A2 BAKER CITY HERALD • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2022
Local
TURNING BACK THE PAGES
50 YEARS AGO
from the Democrat-Herald
February 17, 1972
A breakdown of new laws governing solid waste
management was given yesterday to local government
offi cials and civic leaders during an all-day seminar.
House Bill 1051, passed into law by the 1971 Oregon
Legislature, provides for establishment of a statewide
comprehensive solid waste management program.
25 YEARS AGO
from the Baker City Herald
February 17, 1997
Congressman Bob Smith, R-Ore., has introduced a bill
to reopen to motorized vehicles a 6 1/2-mile section of the
Hells Canyon RIm Road that’s been closed since 1989.
Smith said H.R. 799 corrects an oversight that forced
the U.S. Forest Service to close the dirt road on the Oregon
rim of Hells Canyon about 35 miles northeast of Halfway.
It is the second such bill to be introduced in the past
15 months. Smith’s predecessor, Republican Wes Cooley,
introduced similar legislation on Nov. 30, 1995.
10 YEARS AGO
from the Baker City Herald
February 17, 2012
Baker City Police are investigating a rash of vandalism
this week along the Leo Adler Memorial Parkway.
Police Chief Wyn Lohner and City Manager Mike Kee
received reports of graffi ti markings at Central Park
on Tuesday morning. Similar “tagging” was discovered
Wednesday by Joyce Bornstedt, the city’s technical
administration supervisor, during a routine parkway
inspection.
“None of this has any signifi cance to gangs that we can
identify,” Lohner said, but he wants his department to be
prepared should gang tagging show up in the community.
ONE YEAR AGO
from the Baker City Herald
February 18, 2021
Behind the glass of beer, with its photogenic bubbles
and foamy white head, there are Tom Hutchison and his
bags of Eastern Oregon barley.
Hutchison’s place in the brewing business isn’t the
most prominent.
Yet aside from the typical odes to pure spring water and
to hops, the dried fl owers that infuse beer with its mouth-
puckering bitter bite, the building blocks for a pint of ale or
lager are stacked in Hutchison’s building near the railroad
tracks just off Broadway Street in Baker City.
And when it comes to malting barley, a key ingredient in
beer as well as many distilled spirits such as whiskey and
vodka, Hutchison occupies a lofty place among his peers.
Hutchison, who started Gold Rush Malt in 2016, swept
three awards at the annual Craft Malt Conference put on
by the Craft Maltsters Guild Feb. 10-12.
Hutchison won gold medals for both his pilsner and
pale malts during the online awards ceremony that took
place Feb. 12.
He’ll also be caretaker of the traveling Malt Cup Trophy
for the next year as recipient of the best of show award.
Hutchison said he knew he had won at least one award.
Offi cials from the Guild told him that in advance to ensure
he would be watching the awards ceremony, which, like the
rest of the annual conference, took place remotely due to
the COVID-19 pandemic.
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SENIOR MENUS
FRIDAY (Feb. 18): Barbecued ribs, scalloped potatoes, mixed
vegetables, Jell-O with fruit salad, tapioca
MONDAY (Feb. 21): Closed for Presidents Day
TUESDAY (Feb. 22): Chicken and broccoli fettuccine, mixed
vegetables, garlic bread, cottage cheese and fruit, peach crisp
WEDNESDAY (Feb. 23): Pork roast, red potatoes, carrots, rolls,
applesauce, birthday cake
THURSDAY (Feb. 24): Hot turkey sandwich, mashed potatoes
with gravy, mixed vegetables, fruit cup, lemon squares
FRIDAY (Feb. 25): Spaghetti, garlic bread, broccoli, green
salad, cookies
Public luncheon at the Senior Center, 2810 Cedar St., from
11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; $5 donation (60 and older), $7.50
for those under 60.
CONTACT THE HERALD
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Open Monday through Friday
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Telephone: 541-523-3673
ISSN-8756-6419
Serving Baker County since 1870
Publisher
Karrine Brogoitti
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Jayson Jacoby, editor
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Published Tuesdays, Thursdays and
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(P.O. Box 807), Baker City, OR 97814.
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Periodicals Postage Paid
at Pendleton, Oregon 97801
Copyright © 2022
Idaho Power goes to court to
gain access to private property
BY ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
Richard and Jean Hemphill
can look out the window of
their Pilot Rock home and
see where massive towers will
stand and carry the Board-
man to Hemingway transmis-
sion line.
Those towers will stand
100-140 feet tall, according to
Idaho Power Co., the primary
force behind the 500-kilovolt
line that would stretch almost
300 miles from a substation in
southwestern Idaho to Board-
man.
The Hemphills traced the
route with their hands. They
said they felt bad about a
line they believe will mar the
beauty of the area.
“I love it,” Jean Hemphill
said. “In the summertime, I sit
out on the deck in the evenings
and enjoy this beautiful view
all the way around. I’m always
sorry when winter comes and
I can’t do that anymore. I truly
love it.”
She and her husband are
the respondents in a petition
for precondemnation that at-
torneys for Idaho Power filed.
The petition, if a judges grants
it, would allow Idaho Power
to enter and survey their
property.
The petition is one of seven
Idaho Power filed in Umatilla
County to gain access to pri-
vate property, according to
state court filings. The com-
pany has filed six petitions in
Morrow County and about
two dozen more in Malheur,
Baker and Union counties.
Jean Hemphill said her fam-
ily moved to a nearby property
in 1942, and she has lived there
all of her life. She and her hus-
band moved into their home
after its construction in the
early 1970s.
“For us, who have lived
here all our lives, we cherish
our lands and our views,” Jean
Hemphill said.
While many areas nearby
have grown a great deal,
they said their own view has
changed little, by comparison,
since they moved in roughly
half a century ago.
The region means a great
deal to them, they said. Both
Hemphills trace their family
tree to ancestors who farmed
the land with their hands.
The land also is meaningful
to the Hemphills because of
their dreams for the future.
“My granddaughter’s
starting a sheep herd,” Jean
Hemphill said. She said it
would be nice to have this land
available for her granddaugh-
ter and future generations.
Idaho Power claims surveys
necessary
Sven Berg is Idaho Power’s
communications specialist. He
said permitting on the proj-
ect will conclude sometime
this year, and geotechnical,
cultural and biological sur-
veys are underway now. These
surveys will reveal important
information, he said, such as
area wildlife and archaeologi-
cal sites.
“We’re working with land-
owners along the route to try
News of
Record
DEATHS
Norma Goertzen: of Baker City, died
on her 88th birthday, Feb. 13, 2022, at
Saint Alphonsus Medical Center with
her family at her side. Arrangements are
under the direction of Tami’s Pine Valley
Funeral Home & Cremation Services.
Online condolences can be shared at
www.tamispinevalleyfuneralhome.com.
Raiden Monges: 19 months old,
of Baker City, gained his wings on
Feb. 15, 2022, at Saint Alphonsus
Medical Center, surrounded in love.
A celebration of life will take place
later, with the place and date to be
announced. Arrangements are under
the direction of Tami’s Pine Valley Funeral
Home & Cremation Services. Online
condolences can be shared at www.
tamispinevalleyfuneralhome.com.
POLICE LOG
Baker City Police
Arrests, citations
PROBATION VIOLATION: Kyle Allen
Brown, 34, Caldwell, Idaho, 12:46 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 14, in the 3600 block of
Midway Drive; jailed.
Baker County Sheriff’s Office
Arrests, citations
Derrick Allen Payton, 36, Baker City,
9:27 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 15, at the Baker
County Jail, where he was in custody on
other charges.
looking for that power and
needing it, and there’s a shorter
and shorter supply down here
all the while,” Doherty said.
He could get behind the
project, he said, if the route
could be altered to do less
harm to local landowners.
“We’re taking one for the
team, and those cattle ranchers
on the century farms that built
Morrow County, they’re really
taking one for the team,” the
commissioner said.
He said the county board,
at this point, lacks leverage
in this situation. He said he
would like to see the route
changed or landowners receive
a larger payout for easements,
but the county does not have
power over this. He said a pre-
vious Morrow County Board
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian of Commissioners may have
Jean Hemphill flips through a folder of information on the Boardman been able to do something, but
to Hemingway transmission line Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022, at her home the opportunity has passed.
near Pilot Rock.
to negotiate rights of entry to
their property and easements,”
he said.
These easements would give
Idaho Power and its partner on
B2H, PacifiCorp, rights to land
use on properties where they
may someday build a struc-
ture, Berg explained.
He said there are 98 parcels
that 47 landowners own where
the companies need right of
entry. These include not just
properties on the route but
ones providing access to other
lands, public and private.
There will be hundreds of
towers, and the entire line will
be over ground, Berg said. He
described them as steel lattice
and H-frame structures. The
steel lattice structures average
140 feet tall with a 40-foot-by-
40-foot footprint. The steel
H-frame towers are, on aver-
age, 100 feet tall, he said.
These are large structures,
he said, but landowners will
be able to farm under and
around them. He added there
are no safety concerns from
electromagnetic frequencies,
as long as you are not “right
up on them.”
The power companies
would make one-time pay-
ments to the landowners as
compensation, he said.
tions between regions and
intra-regionally. He said this
will be necessary if we are to
increase the amount of clean
energy moving from produc-
ers to users.
Power, he said, will connect
to other grids, extending as far
as Arizona.
“That energy can move far
and wide, and it can go the
other way, too,” Berg said.
And B2H could be the
transmission line that allows
power from Phoenix, Arizona,
on a sunny day, to reach Port-
land when it is needed.
The line will take roughly
three years to build, Berg said.
Construction could start in
2023, and will bring new jobs
and business to areas all along
the route. He added it will in-
crease cash property revenue
to counties on the route.
B2H affects ranchers but helps
data centers
Jim Doherty, chair of the
Morrow County Board of
Commissioners, expressed
mixed feelings about the line.
He said he has spoken with
landowners, including cattle
ranchers, to hear their anger.
For himself, he said, he also
has negative feelings.
“Generally, I’m kind of op-
posed to it,” he said.
Importance of the project
Adding tons of steel and
“From our perspective, we
wires across Mother Earth is
see this as absolutely crucial
not ideal, he said, but the con-
to what we call the future and struction of the Longhorn sub-
maintaining our tradition of
station, starting point for the
reliable and affordable energy,” line, is an $80-$100 million
Berg said.
project and would make possi-
He said the country will
ble new data centers and other
require “greater and more ro- area businesses.
“There are a lot of things
bust” transmission connec-
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Feeling powerless in face of
power line
On the land Idaho Power
soon will survey for the trans-
mission line, the Hemphills
farm wheat. That property
alone is 1,000 acres, they said.
Jean Hemphill said her fam-
ily has owned that particular
piece of land since 1917.
One family member died of
the flu epidemic of the early
20th century, she recalled, and
others lived on the land with-
out indoor plumbing. This is
a land that has a lot of history,
she said. Some of the history
even predates her family’s
ownership. One landmark on
the property is a stone struc-
ture, which may have been
made during conflicts with
Native Americans, she said.
And though the Hemphills
have many more acres in the
area, they said they are far
from royalty. Just as the land
has a history of people strug-
gling, the Hemphills said they
have their own concerns. Ris-
ing costs for seed, fuel and
chemicals have made business
difficult, they said.
The planned construction of
B2H has added to their wor-
ries. They said they are upset
about work disrupting their
farming. Another concern is
the possibility that towers will
trouble farming and wildlife,
long after they receive their
one-time payment.
“It’s been really, really hard,”
Jean Hemphill said.
She said she believes the
line is inevitable, and she and
her husband are powerless in
comparison to much more
powerful groups that are set
on the line.
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