Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 26, 2012)
in,,, I .Large crowd kicks off operation Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 of Shepherds Flat wind farm 338-tower project is biggest in world By David Sykes A large crowd of in vestors, developers and elected officials gathered Saturday for the operations HEPPNER VOL. 131 N 0. 38 10 Pages Wednesday, September 26, 2012 kick-off celebration of the world’s largest wind farm. Shepherds Flat in Northern Gilliam and Morrow coun ties. About 280 people gath ered for speeches and bar becue on a windy day on Rhea Lane near Arlington to celebrate the start-up of the $2 billion, 845 mega watt wind farm. Planning for the project started more than 10 years ago. Guests munched bar becue under a large tent as landowners, developer and end users extolled the virtues of wind power and the clean energy it will produce. A contingent of investors even made the trip from Japan to be at the kick-off, which was hosted by New York-based Caith ness Energy. Landowner Skye Krebs, of Krebs Sheep Company, dressed in cowboy hat and jeans, rubbed shoulders with suit-wearing investors from around the world, as everyone praised the long- Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon running project that came to fruition. Senator Ron Wyden was scheduled to speak 5<K Obama to decide fate of Buttercreek wind farm Chinese company says charges o f possible espionage at nearby Navy Bombing Range ‘not credible' By David Sykes The fate of the But tercreek wind-farm project now rests with the President of the United States, ac cording to a motion filed Sept. 19 in federal court in Washington DC. Citing national security concerns, construction on the 20-tower wind farm located on Kent Madison’s property near Buttercreek had been shut down in July by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). A Chinese-owned company was behind the wind farm, which is located near the Navy Bombing Range in Morrow County, and there had been concerns of pos sible espionage from the wind farm. CFIUS refused to comment on the stop- work order. The project uses Chi nese-built wind turbines; however, in court docu ments filed in a Washing ton, D.C., court, the Chi nese-owned development company and wind-tower builder says claims of pos sible espionage “are not credible.” The Ralls Corp., which is owned by executives of the China-based Sany Group Inc., bought the wind-farm assets from an other company earlier this year, without reporting the purchase to CFIUS. Sany wind-tower construction on another wind-farm site. -Contributed photo CFIUS monitors foreign investments in the U.S. for possible national security threats. The Sany Group, which, among other things, builds wind towers, is one of the largest private companies in China. The company insists it has no connection to the Chinese government. Speculation has in creased that because of the proximity to the Naval Bombing Range, the towers could somehow be used to monitor electronic or other aircraft activity at the range. The closest wind towers are approximately five miles from the edge of the Navy’s restricted airspace at the Bombing Range. On Sept. 19, The Ralls Corp. filed a restraining order and preliminary in junction that would permit the company to resume construction of the But- tercreek wind farm. If the wind farm isn’t in service by Dec. 31, then the com pany will lose $25 million in federal investment tax incentives, according to the court filing. The two sides reached an agreement however, that will allow the “resump tion of certain prelim i nary construction activi ties.” Whether the project will be able to resume full construction is up to Obama He has until Sept. 28 to make that decision. According to the court fil ing, The Ralls Corp. denies any possible “espionage or other hostile activities because of the proximity of the planned wind farms to the Navy’s Northwest Training Range Complex,” or bombing range. Ralls says it is only -See BUTTERCREEK WIND FARM/PAGESIX G-T Trophy Corner Left: Troy Morgan of Hep pner bagged this nine-foot, 350-pound alligator during a recent hunt on Florida's Lake Okeechobee. On the same hunt, he also shot an eight- foot, 175-pound alligator. Below: a foot-by-foot com parison shows what a monster this gator was. -Contributed photos Local landowner Skye Krebs addresses the gathered crowd of investors, developers, landowners and others at the kick-off celebration near Arlington Saturday. -Photo by David Sykes but was held up in Wash ington, D.C., and unable to attend. Gilliam County judge Pat Shaw and her Morrow County counter part Terry Tallman spoke of the economic benefit the project would bring to the two counties. Caithness said it em ployed more than 400 work ers during construction of the 338 tower farm, and will maintain a full-time staff of 45 workers. In producing two bil lion kilow att-hours per year, Shepherds Flat will have an estimated annual economic impact of $37 million for Oregon. All the electricity pro duced by the wind farm will be sold to Southern Califor nia Edison, a Rosemead, CA-based utility, as part of a 20-year power purchase agreement. Bob Foster, the mayor of Long Beach, CA, also made the trip to the kick off, and said his city was one of the end users of the wind power the turbines are -See WIND FARM DEDICA TION/PAGE SEVEN Health district shows increase in assets for 2012 By April Sykes The Morrow County Health District showed a $465,435 increase in assets for the 2012 fiscal year, Mi chael Bell, CPA with Wipfli, LLP, reported to the district board at their Monday night meeting in Irrigon. Bell, formerly with his own firm, Michael R. Bell & Company, the district’s long time accountant, said it has been “a joy” work ing with the district over the years, especially with Nicole Mahoney, the dis trict’s chief financial officer. He remarked how fortunate MCHD is to have Mahoney, commenting that he has worked with “hospitals who have accountants with accounting degrees who aren’t as good as Nicole.” Bell said that the dis trict’s increase in cash re serve is “definitely a good sign” and encouraged the board to maintain a good amount of cash reserves in preparation for upcoming changes in the healthcare system. He said that the dis trict’s bad debts and write offs “are as low as can be,” thanks to Mahoney and the district’s business office. He told the board that the district maintains a “good healthy financial position” because of the cash reserve and because debts are fairly low. Bell said that the com munity, by giving around $1 million in taxes to the district every year, is, in turn, bringing in around $5 million in payroll back into the community. “The hospital is a big part of the economy, es pecially in the Heppner area,” he said, adding that area businesses would "... probably have trouble if the hospital wasn’t here.” Bell also remarked that whether or not the Affordable Health Care -See HEALTH DISTRICT/ PAGE TEN PERS expert, secretary of state candidate to hold town hall in Heppner PERS expert traces retirement fund problems to 1971 when legislators were able to participate A town hall meeting featuring Knute Buehler, candidate for secretary of state, and Daniel Re, an expert on Oregon’s Public Employee Retirement Sys tem (PERS), will be held in Heppner on Sunday, Sept. 30, at 2 p.m. at Heppner City Hall. The public is invited to attend. Also in attendance at the meeting will be Uma- tilla/Morrow District Cir cuit Court Judge candidates Lynn Hampton and Jon Lieuallen. Re will tell how the current PERS is breaking the state of Oregon and what can be done to fix it. The PERS problem is that, “Since 1971, PERS laws have been made ex clusively by legislators who were or who could become PERS members. Since 1984, PERS judges 1945. He then founded In have decided every PERS RE The People, Inc., an Or egon non-profit cor case. “While PERS poration, to inform members are en Oregonians about titled to a seat at how the PERS law s the bargaining table were changed by when public em legislators after the ployee retirement legislators were benefits are deter first allowed to join mined, they are not Danje| Re- PERS in 1971. entitled to every Re has had seat at the bargain written articles on ing table. But that is what PERS that have been pub they have had since 1971 lished in the Bend Bulletin, and that is why PERS laws the Eugene Register-Guard, are the way they are today. the Oregon Catalyst web That’s my problem with site and the Oregon State PERS,” says Re. Bar Bulletin. Re has practiced law in In 2009, he established Bend, OR since 1981. He is through the Oregon At a lifelong Oregon resident torney General’s Office and, in 2009, decided to that an elected official’s learn about the PERS laws PERS membership status and how they had changed is subject to public disclo- -See TOWN HALL/PAGE from the original PERS EIGHT laws that were enacted in ALLOTTO NURSERY STOC Think you can beat this? Send us your trophy photos at: editor@rapidserve. net 50% OFF MUJT BE PKKED UP AT TIME OF JALE orrow County Grain Growers Green Feed A Seed 242 W. Lind«n Way, H#ppn«r • 676-9422 • 969-6221 (MCOO rratn offlc)
