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Wallowa.com
Project:
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A law enforcement offi -
cer, who declined to iden-
tify himself or the agency he
works for, agreed.
“I don’t know how many
times I’ve been on a crash
on that corner. It’s one of the
busiest highways in the sum-
mertime for law enforce-
ment,” the lawman said.
“It’s hard enough to get
through Joseph on a reg-
ular day, but crashes hap-
pen. On a personal level, I
moved to Joseph and Wal-
lowa County in general
because they have no stop
(lights). Small-community
living; that’s what I wanted.
I came from Salem. I think
that this type of commercial
establishment will make us
end up being like Bend. …
As a law-enforcement offi -
cer, that’s a very dangerous
corner there where they’re
planning to enter and leave
right next to the head of the
lake where there’s already
people backed up to the stop
some days. So we’re just
going to have more traffi c?
More crashes are going to
happen.”
Robin Pace also had traf-
fi c concerns, saying it would
be dangerous for the pedes-
trians and bicyclists that use
the pave path along the high-
way at the site.
“Everyone knows it’s
really busy in the summer-
time,” she said. “To see more
traffi c moving across that
location that so much work
was put into, I don’t think
this is the place to put that.”
Overtime:
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Under the bill passed by
the Legislature, farmwork-
ers will be owed time-and-a-
half overtime wages after 55
weekly hours next year, with
the threshold incrementally
dropping to 40 weekly hours
in 2027.
Most farmers will be eligi-
ble for one of three tiers of tax
credits depending on whether
they employ 25 or fewer
workers, 25 to 50 workers, or
more than 50 workers.
Between 2023 and 2028,
tax credits will incrementally
decline from 90% to 60% of
overtime costs for the small-
est employers, 75% to 50%
for those in the middle tier
Wednesday, March 9, 2022
Location, location,
location
Numerous opponents said
it wasn’t so much the project
itself, but the proposed loca-
tion they objected to.
One couple, who lives just
west of the proposed project
and over the ridge, said they
were concerned they’d lose a
measure of privacy.
“It’s a sanctuary; it’s our
backyard,” the husband
said, receiving considerable
applause. “I just think it’s
not the right place for it. I
think his plan’s cool, but to
have it there is not what I
would agree with.”
Michael Straw was
another one who lives
nearby, saying when he pur-
chased his land he did so
with the expectation it would
retain the rural, secluded
character it now has. He said
for such a development to go
forward, “would nullify that
expectation.”
Leon Werdinger, who was
the fi rst to suggest to Hennes
and Gates that they with-
draw their zoning change
request, said he appreciated
that they had come to his
home to explain the proj-
ect. He took a fairly moder-
ate view, despite his ultimate
opposition position.
“The issue is the location,
to me, not so much the guts of
the project itself,” Werdinger
said. “I don’t appreciate this
being couched as a threat
that if we go for this, there’s
going to be this horren-
dous development. I don’t
think that’s reality, either. I
think that there’s momen-
tum toward the purchase for
the park and that’s a great
outcome it seems for every-
and from 60% to 15% for the
largest employers.
After that, the tax credits
will be ended or reevaluated
by lawmakers based on eco-
nomic studies required under
HB 4002.
Dairies with fewer than 25
workers will receive a 100%
tax credit with no time limit,
while those with more work-
ers will fall under the middle
tier’s rate and timeline.
Proponents of HB 4002
argued that it will mitigate the
economic shock to the farm
industry from higher over-
time wages while giving law-
makers time to adjust the law
as it’s implemented.
“I commit to joining with
others in coming years to
make it even better,” Sen.
Elizabeth Steiner Hayward,
D-Portland, said.
National Park Service.
“Our collaborative part-
ners oppose the zone
change because of the visual
impacts and the conges-
tion on the highway and the
damage to the resources on
the state heritage site that it’s
meant to protect,” Collier
said. “For these reasons, we
urge you to deny the zone
change.”
A5
protection of the aesthet-
ics and natural beauty of the
Wallowa Lake Basin and its
environment because of the
cultural and religious impor-
tance to the Nez Perce peo-
ple,” Penney wrote. “It is no
understatement to say that
Wallowa Lake and its sur-
rounding basin is an integral
whole of the sacred place to
the Nez Perce people.”
Tribal opposition
The future?
There was some dispute
as to whether all appropri-
ate agencies had been prop-
erly notifi ed ahead of the
hearing.
“I represent the Wal-
lowa Lake Irrigation Dis-
trict, which owns the farm-
ers’ ditch that runs alongside
the property,” said Jay
McFetridge, district vice
president. “Given the fact
that it’s part of our system
of works and we weren’t
notifi ed about this going on
tonight, our legal counsel
hasn’t had time to look at it.
Before you approve some-
thing, I’d like a continuance
so we can consult with our
legal team.”
J.R. Collier, regional
manager for the Ore-
gon Parks and Recre-
ation Department, said his
department and the state is
also opposed to the zoning
change — and the proposed
project.
He emphasized that
given that the land on which
the project is planned is
adjacent to the Iwetem-
laykin State Heritage Site,
that could be disruptive. He
said the land was purchased
in 2007 and it is managed
cooperatively with the Nez
Perce Tribe, the Confeder-
ated Tribes of the Colville
Reservation, the Confeder-
ated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation and the
Opposition by two of the
three tribal groups involved
with Iwetemlaykin drew
some of the loudest applause
by the audience. Although
nothing was heard from the
Colville Tribes, letters were
read from Samuel Penney,
chairman of the Nez Perce
Tribal Executive Commit-
tee, and from a representa-
tive of the CTUIR.
“Iwetemlaykin
State
Heritage Site directly bor-
ders the proposed commer-
cial zone,” Penney’s letter
stated. He went on to men-
tion the partnership between
tribes and Oregon.
“The partner tribes were
not notifi ed of this applica-
tion,” Penney said, adding
that he urged the hearing
be postponed for a month
or to deny the motion since
disturbance of the property
from development could get
in the way of future acquisi-
tion of the land.
“Iwetemlaykin
lies
within the Nez Perce home-
land and its extraordinary
location, the tribe maintains
a deep connection to the
biology, the culture and the
historic resources of North-
east Oregon and the tribes
have a unique interest in the
After Hennes and Gates
withdrew their request
for a zoning change, they
declined to give their reac-
tion to the hearing or to state
any plans for the future.
But county Commis-
sioner John Hillock had a
challenge for the many who
were present.
“I’ve spent the last two
years helping to build a
management plan for the
East Moraine,” Hillock
said, referring to the East
Moraine Forest Manage-
ment Plan intended to man-
age the roughly 1,800 acres
in which the Wallowa Land
Trust was instrumental in
acquiring. “What I’m chal-
lenging you to do is get with
the county government, get
with the Land Trust, get with
the city of Joseph, get with
the State Parks and get with
the tribes and buy the land.
We need your support to do
those things.”
Hillock said the pub-
lic coming together like
they did Thursday can bring
results.
“All of you guys will
have to help with this pro-
cess to raise the money to do
that, so I’m challenging you
guys to help,” he said.
However,
opponents
countered that tax credits
amount to a “stay of execu-
tion” for farms that will go
out of business or fi nd ways
to limit employee working
hours.
“The very employees
we’re describing here with
such compassion will become
the unemployed,” Sen. Den-
nis Linthicum, R-Klamath
Falls, said.
Arguments in favor of the
bill centered on extending
equal protection under the
law to farmworkers by end-
ing the overtime exemption,
which was described as being
steeped in an 80-year history
of racism.
“That particular exemp-
tion has been unfair for peo-
ple of color,” Sen. Chris
Gorsek, D-Troutdale, said.
“We obviously have a prob-
lem across our state that we
need to take action to fi x.”
Opponents of HB 4002
focused on the law’s practi-
cal eff ects, claiming it will
cause family farms to sell
out to larger corporate opera-
tions that can better withstand
increased expenses.
“Why would we add
even more cost and pressure
for farms to get bigger and
bigger?” Sen. Fred Girod,
R-Stayton, said.
The changes likely to be
wrought by the bill will also
hurt farmworkers who won’t
see their actual incomes
increase as a result, oppo-
nents said.
“Time-and-a-half for a
job you no longer have is not
much compensation,” said
Sen. Lee Beyer, D-Spring-
fi eld, who broke with his
party to vote against the bill.
Under the amendment
favored by Republican law-
makers, the state government
would pay workers extra
money to ensure they earn
a time-and-a-half wage rate
past 40 hours per week.
Throughout most of the
year, farmers would pay the
higher overtime rate after
more than 48 hours worked
per week, but the threshold
would rise to 55 hours during
a peak labor period of 15
weeks per year.
The amendment’s sup-
porters argued it would be
more eff ective at preserv-
ing the economic stabil-
ity of farmworkers and their
employers.
Critics rejected the idea
due to concerns about fair-
ness to other industries and
worries that the state gov-
ernment wouldn’t contrib-
ute to social security insur-
ance, worker’s compensation
insurance and unemployment
insurance.
Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Ath-
ena, said he was initially opti-
mistic the Legislature would
negotiate a bipartisan agree-
ment on the issue, which
failed to happen.
“What agriculture was
asking for was uncomplicated
and reasonable,” he said.
Instead, the Legislature
stuck with a “predetermined
outcome” while implement-
ing a tax credit system that
wouldn’t help the farm indus-
try long-term, Hansell said.
“What was off ered, ag
did not ask for, nor did they
want,” he said.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Greg Hennes, right, responds to overwhelmingly negative
comments by Joseph residents during a public hearing
Thursday, March 3, 2022. Hennes’ partner, Ben Gates, listens
at left. The pair withdrew their request for a zoning change for
their development project.
body, including the tribes.
So I think the problem with
this proposal is the location,
fi rst off , it leapfrogs develop-
ment over a residential area.
… This is a really bad place
for a commercial zone and
I’d just really appreciate it if
you’d withdraw it.”
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