PRAIRIE CITY BOYS WIN DISTRICT CHAMPIONSHIP PAGE A9
The
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
151st Year • No. 8 • 18 Pages • $1.00
BlueMountainEagle.com
How would coordination work?
Regional forester,
congressmen offer insight
into differing connotations
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
On Jan. 23, the Grant County Court agreed
to look into the idea of “invoking coordina-
tion” with federal and state agencies as a way
to protect community interests during planning
for projects on public lands. How the process
would work has yet to be determined.
In 2017, 22 members of the U.S. House of
Representatives urged President Donald Trump
to sign an executive order declaring that coun-
ties have an “equal,” not subordinate, role in
government-to-government coordination.
However, Glenn Casa-
massa, the new regional for-
ester for the U.S. Forest Ser-
vice Region 6, said the agency
has its own federal laws and
rules to follow that could pre-
vent adhering to county plans.
Glenn
Commissioner
Sam
Casamassa
Palmer, who introduced draft
language showing how coordination could be
invoked, has been away since then, and no
more discussion on the matter has taken place,
Grant County Judge Scott Myers said in a Feb.
15 email.
“We don’t know if we might join another
county moving forward or go it alone,” he
said. “In recent discussions with other com-
missioners and judges from around the state (in
Salem during the Association of Oregon Coun-
The Eagle/Richard Hanners
The Grant County Court discussed residing and replacing windows and doors
at Keerins Hall during their Feb. 13 meeting.
ties meeting), there are several attempts in the
works to move forward as well, and different
styles of doing that.”
Myers was confi dent that Grant County will
look further into how to coordinate planning
with federal agencies.
“It may turn out that we appoint a commit-
tee to carry issues forward in a manner that will
be clearly understood by agencies, allowing us
to break a cycle of stagnation in those relation-
ships,” he said.
Regional forester weighs in
Casamassa, the regional forester, told the
Eagle in a Feb. 11 interview that he spoke with
people in Eastern Oregon about coordination
when he traveled through the area last fall.
“What we’re trying to do now all throughout
the region really is centered on how to reset our
overall approach to coordination with the coun-
ties,” he said.
As part of the coordination process, counties
would be able to participate in earlier stages of
the planning process and play a role in deter-
mining outcomes, including “even our pro-
grammatic or broad-scale planning efforts, like
forest plans and other kinds of site-specifi c pro-
posals and planning efforts, area by area plans.”
When asked about the legal defi nition of
coordination, Casamassa said, “It’s keeping
each other informed, it’s working together, it’s
establishment of a recognition that there are a
lot more similarities in what the overall out-
comes are, and that it’s achieving that similar
outcome and purpose.”
Casamassa was familiar with coordination
See Forest, Page A18
BUSY
FAIRGROUNDS
NEEDS
IMPROVEMENTS
Parking lot lighting will
increase public safety
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
T
he Grant County Fairgrounds is a busy and import-
ant community asset that needs some infrastruc-
ture improvement investment, Fairgrounds Man-
ager Mindy Winegar told the county court Feb. 13.
The court agreed to move forward on replacing
the parking lot lights that disappeared about three years ago.
Judge Scott Myers and Commissioner Jim Hamsher, however,
asked for more numbers before approving a request to upgrade
Keerins Hall.
Fairgrounds use
The fairgrounds served about 30,000 people in 2018, Win-
egar said, including serving more than 8,000 visitors to the RV
park. Visitors attended yard sales, workshops, benefi t dinners,
memorial services, Christmas and spring bazaars, a gun show,
youth benefi ts and a quilt show.
They also attended meetings of the Oregon State Snow-
mobile Association, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and
the Forest Service’s Forest Plan objectors. Visiting groups
included the BMW Riders of Oregon, who have signed up for
three more years, an antique car group, bike touring groups
and mule and horse clinics.
Big events at the fairgrounds included the rodeo, Queens
Dance, Junior Rodeo and the demolition derby. About 13,000
people attended the 109th Grant County Fair, Winegar said.
The Eagle/Richard Hanners
See Improve, Page A18
The board and batten siding on Keerins Hall at the Grant County Fairgrounds is in poor shape. County offi cials are
considering new siding, windows and doors.
Public invited to talk cap and trade
Testimony to be
taken at Feb. 25
virtual hearing in
Baker City
By Aubrey Wieber
Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon’s proposed cap and
trade system will change the
state’s economy, providing
lucrative opportunities to some
industries and potentially put-
ting others out of business.
Stakeholders had their say
Feb. 11 as 19 people from the
natural resources, manufac-
turing and transportation sec-
tors told the Joint Commit-
tee on Carbon Reduction how
they expect House Bill 2020 to
impact them.
Over the
next
two
weeks, the
committee
will also take
to the road to
receive tes-
Gov. Kate
timony from
Brown
Oregonians
outside the
Willamette Valley. There will
also be video conference hear-
ing in Baker City. It will be a
virtual hearing Feb. 25 in Ore-
gon Trail Electric Cooperative’s
public meeting room, hosted by
OTEC and the Baker County
Chamber of Commerce. The
time is still being worked out.
The cap and trade program
would regulate how much cer-
tain industries can pollute by
charging them for their emis-
sions. The goal is to push indus-
CARBON REDUCTION ROADSHOW:
Springfi eld: Friday, Feb. 22 – Springfi eld City Hall, Council
Chamber (12 p.m. to 3 p.m.)
Medford: Saturday, Feb. 23 – Central Medford High School
Auditorium (9 a.m. to 12 p.m.)
Remote: Monday, Feb. 25 – Remote testimony (live video
feed from various rural locations, including Baker City)
The Dalles: Friday, March 1 – The Dalles Civic Auditorium,
Community Room (12 p.m. to 3 p.m.)
Bend: Saturday, March 2 – Central Oregon Community Col-
lege, Cascade Hall, Room 246-248 (9 a.m. to 12 p.m.)
try to fi nd a cleaner way to do
business. The money raised by
charging for allowances to pol-
lute would pay for transporta-
tion and climate projects of all
sizes.
If passed, the cap would go
into effect in 2021, and cover
52 million metric tons of green-
house gas emissions, accord-
ing to the most recent esti-
mates from the offi ce of Gov.
Kate Brown. Polluters in cer-
tain industries emitting at least
25,000 metric tons per year
would be newly regulated. That
would include industrial man-
ufacturers, oil companies, the
forest products industry and
utilities.
For 2021, the state would
auction off 52 million “allow-
ances” with each allowance
permitting one ton of emis-
sions. Companies uninterested
in changing their practices
could buy allowances instead
of reducing emissions.
But available allowances
would decline in coming years
until 2050. Some industries
would be eased in, getting a cer-
tain amount of free allowances
for a number of years, deter-
mined by the economic impact
of the new limits. The goal is to
clean up Oregon’s air by reduc-
ing greenhouse gas emissions
to about 11 million metric tons
by 2050. In 1990, Oregon emit-
See Public, Page A18