County Board of Commissioners recently
approved a letter supporting the concept of allowing part of
the Transient Lodging Tax to be used for emergency services.
19 pandemic. There also was
a sharp increase in calls for
search and rescue services,
according to county counsel
Paige Sully.
“We
got
slammed
this year,” Sully told the
commissioners.
The commissioners asked
David Hurley, a board mem-
ber of the Wallowa Lake Tour-
ism Association who owns
Eagle’s View Inn and Suites
in Enterprise, his thoughts on
the letter as a lodging owner
and tourism group member.
“I would like to see a rec-
ognition that it is for tourism,
but it’s also for law enforce-
ment because we have so
many more people here,”
Hurley said.
The letter noted that the
7,000-plus population of the
county triples or quadru-
ples during the tourism sea-
son, thus increasing the need
for law enforcement, SAR
and medical services. Allow-
ing the 70% of the lodging
taxes to go toward those pub-
lic services would “greatly
reduce the pressure of trying
to fi nance a sheriff’s deputy
within our limited General
Fund,” the letter stated.
The plan now is for Nash
to take the letter to the Eastern
Oregon Counties Association
to gain that group’s support
and later to lobby for it in the
,685
$23
Legislature, where the real
action will have to be taken.
“It’s in a real early stage
of any legislative change,”
Nash said Thursday. “We just
wanted to be able to support
the concept.”
He said this is one of those
rare cases where there seems
to be no urban/rural or east-
west divide, as so often hap-
pens in Oregon, since the
idea originated in Tillamook
County.
The only real pushback, he
said, might come from lodg-
ing owners who may see a
lower portion of that 70% go
to them. However, he added,
if Hurley’s position on the let-
ter is any indication of other
lodging owners, that may not
be the case.
Commissioner John Hill-
ock agreed. At Wednesday’s
meeting, he told of an experi-
ence he had recently.
“I had one of the lodg-
ing people call me and say
we had a really good year so
the county should just keep
the tourism money,” Hill-
ock said, eliciting chuck-
les from the other commis-
sioners. “I said that’s a really
great suggestion, but I don’t
think the rest of the people
in the county and the cham-
ber would go for that. Besides
that, it’s law. But, it was a nice
suggestion.”
,750
$39
JOSEPH — The city of
Joseph is one of 35 jurisdic-
tions or companies fi ned for
alleged violations of state
Department of Environ-
mental Quality standards,
according to a press release
Thursday, Oct. 22.
The city has been fi ned
$2,250 for violations con-
nected with its wastewater
treatment plant.
City Administrator Larry
Braden said Thursday the
fi ne is mainly because the
city, in its effort to come up
with a new facilities plan,
ran into issues with property
acquisition and was unable
to fi nd another 20-acre par-
cel of land for a settling pond
as required by the DEQ.
“We kind of got up
against a brick wall,” Bra-
den said. “We couldn’t fi nd
a 20-acre plot anyone would
sell.”
He said the diffi culty
“It just has to do with oper-
ating within our permit. The
violation is not tied to opera-
tions at all. They’re just say-
ing we didn’t get our plan in
time.”
According to the press
release, the DEQ fi nes state-
wide ranged from $350
to $308,656 and totaled
$855,111 in August and Sep-
tember. Alleged violations
included illegal disposal
of radioactive solid waste,
improper asbestos abate-
ment and exceeding waste-
water permit limits.
Joseph was one of seven
cities fi ned for wastewater.
Fines in those cities ranged
from $350 in Scappoose to
$12,235 in Lafayette.
The press release stated
that the DEQ recognizes
that the COVID-19 out-
break may affect the ability
to comply with corrective
actions or pay a civil pen-
alty, and it is thus exercising
discretion when issuing civil
penalties.
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