RUNNERS SCAMPER THROUGH MUD AT CATHERINE CREEK – PAGE B1
The
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
W edNesday , s ePtember 19, 2018
• N o . 38
• 20 P ages
• $1.00
www.MyEagleNews.com
TIMBER INNOVATION
Oregon seeks to become mass timber hub
Innovative new uses
for the state’s timber
resources include
construction of
high-rise buildings
By George Plaven
EO Media Group
T
imm Locke relishes a chance to
drive around Portland and show-
case the latest commercial buildings
made with mass timber, a construc-
tion material that uses wood beams
and panels instead of concrete and steel.
First stop: Albina Yard, a four-story of-
fice building that opened in 2016 featuring
cross-laminated timber panels from D.R. John-
son, a lumber company south of Roseburg.
Every piece of cross-laminated timber — or
CLT for short — is prefabricated, designed for
a specific part of the building, said Locke, di-
rector of forest products at the Oregon Forest
Resources Institute. That means buildings go
up faster, with fewer workers.
Wood is also environmentally superior to
steel and concrete, Locke said, because it se-
questers carbon and takes less energy to pro-
duce.
“There are so many benefits, it doesn’t mat-
ter which one you choose to start with,” Locke
said.
First developed in Europe, mass timber is
now catching on in the U.S., and Oregon is
working to position itself as the industry hub,
kick-starting rural economies that have tradi-
tionally relied on forest products. On Aug. 1,
Oregon became the first state to approve lan-
guage in its building codes allowing for wood-
framed buildings up to 18 stories tall.
Albina Yard was the first building to use
Oregon-made CLT as a structural element.
Other examples of mass timber construction
in Portland include Carbon 12, an eight-sto-
ry condominium building on Northeast Fre-
mont Street. Across the street is One North, an
85,540-square-foot business complex.
First Tech Federal Credit Union also opened
its new headquarters in neighboring Hillsboro
last June. At 156,000 square feet, it is the larg-
est mass timber building in the nation.
Locke, who was hired by OFRI in 2015
to help develop markets and supply chain for
mass timber, said he believes momentum will
only increase as the projects gain wider rec-
ognition.
EO Media Group photos
George Plaven
CLT explained
Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is a prefabricated, solid wood panel
used in residential and industrial construction.
CLT consists of several layers
of boards arranged in
alternating directions.
Timm Locke, director
of forest products for
the Oregon Forest
Resources Institute,
explains the benefits
of mass timber at the
World Forestry Center
in Portland.
“People like wood. It’s a nice material,”
Locke said. “It has a great environmental story,
and a great aesthetic.”
Timber Innovation Act
Mass timber refers to several construction
materials made of wood, including CLT, glue
laminated beams, laminated veneer and mass
plywood.
CLT, a prominent example, has been de-
scribed as “plywood on steroids.” It is made by
gluing planks of wood in perpendicular layers,
creating thick panels that can be used for walls
and floors.
The first CLT buildings were constructed
in 1993-95 in Germany and Switzerland, and
the majority of production remains in Europe.
The first U.S. commercial CLT building was
completed in 2011 in Whitefish, Montana.
D.R. Johnson became the first U.S. company
certified by APA — The Engineered Wood As-
sociation — to make structural CLT panels in
2015.
A study by Grand View Research, a mar-
ket research company in San Francisco, an-
ticipates the global CLT market will be worth
more than $2 billion by 2025, tied to demand
for “green” homes.
The U.S. Senate in June added provisions
to its version of the 2018 Farm Bill that would
The layers are bonded together
with industrial adhesives and
pressed together to form a solid,
straight rectangular panel.
Courtesy USDA; Structurlam
Common applications include long
spans in walls, floors and roofs.
Carbon 12, an eight-
story condominium
building in Portland
is made with mass
timber.
Sources: Oregon State University;
APA-The Engineered Wood Association
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
establish a federal research program for mass
timber. Originally known as the Timber Inno-
vation Act, the bill was sponsored by Sen. Deb-
bie Stabenow, D-Mich., and co-sponsored by
19 other senators, including Republicans and
Democrats from Oregon, Idaho, Washington,
Montana, Minnesota, Maine and Mississippi.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, said he wants
to see Oregon become the national leader in
mass timber, an industry with “enormous po-
tential.”
“We think about the fact that we build these
medium high-rise buildings out of concrete
and steel,” Merkley said. “If we can open that
See TIMBER, Page A10
Grant loss hits district attorney’s office
County looking
at funding options
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
Grant County District At-
torney Jim Carpenter says he
may need to triage cases with
the loss of a deputy district at-
torney.
If he has to choose be-
tween prosecuting a trespass
case or a domestic violence
case, he will choose the lat-
ter, he told the Grant County
Court Sept. 12.
The district attorney’s of-
fice was not approved for
continued Violence Against
Women Act grant funding
that amounted to $167,000
per year. Carpenter said he
learned about the loss in fund-
ing on Sept. 10, and it coin-
cides with the
departure of
Deputy Dis-
trict Attorney
Mara Houck,
who will leave
Sept. 21 for a
Jim
position with
the Deschutes Carpenter
County Dis-
trict Attorney’s Office.
Houck prosecuted all cas-
es involving sex abuse, child
abuse and domestic violence.
The VAWA funding also sup-
ported a victim intervention
specialist and special inves-
tigator, Carpenter said. That
three-year grant cycle ends
Sept. 30. Grant County has
received the grant for four
consecutive cycles, he said.
Finding options
Remaining grant funds
could last until next March,
but the county will need to ex-
tend the grant cycle to access
the remaining funds, Carpen-
ter said. Other than that, he
said he doesn’t have a lot of
answers.
“A prosecutor from the
Criminal Division of the Or-
egon Department of Justice
will be appointed as a special
prosecutor on the more seri-
ous sex abuse cases on Dep-
uty Houck’s caseload,” Car-
penter told the Eagle.
The court approved Car-
penter’s request to contract
with another attorney to re-
solve Houck’s remaining cas-
es.
“Local attorney Riccola
Voigt has agreed to contract
with the district attorney’s of-
fice to provide that service,”
Carpenter told the Eagle.
See OFFICE, Page A10
Sheriff’s lawsuit against county settled for $14,000
County court opts
to avoid prolonged
litigation
By Richard Hanners
and Sean Hart
Blue Mountain Eagle
The lawsuit filed by the sheriff’s
office against Grant County has been
settled.
Following an executive session
Sept. 12, the Grant County Court
agreed to settle the case for $14,000
after negotiating with the plaintiffs’
private law firm, Hostetter Law
Group.
On behalf of clients Sheriff Glenn
Palmer, former civil deputy Sally De-
Ford and the sheriff’s office, Hostetter
The Eagle/Richard Hanners
Jim Spell listens to the Grant
County Court discuss the
settlement in the lawsuit brought
by the sheriff’s office against the
county at a Sept. 12 meeting.
Law Group sued Grant County and
its board of commissioners in March,
arguing the county was required to
cover legal expenses incurred by the
clients when they retained the law
group as private counsel after The
Oregonian newspaper sued them in a
public records dispute.
Stating that attorneys representing
county governments usually handle
such legal matters, not private attor-
neys, a judge dismissed the suit July
10 — concluding public records law-
suits were not covered under the Or-
egon Tort Claims Act, which would
have required the county to pay
for the defense of its agents — but
Hostetter Law Group sought to have a
judge reconsider the opinion, stating
its clients were denied representation
by the county attorney.
After the decision to settle the
case, County Commissioner Rob Ra-
schio said standing up for principles
can be expensive and that the litiga-
tion could have gone on for another
year. He didn’t expect the county
would lose the case, but he said it
could have cost the county another
$14,000 to litigate it.
Attorney Zachary Hostetter said
he was pleased with the settlement.
“In 2017 former civil deputy Sal-
ly DeFord, Sheriff Palmer, and the
Grant County Sheriff’s Office were
forced to defend against a lawsuit
filed against them,” he said in a state-
ment. “In such circumstances it is ex-
tremely important for hard-working
public servants to know that they will
be provided with legal representation.
We are very pleased that Grant Coun-
ty has agreed to settle this matter.”
Hostetter said Palmer was out of
the office and unable to comment.
The settlement was considerably
less than the $41,000 legal bill Hostet-
ter Law Group said the sheriff’s office
See PALMER, Page A9