A4 THE BULLETIN • FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2022
Politics
Continued from A1
“Kurt Schrader (OR-05) and
Henry Cuellar (TX-28) are now trail-
ing progressive opponents in their
May 17 primary and May 24 runoff,
respectively,” wrote Dave Wasser-
man, the Cook Report’s analyst of
House races.
“Their ousters could not only dec-
imate Democrats’ centrist ranks but
enhance GOP takeover chances in
their single-digit Biden seats.”
The Cook Political Report noted
that both Republican and Demo-
cratic incumbents were running up
against a sour national mood un-
friendly to officeholders of both par-
ties.
“Across the spectrum, voters are
restless,” Wasserman wrote. “On the
right, moderate GOP House incum-
bents are contending with an angry
former president who wants to purify
the party of people who have crossed
him. Democratic primary voters are
furious over the possible end of Roe
v. Wade. And voters of all stripes are
anxious about everything from the
cost of gas and groceries to infant
formula shortages and instability
abroad.”
Johnson ramps up for governor’s
race on Nov. 8
While 15 Democrats and 19 Re-
publicans push through to the end of
their party’s races for governor, a can-
didate planning to skip the primary
is gearing up a major petition drive
to make the November ballot.
Former Sen. Betsy Johnson,
D-Scappoose, needs to gather 24,000
valid signatures by the end of August
to submit to the Secretary of State. If
verified, she would run for governor
as a nonaffiliated candidate on the
Nov. 8 ballot.
Johnson, a Democrat whose father
was a prominent Republican legisla-
tor and mayor of Redmond, is stak-
ing out the ground between the two
parties.
Her website now includes digital
petitions that can be used by voters
to assist the drive to get her qualified
for the ballot.
The website also has a gift shop.
Johnson is known for wearing large
glasses — which are used promi-
nently in her campaign materials.
A portion of her website now sells
T-shirts, coffee mugs, iPhone cases,
and other items festooned with the
big eyewear symbol.
While Democrat and Republican
candidates are expected to exhaust
their campaign funds to ensure vic-
tory on Tuesday, Johnson will start
the general election with the biggest
war chest: $5.8 million.
The major party candidates can
expect additional support once they
become their parties’ nominees and
national funds flow into their cof-
fers. Johnson will go it alone — but is
getting help from Nike founder Phil
Knight, who has contributed $1.75
million to her campaign so far.
Kristof backs ouster of Yamhill
commissioner
The political action committee of
former New York Times columnist
Nicholas Kristof has remained rel-
atively quiet since the Oregon Su-
preme Court ruled Feb. 17 that he
didn’t meet the Oregon residency re-
quirement to run for governor in the
Democratic primary.
The Nick for Oregon PAC has paid
off campaign bills, but still has over
$1 million sitting in its account.
In his first large financial foray
back into Oregon politics, Kristof late
last month gave $10,000 to progres-
sive Doris Towery’s bid for Yamhill
County Commissioner against con-
servative incumbent Mary Starrett.
Kristof lives on a farm in Yamhill
County, where he grew up before
embarking on an international jour-
nalism career.
Blurred ballots in Clackamas will
be fixed by hand
Secretary of State Shemia Fagan
issued a statement Thursday back-
tracking on a quip made during
Wednesday’s news conference on
how ballots with blurred bar codes
issued in Clackamas County would
be fixed by machine duplication.
“No one is in there filling in bub-
bles by hand,” Fagan said.
Fagan spokesman Ben Morris said
Thursday that in fact, one Democrat
and one Republican will together
create the duplicate ballots by hand,
marking votes with a pen.
“Clackamas is doing it manually,”
he said. “When they receive a bal-
lot that won’t scan, the voters’ intent
will be transferred by hand to a new
ballot.”
One person will read the ballot,
while the other marks the corrected
blank spot on the duplicate. They will
then switch roles and proofread the
ballot.
“The original ballot will be re-
tained and indexed to match it to the
corresponding new ballot,” Morris
said. “The new ballot will be put back
into the counting machines to be tal-
lied.”
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gwarner@eomediagroup.com
Snow
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“You might look at the
numbers and think that they
are great, but the snowpack
numbers peak on April 1,”
said Gorman. “If we are just
maintaining the snowpack
and receiving (precipita-
tion), our percentage will go
up as time goes on.”
Gorman explains that in
a typical year, warm tem-
peratures cause rapid snow-
melt by mid-May, which
lowers snowpack. So any
small storms that drop a
little snow can cause the
snowpack percentage to sky-
rocket well above normal for
this time of year. Even cold
temperatures that prevent
melting will cause the per-
centages to rise compared to
what is average for this time
of year.
Precipitation is the more
important number to watch
as it more accurately indi-
cates how Central Oregon is
faring against the drought,
said Gorman. Precipitation
for the water year is 96%
of normal, up from 81% of
normal six weeks ago but
still below average.
“We haven’t recovered this
year. We are still below aver-
age,” said Gorman.
Central Oregon reservoirs
will need two or three con-
secutive years of above-aver-
age precipitation and snow-
pack for a recovery to occur,
Library
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“It’s that much more
money not going toward
building,” Dunkelberg
said, referring to what-
ever amount of money that
would be spent on buying
new land.
Dunkelberg said the li-
brary board hasn’t discussed
whether it will sell the origi-
nal land to help pay for new
land. The library bought the
Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
Recent precipitation has boosted snowpack levels, but not enough to fend off drought. Shown
here is Central Oregon Irrigation District’s outtake on the Deschutes River in southwest Bend on
Thursday.
said Gorman.
“If the reservoirs drain
down to a minimum this
year, they won’t fill next year
no matter what. I can tell
you that,” he said.
Deschutes National For-
est spokesperson Jean Nel-
son-Dean added that dry
conditions still exist at lower
elevations and fire danger
remains a threat as the re-
gion heads toward summer.
The La Niña weather pat-
tern is expected to create
dry conditions from June
through August, she said.
“These dry conditions
along with anticipated wind-
ier conditions and persistent
drought will keep Central
Oregon at a higher risk for
wildfires than normal,” said
Nelson-Dean. “Ongoing
drought will really elevate
these conditions in July and
August.”
A bright spot can be
found at Mt. Bachelor ski
area, which is expected
to remain open for skiing
through May 29, said com-
pany spokesperson Dustin
Fletcher. Historically, Mt.
Bachelor has been able to
stay open as late as the July 4
weekend.
A round up of the area’s
reservoirs shows water levels
that remain at historic lows.
Wickiup Reservoir, which
started the irrigation season
at 55% of capacity, has since
fallen to 48% of capacity.
Wickiup’s draining rate is
slower compared to a year
ago due to decreased wa-
ter allotments for farmers
in Jefferson County. Water
managers are taking un-
precedented steps that cur-
tail the delivery of water
this year in order to make
water available until the
end of the irrigation season.
Cooler temperatures and
recent precipitation also al-
low dam managers to slow
the release of water from
Wickiup.
The central library, which originally was proposed as a
100,000-square-foot building, was a key component promised in a
$195 million bond that voters passed in 2020.
original property for $1.35
million in August 2020.
“We’ve seen land is very
scarce, and at some point we
may need it for something,”
he said.
If the original site isn’t
used, the library won’t be
able to use bond funds to
reimburse itself for buying
that property, and will have
to move that money into a
reserve account, Dunkelberg
said.
It is unclear how much
more the library will have
to spend on a new piece of
property. New land could
potentially cost more but
provide more amenities
that the library wouldn’t
have to build, which could
bring down project costs,
Dunkelberg said. On the
original site, the library
would have had to contrib-
ute to other infrastruc-
At Wickiup dam, the re-
lease of water on Tuesday
was just 837 cubic feet per
second compared to 1,134
cfs on the same date a year
ago.
Other reservoirs at criti-
cally low levels include Cres-
cent Lake (11%), Prineville
Reservoir (31%), and
Ochoco Reservoir (21%).
Larry O’Neill, associ-
ate professor at Oregon
State University’s College
of Earth, Ocean and Atmo-
spheric Sciences, said the
forecast for the next two
weeks is for cool and wet
conditions to potentially
continue.
“After that though, signals
are on the horizon for an
anomalously warm and dry
pattern to set up, which may
take us into summer,” said
O’Neill.
O’Neill said a possible im-
pact of continued La Niña
conditions is the tendency
for a weaker southwest
monsoon, which may give
Central and Southeastern
Oregon less summer thun-
derstorm activity, particu-
larly in late July and August.
“This may be a mixed
blessing with less lightning
but also less summer rain-
fall,” said O’Neill. “This
has been the case the last
two summers and could be
something to look out for
this summer as well.”
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Reporter: 541-617-7818,
mkohn@bendbulletin.com
ture costs, like roads and a
roundabout.
But what is known for
sure is that land will likely
cost much more now than it
did two years ago.
“It will be more,” Dunkel-
berg said. “We got the land
up north at $2 a square foot.
I have not seen anything
that comes anywhere close
to $2 a square foot right
now.”
█
Reporter: 541-633-2160,
bvisser@bendbulletin.com
OBITUARY
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press file
A land use ruling requires revisions to a wildlife mitigation plan for a Crook County solar facility
expansion.
Solar
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NewSun Energy said it welcomes LUBA’s
order because the ruling has confirmed
the mitigation plan is “appropriate and ac-
ceptable in form, size, scale, substance and
type,” as well as in its definition of habitat,
Stephens said.
For example, the plan can now move
forward with “more tightly defined lim-
its” on where mitigation occurs as well as
“specific deed restriction language” that
will shield the habitat mitigation site from
future development, he said.
The company believes the plan already
includes these elements and has exceeded
the requirements of state wildlife officials,
Stephens said. “Regardless, NewSun looks
forward to continuing to invest in good
faith in rural Oregon communities, in-
cluding performing mitigation as required
by law.”
Crook County will have to reconsider
its authorization of the solar facility’s ex-
pansion based on the ruling’s criteria and
standards, most likely based on additional
evidence from the project’s developer, ac-
cording to LUBA.
Last year, LUBA blocked the expansion
project, but the Oregon Court of Appeals
said it incorrectly construed state land use
law. The appeals court faulted LUBA for
requiring the county to fully meet wildlife
criteria that’s meant for larger solar proj-
ects.
LUBA has now issued a new ruling
based on instructions from the appellate
court but has still found that the wildlife
mitigation plan needs to be improved.
The developer’s plan to enhance an acre
of wildlife habitat for every acre affected
by the project, plus a “buffer” of additional
acreage, is sufficient to conclude “there
will be no net loss of habitat quantity,”
LUBA said.
However, the plan “lacks the specific-
ity and definiteness” required by state law,
since it proposes two options without pro-
viding enough details about the location
of replacement habitat, effectively prevent-
ing third parties from evaluating the qual-
ity of mitigation measures, the ruling said.
Likewise, the so-called “V2 Plan” con-
tains treatment options that are “too
vague” to be evaluated for reliability and
durability, “especially in the absence of de-
fined performance measures,” the ruling
said.
“In conclusion, the V2 Plan is not sub-
stantial evidence in the record as to the
quality of mitigation, the reliability or du-
rability of mitigation, and lacks a schedule
of performance measures required to be
included in a mitigation plan,” LUBA said.
“Accordingly, the V2 Plan is not evidence
a reasonable person would rely on to con-
clude that the development action meets
the no net loss standard.”
The Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife, which had objected to the proj-
ect’s wildlife plan, can “absolutely” make
the solar facility’s expansion work under
the ruling’s requirements, said Greg Jackle,
district biologist for the agency.
The new LUBA ruling is similar to the
previous order and will assure a “very pos-
itive outcome for wildlife habitat,” Jackle
said. “This opinion will assure that wild-
life impacts from the project will be off-
set, protected and enhanced on a specific
wildlife mitigation site.”
Mary Elizabeth (Betty) Arbow
Johnson
June 8, 1954 - May 3, 2022
Mary Elizabeth (Betty) Arbow Johnson, 67, passed away
surrounded by family on Tuesday, May 3, 2022. She
passed away due to a blood clot in her lungs. Betty was
born June 8, 1954, to James & Rosemary (Cashman)
Arbow in Bend, where she grew up. She attended St.
Francis of Assisi, Bend High School (‘72), and college
at COCC where she met the love of her life, Richard
Johnson. They wed on March 18, 1978, and traveled
throughout the West Coast before settling in Oregon
City, where they lived for the remainder of Betty’s
life. Betty worked successfully in many roles over the
years, primarily centered around her love of children,
learning, and books. She loved supporting children and
organizing to get things done, both in her work and
with her family, which almost always included books
and crafts for kids.
She is survived by her husband, Rich Johnson, and
three children: Daniel Johnson (Danielle), Abby Miles
(Mason), and Elissa Johnson (Justin); her siblings:
Rosemarie Davis, Susanne Cox, Timothy Arbow,
Anthony Arbow, Miriam Chapman, James Arbow; and
her 5 grandchildren: Jocelyn (21), Alexis (18), Calvin (6),
Bodie (4), Quintin (1w).
Service will be held on Friday, May 20, funeral at 11:00
am, at St. John the Apostle Catholic Church in Oregon
City, Rev. Maxy D’Costa will officiate.