Ground breaking held for new Fairgrounds
picnic shelter
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tugene.OR 97403
Left to right: Rod Taylor, Boardman Mayor Chet Phillips, Bryce Fowler, Heppner Mayor
Les Paustian, Hanna Lovgren, Zech Hintz, Rhonda Hamby, Heppner Chamber Director
Sheryll Bates, Karen Pettigrew, Boardman Chamber Director Diane Wolfe
VOL. 130
NO. 33 8 Pages
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Pedal Power
The M orrow
County Ford Leadership
program held a ground
breaking for the new picnic
shelter at the Fairgrounds
last week.
Since the in
ception of the Leadership
program in 2003 more than
2500 residents of rural Or
egon and Siskiyou County,
California from ages 13-86
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon have completed the class.
The ultimate pur
pose of the program is to
help “enhance the vital
ity of ruralcommunities”.
Twenty nine people from Ir-
rigon, Boardman and Hep
pner participated in the five
month program.
Each class that
completes the course must
select a class project to
complete the requirements.
The local group selected a
covered picnic shelter at
the Morrow County Fair
grounds. “Since we have
participants from through-
out Morrow County we
wanted to select a project
that would benefit all of us.
We have received a grant
from the Ford Foundation
— now we must raise the
matching funds,” said a
program spokesperson.
The 30x40 cov
ered picnic shelter, with a
concrete floor and electric
ity, is expected to be com
pleted by spring of 2012.
$22 million facility that turns cow
manure into electricity getting close
to operation
Three Mile Canyon Farms near Boardman now
installing generators that will burn methane gas
produced from 23,000 dairy cows
Orem family represented at the 2011 RDO Tractor Pull during fair & rodeo
Back to school Monday for lone and
Heppner students
School starts on Monday, taken on Sept. 14.
August 29, for all students The first HHS football
in Morrow County.
game will be September 2
Heppner: Student registra at Culver. Football Labor
tion is scheduled for Hep Day practice will be at 6
pner Jr./Sr. High School p.m. on Sept. 5. Football
Wednesday and Thursday, sports photos are Septem
A ugust 24-25. Student ber 13. Volleyball sports
fees are as follows: student photos will be Sept. 14 for
body fee-$ 15, computer lab high school and Sept. 26
fee-$5, towel fee-$2, year for junior high,
book (optional )-$40. Meal lone: A band rental meet
prices for seventh-12,h ing will be held on Aug. 31
grade are: breakfast-$ 1.25, at 6:30 p.m.
lunch-$2.35.
The first lone volleyball
Student photos will be game will be held on Sept.
2, starting at 4 p.m. at
home. Volleyball games
are planned for Sept. 9
at Joseph and Sept. 10
at the Summit Springs
Tournament at Condon at
10 a.m.
The first football game will
be held Sept. 2 vs Liberty
Christian at Hanford High
School, Richland, WA.
Football games will be
held on Sept. 9 at Joseph
and Sept. 16 vs. Dayville
at lone.
Local FFA group receives $200 from Pfizer
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The local chapter of Future Farmers of America was presented with a $200 check
during fair week. The money is given out to local FFA groups by the Pfizer Animal Health
Company as a percentage of what local farmers buy in Pfizer products. The local Pfizer
dealer is Dr. Dick Temple who owns the veterinarian clinic in Lexington, and presented
the check to chapter President Zech Hintz Saturday during Fair.
Pictured above receiving the funds are left to right: Beth Dickenson, FFA advisor, mem
bers Kyle Harrison, Zach Yocom, Mich a Hintz, Makenzie Correa, Zech Hintz and Dick
Temple, veterinarian.
“This is a really good program and I am glad to be able to bring some of this money
back to our local FFA program," said Temple in presenting the check.
By David Sykes
Three Mile Can
yon Farms, which operates
a 23,000 head dairy near
Boardman, is entering the
final phase to build a facil
ity which uses manure to
produce methane gas and
run electrical generators.
The facility
has been in the planning
stages for some time, but
last month the Morrow
County Planning Com
mission approved a permit
for the power generation
facility that will allow fi
nal construction to move
forward. A permit for the
digester to process the ma
nure had been issued to the
company some time ago.
TMF Biofuels LLC, the
company that will develop
the facility, hopes to have
generating facilities in
stalled and start producing
electricity in April of 2012.
Both Three Mile Canyon
farms and TMF are affili
ates of the R.D. Offutt Com
pany, a national diversified
agricultural business and
the largest potato producer
in the United States.
When completed,
the facility will process
manure and other agricul
ture residues in anaerobic
digesters and bum the re
sulting methane in three 1.6
MW Caterpillar engine gen
erators. The power will be
sold exclusively to Pacific
Power. As a by product,
bedding for the dairy cows
will also be produced.
Three mile Can
yon Farms operates a dairy
with 23,000 milking cows,
a 21,000 heifer facility, and
a 4,000 head nursery. In
addition the farm operates
30,000 acres o f irrigated
crops and a potato storage
facility in the area. The
B ack
facility represents 20 per
cent of the dairy manure
produced in Oregon each
year. The Three Mile cows
reportedly produce over
1,000 cubic yards of ma
nure daily.
The manure will
first be placed in large stor
age buildings with a bladder
type material over the top.
As the manure gets warm,
using heat from the genera
tors, it will put off methane
gas that will be collected
and piped to the generators.
The process is similar to
the facility at Finley Buttes
Landfill in Morrow County.
Finley collects methane
from underground in the
decaying garbage, which
in turn powers electrical
generators. The Three Mile
facility will be operated by
the same company that runs
the Finley operation.
C onstruction
o f the Three Mile facility
is very capital intensive,
costing over $22 million
to build but relatively in
expensive to operate after
construction.
Much of the mon
ey to build the plant comes
from tax incentives and gov
ernment grants. The com
pany received $5,600,000
in stim ulus funds from
the federal government,
which was in lieu of invest
ment tax credits that would
have been available to
the company. Also used
was $1,515,391 in Oregon
BETC tax credits (Business
Energy Tax Credit) which
have in the past been used
extensively on windmill
projects. The credit can be
up to 50 percent credit on
the cost of the project. Also
used was an available bonus
depreciation tax write off
o f 50 percent of eligible
capital costs.
According to the
minutes of the Renewable
Advisory Council Meeting
held June 22, 2011, con
struction of this facility will
be completed by Andgar
Corp. located in Femdale,
Washington. Andgar is a
full-service construction
and project management
firm that has constructed
seven GHD digesters oper
ating in the northwest. They
also provide operations ser
vices for two projects.
Day to day
operation and maintenance
o f the power production
facility will be provided
through a contract with
G. Friesen and Associates
(GFA). The contract in
cludes all power production
costs including monitoring
digester operation, regular
engine maintenance and an
nual accruals for overhauls.
GFA’s primary business
focus is designing landfills
and operating landfill gas to
energy projects. GFA pres
ently operates the Finley
Buttes Bioenergy facility.
Operation of the
manure handling equipment
and effluent from the digest
er will be provided by Three
Mile Canyon Farms.
The project will
be owned and operated by a
special purpose entity. TCF
Biofuels, LLC, an affiliate
of R. D. Offutt Company.
R.D. Offutt is the largest
potato grower in the United
States with over 50,000
acres o f potatoes grown
annually for the frozen pro
cessing and fresh markets.
R.D. Offutt Company is
also involved in 11 potato
processing facilities in four
-See THREE MILE C AN YON
FARMS page FITE
to regular hours !
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