A14
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, July 6, 2022
Reload center seeks more funding
funds to erect the building. So we are
seeking funds.”
Greg Smith, Malheur County
Economic Development director
and offi cer to the board, said options
include borrowing against the land
and improvements, pursuing federal
infrastructure money, and “review-
ing all additional funding options
with the Oregon Department of
Transportation.”
As for borrowing, the project has
no liens “and we are trying to keep it
that way as long as possible,” he said.
Smith said erecting the building
would cost $4 million to $5 million
more than originally planned. He has
asked the project engineer to elimi-
nate unnecessary expenditures and
fi nd additional effi ciencies.
The potential additional $3 mil-
lion from the state “brings us much
closer to fi nishing the project” and
would bring total project investment
to $32 million, he said.
Smith said he does not yet know
what it will cost to put up the build-
ing, to depend on infl ation and other
factors. The estimate was just over
$4 million in April, when the board
rejected the lone bid. He said the bid
by TCG Contracting of Meridian,
Idaho, for $6.9 million was about
$2.9 million above expectations.
“We will construct as much as
we possibly can, and when we run
out, we will need to fi nd additional
sources if we want to expand,” he
said.
For example, the building could
function without special refrigeration
pads on walls, which operator Ameri-
cold requested for nearly $2 million,
Smith said, and it could be fi nished
at 40,000 square feet instead of the
designed 60,000.
“We’re going to build what we
can aff ord to build,” he said. Like a
port, “as opportunities present them-
selves to expand, that is what we are
going to do.”
In addition to infl ation, extra site
work prompted by unexpectedly
wet ground on a key part of the site
increased costs, said project engi-
neer Brad Baird of Anderson Perry &
Associates.
Work on the site and the build-
ing pad could conclude by the end
of summer, Baird said. Track is
expected to be set starting in late June
or early July.
Smith said the project has spent
$13.4 million as of June 8 — includ-
ing $1.9 million to buy the building
— and is yet to spend $15.6 million,
enough to cover site features but not
building installation.
was started, it was Future Farmers
of America,” she said. “Since then
it’s turned into more leadership. We
promote and we educate about agri-
culture and where our food comes
from and the leadership behind
that.”
At the city park across the street,
yard games were set up and vendors
set out their wares. Both the yard
games and vendors were organized
by the Greater Prairie City Com-
munity Association. Founded in
2003, GPCCA is a nonprofi t com-
munity organization whose motto is
“Bringing everyone together.”
GPCCA board members Nancy
Nickel and Trish Lindaman said
it was good to just see people out
enjoying themselves following the
COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re just loving seeing the
kids play,” Nickel said. “These are
just simple kids games. We have
badminton, croquet, lawn bowl-
ing. Traditionally, the high school
does a lot of stuff here. FFA did the
pulled pork, the football team did
drinks and the cheerleaders have
games. We kind of coordinated and
made sure everyone was showing
up.”
Most of the vendors were from
the Grant County Farmers Mar-
ket. Nickel said the vendors weren’t
charged to set up their tents, and Lin-
daman added that the vendors were
kind of a last-minute addition to
the festivities. Both confi rmed that
GPCCA will be organizing more
community events in the future.
Both Lindaman and Nickel were
very pleased with the turnout and
overall success of the Fourth of July
festivities in Prairie City.
“We’re delighted. We’re very
happy because we didn’t know,”
Lindaman said.
“The parade was bigger than
we thought it might be, and the
kids jumped right into the games,”
Nickel said.
“It’s lovely to see everybody out
and about,” Lindaman added.
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
NYSSA — The Treasure Valley
Reload Center is not expected to open
until at least January, three months
later than anticipated, as backers seek
more money to construct the building
in response to higher costs.
The state of Oregon may add
funding soon. Rep. Mark Owens,
R-Crane, said he was contacted by
the governor’s offi ce, “which said
they plan to ask ODOT to request $3
million in additional funding for the
reload facility during the September
meeting of the (Legislature’s) Joint
Emergency Board.”
“We hope to continue to work
with our colleagues to hopefully pass
that out of the emergency board,”
Owens said. “I believe it is good for
economic development in Malheur
County and supports value-added
agriculture in that region.”
Gov. Kate Brown’s press offi ce
could not be reached immediately.
The facility planned north of
Nyssa, Ore., would put truckloads of
onions and other commodities onto
rail cars for shipment to major mar-
kets to the east.
Southeastern Oregon and south-
western Idaho produce about a
quarter of the nation’s fall storage
onions, which are marketed through
April.
A rail car can ship 4.5 truckloads
of onions. The center’s capability to
handle single truckloads will provide
a new option to smaller packer-ship-
pers and give larger operators fl exi-
bility to handle small orders.
Delays in funding and complet-
ing the reload center mean “it would
be just business as usual or as it has
been, in which we suff er extreme
transportation shortages much of
Brad Carlson/Capital Press
Eli Childs of Steve Lindley Contracting does excavation work June 17, 2022, at the Treasure Valley Reload Center site
north of Nyssa.
the time,” said Kay Riley, a recently
retired onion shipper in Nyssa. He
serves on the board of Malheur
County Development Corp., which is
leading the project.
Trucking costs “did not get much
better” as the 2021-22 marketing
season progressed, he said. And the
availability of trucks and drivers
“was diffi cult clear to the end.”
Riley said his business saw a
roughly 40% drop in shipment vol-
ume after prolonged high heat
reduced 2021 yields. “If we had had
a normal crop, we would’ve had dif-
fi culty getting it transported.”
Grant Kitamura, an Ontario onion
packer-shipper and president of the
development corporation board, said
the center cannot operate without the
building and the weather protection it
provides.
He said the corporation is seeking
more money to put up the steel build-
ing, which it owns.
The 2017 Legislature approved
a $26 million ConnectOregon grant
from lottery-backed bonds. Legis-
lators this year approved a $3 mil-
lion grant, from federal coronavi-
rus recovery funds, to the City of
Nyssa for a water line extension for
the reload center and future industrial
development.
Kitamura said materials and other
costs have risen substantially since
the reload center was selected for
state funding.
“To anticipate this infl ation is
impossible,” he said. “We don’t have
Fourth
Continued from Page A1
“Mrs. Fritsch, she’s a Spanish
teacher at our school and she also
runs the community center had
reached out to me knowing that we
were needing fundraising oppor-
tunities to build the cheer budget
because it had been dissolved. So
she’d asked if we’d be willing to
do the community kids zone, and I
said absolutely.”
Howard said putting on the
camp assured that her kids would
be performing a routine for parade
attendees.
Other
parade
participants
included members of the Grant
County Fair and Rodeo Court, a
local Boy Scout troop, the Grant
County Ham Radio Club, Chester’s
Market, Prairie Wood Products and
a line of fi refi ghting vehicles.
After the parade, attendees lined
up for a lunch of pulled pork, beans
Students from Kim’s Tae Kwon Do in John Day demonstrate forms at the Fourth
of July parade in Prairie City on Monday, July 4, 2022.
and watermelon served by Prairie
City’s FFA students.
Prairie City FFA adviser Lindy
Cruise said the FFA providing lunch
after the parade has been a tradition
since the early 2000s. The FFA also
organized cow pie bingo. Proceeds
from both events will help cover
the costs for Prairie City’s FFA stu-
dents to attend the national FFA
convention in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Cruise wants people to know that
the FFA is the largest student-led
organization in the nation. When it
Coffee Break!
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CLUES ACROSS
1. Ancient Greek
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insects
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antibody
16. Plan
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18. A city in S
Louisiana
19. TNT sports-
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24. Atomic #25
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respect
43. Shift sails (Brit.)
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49. Health insur-
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CLUES DOWN
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borhood
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4. Reddish browns
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bird
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7. Part of the Bible
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spirit of a people
or an era
10. In a moment
13. Monetary unit
of Vietnam
14. Submerge in a
liquid
15. Yellowish
cotton cloth
20. -__, denotes
past
21. Hoopster
Morant
22. Not
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respect
27. Horsley and
Marvin are two
29. One thousandth
of a liter (abbr.)
30. Hoover’s
organization
31. Round globular
seed
32. University
official
33. Spherical body
34. Iraq’s capital
35. To any further
extent
36. Swollen lymph
node
37. Anger
38. Technological
marvel
40. Peruvian district
41. Salt of acetic
acid
42. What Santa
says
44. Israeli city __
Aviv
45. Late Heisman
winner
46. Reveal the
presence of
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stered seat
48. Most wily
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51. Respiratory
disease
52. The Ocean
State
54. Fleshy watery
fruit
55. Lying down
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metal
61. The ancient
Egyptian sun god
62. Indicates
position
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