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NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Rebates
Continued from Page A1
Rebates
Green and his wife
received the largest rebate
for a new home still under
construction on Northwest
Valley View Drive. The
2017-2018 assessed value
was $29,090, and its cur-
rent value is $252,549. The
Greens received a rebate of
$17,678, according to city
documents.
John Brazil received a
$12,217 rebate for a com-
pleted new home on North-
west Charolais Heights that
increased in value from
$91,443 to $174,536.
Sally Knowles received
$6,137 for a multi-dwelling
unit on Northwest Canton
Street that improved from
$32,330 to $87,681. The
Torrefaction
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produce
80,000-90,000
tons of torrefied wood in a
year.
The plant will provide
15-17 new positions, and
seven people have already
been hired. The pay ranges
from $15-$25 per hour for
the five different job types
available. Some of the
positions require expertise,
but some training will be
offered as well.
The torrefaction plant
was built at the Malheur
Lumber mill in John Day.
The two separate busi-
nesses now share some of
the same machinery, Kru-
menauer said, and the
wood the mill cannot use
to produce high-value,
dimensional lumber will
be used by the torrefaction
plant.
“These guys (Malheur
Lumber) can get a more
consistent supply of the log
that they need to keep the
mill running, and we (Res-
toration Fuels) get to find
another market outlet for
the waste that traditionally
hasn’t had a market and
has not allowed local con-
tractors to plan and effec-
tively invest in their own
operations,” Krumenaeur
said.
The plant will turn bio-
mass, such as small-diam-
eter trees that have little
economic value, into torre-
fied wood that can be sold.
With additional value from
the biomass, restoration
projects on the forest cost
less and are more efficient.
The torrefaction plant
can also use other forms of
biomass.
John Shelk, the man-
aging director of Ochoco
Lumber, which owns Mal-
heur Lumber, shared that
the John Day mill cur-
rently has about 15,000
program also waives sys-
tem development charges to
hook up with city sewer and
water services, and Knowles
was able to waive $3,682 in
water connection fees and
$8,430 in sewer connection
fees.
Jesse and Michal Mad-
den received $6,554 for
a remodel on Northwest
Bridge Street, and Olivia
Cornell received $4,566
for a remodel on Northwest
First Avenue.
The district
Green said the city
wanted to create a housing
incentive program that was
as inclusive as possible, but
state law constricts urban
renewal districts to 25% of
the land within the city and
25% of the assessed prop-
erty values.
Although the city wanted
tons of wood fiber, which
is primarily used for paper.
But when demand for fiber
from paper mills is low, the
supply backs up in John
Day, which can now be
used by the torrefaction
plant.
Krumenauer said Res-
toration Fuels is in discus-
sions with utilities from
Europe and Asia and sev-
eral power plants in the
United States as possi-
ble customers. Because
the torrefied fuel can be
ground up and pulver-
ized and can be stored out-
doors in the same way that
coal is handled, the power
plants don’t need to make
expensive modifications to
the existing plant, Krume-
naeur said.
“We believe that we
have a mission to support
the broader market devel-
opment, and we would
like the opportunity to use
this plant to get as many
potential users to evaluate
this type of fuel before we
lock in a firm, long-term
off-take,” he said. “We will
provide initial deliveries to
customers in 2020 while we
continue to work through
the current negotiations on
long-term sales contracts.”
Krumenauer said plant
construction costs were
about $17.5 million, pro-
vided primarily by the
U.S. Endowment for For-
estry and Communities
with some development
expenses provided by the
Forest Service and air pol-
lution-reducing equipment
funded by the Governor’s
Strategic Reserve Fund.
Local businesses have
benefited as well.
“We’re spending quite
a bit of money at the local
Ace Hardware store. A lot
of the renting equipment
are through JD Rents,” he
said. “I think we bought
out all the water and Gato-
rade that the grocery store
has.”
to include more properties,
Green said, despite advocat-
ing for a change to the law
through the League of Ore-
gon Cities, it was “politi-
cally untenable” to change
the statute.
“Instead, we opted to
include every available par-
cel within city limits that
was undeveloped or par-
tially developed, and as
many existing homes as we
could, with the hope that
over the next 20 years (the
expected life of the pro-
gram) we would see new
home construction and sub-
stantial improvements on
the majority of those lots,”
he said.
The city’s Project Advi-
sory Committee and Tech-
nical Advisory Committee
shaped the initial district
boundaries behind closed
doors. The Planning Com-
mission and City Council
approved the final boundar-
ies. The goal was to reach
as many neighborhoods as
possible while holding back
about 5% of the available
land area for future alloca-
tion, Green said.
“If we have property
owners that want to partici-
pate now or in the future for
either incentive program,
anywhere in the city limits
or our urban growth bound-
ary, we have the ability to
amend the boundaries to
bring them in,” Green said.
“Anyone can be included
even if they weren’t in the
initial boundaries.”
Concerns
Former city councilor
Louis Provencher expressed
concerns in 2018 when the
district was being developed
that the program benefited
a limited number of people
and that construction was
already underway at some
of the sites included in the
district boundary, defeat-
ing the purpose of the pro-
gram to encourage new
construction.
A foundation appeared
to have been poured for
the Greens’ home before
the urban renewal agency
was officially created by
ordinance in June 2018,
and the initial values used
for program calculations
were based on 2017-2018
assessed values.
Green said he was happy
his family could be early par-
ticipants in the program. He
said the city council, advi-
sory committees and consul-
tants “wrestled for months”
on how to create as inclusive
a program as possible.
He said he did not “view
this as an ethical question
at all” because “the council
created a program that bene-
fits all current and future res-
idents equally.” He said any-
one who wants to participate
can, regardless of where
they work.
“We own two of the 173
acres that were included by
the city council in the urban
renewal area,” he said.
“That’s about 2% of the
initial land area. Since the
council’s goal is 100 homes,
I guess we need to build one
more in the next 20 years to
do our part to reach that goal
— and we’re happy to do it.
“We’re raising the third
generation of my wife’s fam-
ily in John Day. We want to
do our part to lend our time,
talents and resources to help
improve the community.
This is our home, and we’re
here to stay.”
Walden
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The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
This is the new boiler system that will be used for the torrefaction plant and Malhuer Lumber.
How
Continued from Page A1
fuel,” wood residues that
include bark, sawdust, planer
shavings, wood chunks, fines,
dirt and other woody materi-
als, according to Matt Kru-
menaeur, CEO of Restoration
Fuels.
2. The chipper
The primary source for the
plant will be wood around 6-8
inches in diameter, which has
little to no value until it is tor-
refied. At the start of the plants
production there will be about
five semi-trucks delivering
small-diameter wood, Krume-
naur said. Malheur Lumber’s
whole log chipping system
will cut the wood into pieces
about 5/8 inch by 5/8 inch.
3. The dryer
Once chipped, the prod-
uct will go through a 25-foot-
wide-by-100-feet-long dryer
built to process up to 37 tons
of chipped wood an hour.
Warm air at 120 degrees
blows through the chips on a
conveyor belt. Outside tem-
The Blue Mountain Healthcare Foundation would like to
thank everyone who attended and supported Campfires &
Cocktails - the Annual Meeting, Dinner & Auction held on
October 19th at the Grant County Fairgrounds Pavilion. Funds
raised this year were put into the Helping Hand Fund.
A special thank you to each of our sponsors for this year’s event!
Bank of Eastern Oregon
Blue Mountain Eagle
Blue Mountain Hospital Auxiliary
Central Oregon Radiology
Chester’s Thriftway
Dan & Chris Cronin
Doug’s Motor Vehicle Repair
Gardner Enterprises
Gary & Virginia Miller
Greg and Melody Jackson
Iron Triangle
John Day Eyecare
John Day True Value
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
KJDY
Law Office of Robert Raschio
Len’s Drug
Les Schwab Tire Center
Mary Ellen Brooks
Old West Federal Credit Union
Oregon Trail Electric Co-op
Rude Logging
Solutions CPA’s
Southworth Brothers Ranch
Triangle Oil
Tim & Tracie Unterwegner
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Contributed photo
Chipped wood before the torrefaction process, left, and
after.
peratures affect the process,
but it will typically take about
30 minutes to reduce the
moisture content of the wood
to about 10% of its previous
levels.
4. The torrefier
The magic happens when
the dried chips are roasted
at 570 degrees as they spin
inside the rotary drum of the
torrefier that can process up to
17 tons of chipped wood per
hour. The torrefaction pro-
cess decomposes the hemi-
cellulose, a major component
of plant cell walls, from the
wood into gases and reduces
the weight of the chips by
30% while retaining a major-
ity of the energy content. The
wood becomes brittle and
hydrophobic (water resis-
tant). The energy of a torre-
fied pellet is about 20-30%
greater than a traditional
white pellet.
“The torrefaction pro-
cess involves applying high
temperatures in the absence
of oxygen,” Krumenaeur
said. “This process converts
the hemicellulose within the
wood to volatile organic com-
pounds such as ‘torr gases.’
Those ‘torr gases’ are then
processed in a thermal oxi-
dizer, and the thermal energy
is then sent back into the kiln
system to provide heat for
the process and to inert the
interior of the torrefaction
reactor.”
5. The pellet mill
The wood chips then go
through a cooling system,
reducing their temperature
from 500 degrees to under
100 degrees. They go through
a grinder or hammer mill and
are fed directly into the pel-
let mill. The torrefied wood
receives a small amount of
water before being densified
into briquettes that range from
1.5 to 3 inches in diameter.
running for any other
political office next year.
Merkley is running for a
third term in the U.S. Sen-
ate. Oregon’s secretary of
state, attorney general and
treasurer positions are also
on the ballot. As the state’s
most high-profile Repub-
lican, Walden could be
pressured to run for gov-
ernor in 2022 when Gov.
Kate Brown is ineligible
for re-election due to term
limits.
While the overwhelm-
ing majority of his votes
were solidly in line with
the Republican agenda
in the House, Walden has
not been in lock-step with
President Trump on issues.
As chairman of the
House Energy and Com-
merce Committee, he sup-
ported Trump’s position
on repealing the Afford-
able Care Act, to relax net
neutrality rules and has
backed Trump on the cur-
rent Ukrainian scandal.
In
his
statement,
Walden recounted his more
than 20 years in office,
saying that he had worked
to find solutions to the opi-
oid crisis, improve forest
health and increase access
to high speed broadband.
Walden said he was proud
to champion the issues fac-
ing Oregonians east of the
Cascades and south of the
Willamette Valley.
“Rural Oregon values
run deeply in my veins,”
Walden said. “My ances-
tors arrived here in 1845
and I grew up on a cherry
orchard in The Dalles with
parents who survived the
Great Depression. They
taught me the true mean-
ing of community; the
importance of giving back;
and the value of hard work.
That’s why I’ve given it
my all for the people and
the way of life we so enjoy
in Oregon.”
The son of former state
Rep. Peter Walden, Greg
Walden was elected to the
Oregon House in 1989. He
was Majority Leader for
the 1991 and 1993 legis-
lative sessions. He served
two years in the Ore-
gon Senate from 1995
to 1997.
The Blue Mountain Eagle is seeking a
full-time Administrative Assistant.
This is an opportunity to learn multiple aspects of our business by
supporting the front desk, editorial and advertising teams.
Successful candidates will need problem-solving and computer
skills and the ability to handle multiple tasks at once. Must be
accurate and detail-oriented, plus have strong customer service
and communication skills. Driving and criminal background checks
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Send resume and letter of interest to EO Media Group,
Attn: Human Resources, PO Box 2048, Salem, OR 97308-2048
or e-mail hr@eomediagroup.com.
S149865-1