A10
News
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
PAST
Continued from Page A1
The Eagle/Rylan Boggs
Oregon Department of Agriculture Director Alexis
Taylor, right, and Sharon Livingston talk about
agriculture in Oregon in the Carter Rest Area near
Long Creek Aug. 16.
TAYLOR
Continued from Page A1
One way she intends to
help those stepping into ag-
riculture, either for the first
time or to fill the shoes of an
older generation, is to ensure
programs and resources exist
to help new farmers.
This, coupled with hav-
ing a strong succession plan
in place, will help Oregon
agriculture prepare for the
next generation.
Taylor wants to be an ad-
vocate for the industry, and
help farmers both big and
small.
“Being able to help them
is something that’s important
to me personally,” she said.
“It’s not hard to do when it’s
something you really love
doing.”
During her tour of the
counties, she has been ex-
posed to the diversity of the
state’s agriculture as well as
vast range of geography and
climates.
“I think it makes us stron-
ger as an agricultural sector,”
she said. “I think it’s one of
our greatest assets, but it
also can create challenges as
well.”
FUNDING
Continued from Page A1
expects about $20,000 more
from the new deal, to increase
as the fuel tax increases by
2 cents every other year af-
ter the initial 4 cent increase
in 2018. While beneficial, he
said that amount will not al-
low the city to accomplish
much more than it has been.
“We’re grateful to have it,
and it’s better than what we
Taylor has worked ex-
tensively with the federal
government and said her
experience with the bu-
reaucracy will be helpful
in assisting Oregonians.
Before coming to Ore-
gon, she oversaw the U.S.
Department of Agricul-
ture’s Farm and Foreign
Agricultural
Services,
which is comprised of
the Farm Service Agency,
Risk Management Agency
and Foreign Agricultural
Service.
“Having those relation-
ships and knowing how the
federal bureaucracy works,
and sometimes doesn’t
work, I think is helpful,”
Taylor said.
She plans to work to
better leverage federal dol-
lars and maximize the re-
sources available.
Taylor also served
in the United States
Army Reserves for eight
years
and
completed
one tour in Iraq with the
389th Combat Engineer
Battalion.
“She’s somebody to re-
ally look up to,” said Grant
County
Commissioner
Boyd Britton after meeting
Taylor.
had before, but we still hav-
en’t really addressed the long-
term cost differential between
what smaller cities receive
and what it costs to maintain
a $6.5 million asset, and that’s
what our streets are currently
valued at,” he said.
Replacing Fourth and Fifth
streets, which are in such poor
condition they can no longer
be maintained, would cost the
city about $400,000, he said,
when it only has $450,000 in
its entire street fund.
for a short feature on Kam
Wah Chung, Ph.D. student
Eric Brand said.
“Professor Zhao is work-
ing with the Discovery Chan-
nel on a fully funded TV
series focused on Chinese
herbal medicine, and he feels
that the Kam Wah Chung col-
lection would be an ideal cul-
tural story to include in the
series,” Brand said.
Brand had previously
visited the museum and de-
scribed it to Zhongzhen, who
became very enthusiastic
about the Kam Wah Chung
collection. The two orga-
nized a trip to bring a group
of scholars from Hong Kong,
Taiwan and China to see it in
real life.
“This is the first time, but
not the last time,” Zhongzhen
said. “I will be here again.”
During their visit, the pro-
fessors pointed out an apricot
tree near Kam Wah Chung.
Some traditional doctors
would accept payment from
less-fortunate customers in
the form of them planting an
apricot tree, Brand said.
The apricot tree was
planted at roughly the same
time as Hay had been prac-
ticing medicine and Brand
speculated it could be a form
of payment from a customer.
The main part of the trip
was to visit the museum.
Brand called it the “center-
piece” of the trip.
The group, which consists
of a number of experts on tra-
ditional herbs, has traveled
together for a decade.
“Every year, we go to a
different province in China
to see markets and farms,”
Brand said.
He wrote a chapter of his
thesis on Kam Wah Chung
and wanted to share what he
found with professors and
friends.
The transportation pack-
age also includes a substantial
increase in the special cities
allotment — a competitive
grant program for cities with
populations less than 5,000 —
from $1 million to $5 million,
which Green said could have
a significant impact in rural
Oregon.
Grant County will re-
ceive a much larger increase,
starting at about $400,000,
which Grant County Com-
missioner Boyd Britton said
would allow the Road De-
partment to continue oper-
ating for years to come. He
said the county is one of few
with a healthy road reserve
fund, about $50 million,
but the funding will be very
beneficial to many Eastern
Oregon counties.
Britton said, with so many
bridges, roads and culverts,
more funding would be need-
ed for a long-term solution,
but he praised the bipartisan
effort to pass the package.
“It’s a heck of a lot bet-
ter,” he said. “It’s a nice, good
start.”
Oregon Department of
Transportation Region 5 Man-
ager Craig Sipp said the pack-
age provides funding beyond
lottery proceeds for the Con-
nectOregon grant program, as
well as dedicated funding for
Safe Routes to Schools and
The Eagle/Rylan Boggs
Yu-Ling Ho and Eric Brand examine a rattlesnake in a jar that is part of the Kam Wah
Chung collection Aug. 8.
Pamplin Media/Jaime Valdez
Gov. Kate Brown holds up copies of the signed
transportation funding bill during a signing ceremony at
Portland Community College Southeast Tuesday.
funding for bike and pedestri-
an projects.
Through a 1/10th of 1 per-
cent payroll tax deducted by
employers — about $0.39 per
week for a minimum wage
worker — the package also
provides new funding for
public transit.
Angie Jones, transit man-
ager for the People Mover,
said the organization expects
to receive more than $100,000
each year starting in 2019.
The People Mover has pri-
marily been funded through
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state and federal grants, she
said. With the new funding
source, she said more free
rides may be offered for peo-
ple in need, fares may be low-
ered, operating hours may be
extended and the service area
may increase.
“I think, overall for Ore-
gon for public transit, it’s an
amazing opportunity,” she
said. “It’s the first time Ore-
gon has ever had a designated
funding source for transit. It’s
a big deal, and we’re very ex-
cited.”
Brown actually signed the
legislation into law Aug. 18,
the deadline to enact bills
from the 2017 Legislature,
which adjourned early last
month.
The transportation pack-
age was a chief victory for
both Democratic and Repub-
lican lawmakers during the
legislative session.
As the bill appeared ready
to combust over discontent
among interest groups, Brown
intervened to help negotiate a
deal that would save the pack-
age she’d been promising to
constituents for the past two
years.
“Passing the transportation
package was no easy feat,”
Brown said. “We faced some
significant challenges this
last legislative session but we
worked across the aisle and
toward a shared vision for a
better Oregon.”
The eight-year transporta-
tion plan includes staggered
hikes in the gas tax, increas-
es to registration and title
fees, and new taxes on pay-
roll, new vehicle purchases
and bicycles priced more
than $200. The package also
calls for congestion-priced
tolling at some of Portland’s
bottlenecks, which could in-
clude certain lanes on Inter-
state 5 and Interstate 205, to
pay for congestion-busting
projects.
Among major projects
specified in the plan are con-
gestion relief on Highway
217, widening northbound
I-205 from Powell Boule-
vard to Interstate 84 and ini-
tial investment in adding new
lanes to I-5 through Portland’s
Rose Quarter.
Paris Achen is a report-
er for the EO Media Group/
Pamplin Media Group Capi-
tal Bureau.
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