A6 BAKER CITY HERALD • THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2022
THE WEST
No new federal funds for highway enhancements
$800 million that the federal
law earmarks for specific pur-
poses, such as bridge repairs,
charging stations for electric
vehicles and programs to re-
duce greenhouse gases.
It excludes about $200 mil-
lion that larger metropolitan
areas will get for transporta-
tion directly from the federal
government. It also excludes
money for broadband, water
and sewer line upgrades that
will not go through ODOT.
Transit agencies also will
share $200 million they will
get directly.
BY PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
The Oregon Transporta-
tion Commission has decided
that the state’s share of flexible
funds from the federal gov-
ernment should not go toward
new highway “enhancements.”
The commission directed
the staff of the Oregon De-
partment of Transportation
to revise its options. About
$400 million in transportation
money from the federal infra-
structure bill, which President
Joe Biden signed on Nov. 15,
will be divided among main-
tenance projects for roads and
bridges, safe routes to school
and improvements on state
highways that function as main
streets in communities.
The commission heard more
comments at a meeting Thurs-
day, March 10, after which
members refined what had
been four scenarios for spend-
ing $214 million of the $412
million in flexible funds.
“We are committed to pre-
serving the existing transpor-
tation network and investing
in a range of improvements to
reduce congestion and harm-
ful emissions, and to support
improved safety, electric vehi-
cles, transit and local improve-
ments,” commission Chairman
Robert Van Brocklin said. “The
Tom Strandberg/Oregon Department of Transportation, File
Semitrailers in August 2020 cruise on Interstate 84 through the Ladd Canyon area.
proposed scenarios will allow
ODOT to invest in Oregon’s
transportation system in these
and other important ways.”
The commission will decide
March 30 on the exact mix to
be divided among the list of
maintenance projects, known
as Fix-It, plus safe routes to
school and improved highways
that function as main streets.
It will decide money afterward
for specific projects within
these categories; some projects
will start this summer.
The $400 million-plus is
part of Oregon’s $1.2 billion
that will come to the Depart-
ment of Transportation over
the next five years.
This amount counts about
Other uses
Other uses of the rest of the
state’s $198 million in flexible
funds, as proposed by ODOT
staff in all scenarios, are:
• $100 million for ODOT
to carry out new access proj-
ects to comply with a 2017
settlement of a lawsuit under
the Americans with Disabili-
ties Act.
• $40 million to help offset
a projected shortfall in agency
operations and maintenance.
• $40 million to enable Or-
egon to compete with other
states for a share of $100 bil-
lion that the U.S. Department
of Transportation will award
for other projects. Possible
Oregon contenders are two
projects on Interstate 5: Rose
Quarter widening and par-
tial capping, and a new bridge
over the Columbia River to
connect Portland with Van-
couver, Washington. (The fed-
eral law has a separate fund
for projects reconnecting
communities, but it is just $1
billion nationally.)
• $15 million to help com-
munities with planning for
climate change, including the
transportation planning rule
that seeks to reduce the need
for travel between home, work
and other activities. The rule
dates back to 1991, but was up-
dated in 2012.
• $3 million to boost busi-
ness and the workforce re-
quired for construction proj-
ects.
These numbers also could
change as the commission
makes its final decisions.
The amounts available to
ODOT for new highway en-
hancements will drop off
sharply after 2024, seven years
after the Legislature approved
its third major funding plan in
two decades under House Bill
2017. The plan increased fuel
taxes, which ODOT and local
governments spend on main-
tenance, and raised some ve-
hicle and license fees to repay
bonds for construction.
Idaho hospital briefly locks down amid far-right call for protest
Police Department responded
to the hospital for the protest.
BOISE — A major Boise
A few dozen protesters sta-
hospital went on lockdown for tioned themselves outside
about an hour Tuesday, March various hospital doors and
15, after far-right activist Am- buildings, some speculating on
mon Bundy urged supporters social media about whether the
to go the facility in protest of a facility could be accessed via
child protection case involving underground tunnels. The pro-
one of his family friends.
testers appeared to mostly stay
St. Luke’s Health System put on sidewalks, however, and the
lockdown was lifted shortly be-
the Boise Medical Center on
fore 3 p.m.
lockdown and began divert-
Earlier in the day, Bundy
ing incoming patients about
released a statement on You-
1:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Tube warning that if an ac-
“Safety is our top priority,”
the hospital said in a statement. quaintance’s young child was
not returned to the family after
“At this time, anyone in need
of care should seek alternative a hearing Tuesday afternoon,
that “patriot groups” would
health care providers and op-
tions. We ask that people please take action.
Bundy later released another
avoid the area near the Boise
video telling people that child
hospital until further notice.”
Several police cars from the protection workers were poised
to move the baby from the
Idaho State Police and Boise
BY REBECCA BOONE
Associated Press
hospital to a foster home, and
telling them to show up at the
facility immediately.
The baby was temporar-
ily removed from family cus-
tody last Friday, March 11,
after officials determined the
10-month-old was “suffering
from severe malnourishment”
and at risk of injury or death,
according to a statement from
police in the city of Meridian
near Boise.
The baby’s parents had re-
fused to let officers check on
the child’s welfare after the
family canceled a medical ap-
pointment, the police state-
ment said.
Bundy, who is well-known
for participating in armed
standoffs with law enforce-
ment, was arrested the follow-
ing day on a misdemeanor
trespassing charge after he
protested at a different hospital
where he believed the baby was
being treated.
Bundy’s People’s Rights
group has characterized the in-
tervention as “medical kidnap-
ping” and “child trafficking” on
social media platforms.
In an earlier YouTube video,
Bundy asked followers to pro-
test at the homes of child pro-
tection service workers, law en-
forcement officers and others
involved in the protection case.
“I’m not OK with any of this
— to be honest with you if jus-
tice was to be served, we would
go into the hospital, take that
baby and we would give it back
to their mother,” Bundy said.
He added: “And if we were
further to administrate jus-
tice, we would find those that
are accountable and we would
prosecute them, and uh, you
know, make them pay for the
damages that they caused for
this family and assure that this
never happened again. That’s
what should happen.”
Still, he said people should
wait until after a hearing
scheduled for 1 p.m. that was
expected to determine if the
child could immediately re-
turn home.
“This judge, if he doesn’t re-
turn this family back, know-
ing and seeing the information
that is out there ... if he doesn’t
straighten this out, then we
may have to straighten it out
for him,” Bundy said. “And
that’s not going to be pretty. It’s
going to be difficult.”
In the video made later that
day, Bundy characterized the
situation as an emergency and
directed people to the Boise
hospital because he said the
baby was going to be taken to a
foster home.
Bundy, who is running as
an independent candidate in
a crowded race to be Idaho’s
next governor, didn’t attend the
protest himself. He was at the
Ada County Courthouse all
day, standing trial on charges of
misdemeanor trespassing and
resisting or obstructing officers
in connection with an incident
last year in which he showed
up at the Idaho Statehouse de-
spite being banned from the
building after a previous tres-
passing arrest.
Bundy is representing him-
self in the case. He declined
to present witnesses or offer
opening statements during
the trial, the Idaho Statesman
reported. Jurors were still de-
liberating on a verdict Tues-
day evening.
March
26-27
Saturday 9:00 am–5:00 pm
Sunday
9:00 am–3:00 pm
DESCHUTES COUNT Y
FAIR & EXPO CENTER
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