FOUR - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Ione FFA performs well at fair
lamb, Austin Morter (not
in picture) earned third for
advanced tractor driving,
Jacob Heideman earned
first in beginning livestock
judging and third in begin-
ning tractor driving, and
Matthew Orem earned first
in champion female cow
and second in beginning
tractor driving.
The advanced tractor
driving team consisting
of Emily Taylor, Morgan
Orem, Logan Burright and
Morgan Orem earned sec-
ond overall high point in-
dividual.
The beginning team,
consisting of Jacob Heide-
man, Matthew Orem, Grace
Ogden, Larysa Burright,
Colt Parker, Gary Walls,
Eva Martin and Serenity
Rodriguez, earned first.
However, he said, neither
utility found the approach
to be acceptable.
Overlaying the line
dispute is the desire of
stakeholders in the Umatilla
Basin to reduce impacts
to agricultural lands by
avoiding the unorganized
proliferation of transmis-
sion lines. An advisory
committee that Gov. Kate
Brown established in 2015
to develop solutions to this
potential problem issued its
final report in February.
Among the report’s rec-
ommendations was a “key
next step” involving a pilot
project in Morrow County
that would “use an open,
public process to create a
transmission corridor” that
could further the state’s re-
newables development, the
report stated. The county is
currently working with the
state Department of Land
Conservation and Develop-
ment to establish the pilot
“green energy corridor.”
In addition to Wheat-
ridge, projects such a cor-
ridor could benefit include
Idaho Power ’s 500-kV
Boardman-to-Hemingway
transmission line, which
will traverse the territories
of both Columbia Basin
and Umatilla on its way to
a BPA substation at Board-
man.
Both CBEC and UEC
view their proposed lines
as consistent with the pilot
project’s concept.
“This transmission line
as it’s built will serve not
only [Wheatridge’s] needs,
but potential future wind
projects and renewable
energy projects in the fore-
seeable future,” Columbia
Basin’s Wolff told Clearing
Up, referring to the segment
the utility has agreed to
build for the wind project.
But Umatilla’s Ech-
enroad—who served on
the transmission advisory
committee along with 26
other representatives of
landowners, farmers, utili-
ties, project developers, and
agencies ranging from the
local to the federal levels—
said dividing the ownership
of transmission lines “is not
consistent with the ‘green
energy corridor’ that Mor-
row County needs,” and
that the solutions must be
“acceptable to all” stake-
holders.
“We worked very hard
over many years to remove
the roadblocks that are
often presented with trans-
mission projects, assisting
the developer, landowners,
state and federal agencies,
to identify a corridor that’s
useful not only for a single
project,” Echenroad said.
“We hope the agreement
reached between Columbia
Basin and Wheatridge fits
within that understanding
that so many people have
worked with over the past
several years.”
The Wheatridge devel-
oper has recent urgency to
resolve the transmission
issues, because a “poten-
tial buyer” of the project is
“very concerned” about it,
and “is starting to hesitate
on the purchase,” former
project co-owner Jerry Ri-
etmann told the Morrow
County Board of Commis-
sioners at its June 7 meet-
ing, which was recorded.
“I think it’s an issue we’ve
got to get resolved quickly.”
Rietmann was before
the board to introduce Me-
lissa Hochmuth, NextEra’s
project director in charge of
wind development. Hoch-
muth agreed that the trans-
mission issue was “one of
our number-one things we
want to get resolved here
in the short term.”
Both Rietmann and
Hochmuth supported the
idea of a single transmis-
sion corridor as a way to
not only help Wheatridge,
but to also encourage other
transmission and generation
projects, and to attract the
development of businesses
such as data centers.
Rietmann said NextEra
was brought into the pic-
ture because “the potential
buyer wanted someone of
bigger stature” to take the
project over the finish line.
Find Clearing Up at
www.newsdata.com/cu/.
Pictured (L-R top): Serenity Rodriguez, Larysa Burright, Morgan Orem, Emily Taylor, Eva
Martin, Grace Ogden, Erin Heideman. (L-R bottom): Austin Carter, Gary Walls, Colt Parker,
Logan Burright, Jacob Heideman, Matthew Orem, Gage Heideman. -Contributed photo
By Jake Heideman, Ione
FFA Chapter Reporter
Ione FFA members
placed well at this year’s
fair. Emily Taylor earned
second in floral design,
Eva Martin earned first for
market hogs, Grace Og-
den earned first for market
PIRATE FOOTBALL
CBEC
-Continued from PAGE ONE Clearing Up.
was a matter of interstate
power sales, which it said
falls under FERC’s fed-
eral jurisdiction [UM 1823]
(CU No. 1783 [21]; 1807
[11]).
After several months
with little headway, Colum-
bia Basin, UEC and Wheat-
ridge on June 29 asked
OPUC for a limited stay of
the procedural schedule to
conduct settlement discus-
sions. They set July 31 as a
deadline for resolving mat-
ters, if possible.
On Aug. 1, when status
reports were due from the
two utilities, Umatilla said
no settlement had been
reached with Columbia
Basin. However, Colum-
bia Basin requested that
the case be closed, say-
ing it had reached a deal
with Florida-based NextEra
Energy, which acquired
Wheatridge in April (CU
No. 1801 [9.1]).
Thomas Wolff, CEO
and general manager of Co-
lumbia Basin, told Clearing
Up he wasn’t at liberty to
discuss details of the settle-
ment at the moment, but
said it addressed the util-
ity’s concerns.
“We’re moving for-
ward in the construction of
a transmission line within
our service territory,” Wolff
said. “At the end of the day,
Columbia Basin will own
that transmission line and
its underlying easement.”
In an email, NextEra
spokesman Steven Stenghel
said, “We don’t really have
anything to add at this time
other than to say we are
continuing to develop the
project.”
Robert Echenroad,
Umatilla CEO and general
manager, said the settle-
ment details have not yet
been shared with him.
“I believe that Colum-
bia Basin and the Wheat-
ridge developer plan to
divide up the ownership of
the line according to the ter-
ritory lines, so one doesn’t
cross into the other, but I
don’t have that formally or
in writing,” Echenroad told
“We believe the ques-
tion of wholesale transmis-
sion is addressed at the fed-
eral level,” he continued,
“and is not contingent on
the retail service territory
of a distribution utility; Co-
lumbia Basin takes another
view of that.”
Umatilla raised this is-
sue—that OPUC hadn’t set-
tled the matter of whether
state rules on service juris-
diction had precedence—in
the protest it filed Aug. 2 to
Columbia Basin’s notice of
dismissal.
CBEC, in turn, noted
on Aug. 3 that as the party
initiating the complaint, it
has a right under state rules
to dismiss the case.
Finally, on Aug. 11,
OPUC granted CBEC’s
request and closed the
case, saying the utility had
complied with state law.
However, it also noted that
Umatilla could “file its
own complaint,” but would
“have the burden of prov-
ing that the relief requested
should be granted.”
Umatilla isn’t ruling
out pursuing the matter
sometime down the road,
Echenroad said; but the
utility is currently trying to
work with the developer to
“ensure a reasonable out-
come” that, among other
concerns, meets the needs
of the utility’s employees,
“particularly on the safety
aspect.”
Building a 230-kV
transmission line that “is
owned by two separate
entities, and operated and
maintained by two separate
entities, poses a significant
safety concern we’re at-
tempting to address before
we attempt to do anything
to the contrary,” Echenroad
said.
He noted that prior to
the OPUC filing, the two
utilities had tried to de-
velop terms that included
compensation for having
the line in their territory,
but gave a single operator
control of the line, the in-
terconnection process, and
operation and maintenance.
-Continued from PAGE ONE playing time.
Norton said at his school
there are currently 11 to 15
boys out for football and 31
out for junior and varsity
soccer. He added that with
the low football numbers
they didn’t know if the team
would have enough players
to finish the season.
Ione Superintendent
Rollie Marshall told the
Gazette-Times Tuesday
that Ione has had up to 10
boys out for football prac-
tice, but that number had
dropped to nine. He said
they expected to get a maxi-
mum of 11 boys out for the
team, with four of them
being freshmen. He said
with those low numbers it
could mean there might be a
game scenario where eight
players suit down, with a
number of those being the
younger freshmen players.
This would require long
playing times going both
ways on offense, defense
and special teams, which
would increase the chance
of injury to the boys when
fatigue sets in from so much
If approved the com-
bined football team would
play in the 3A league as
the Riverside Pirates, and
would play the Riverside
schedule that was set up
for this year. Dirksen said
the Ione boys in grades
third through sixth have in
previous years already been
playing with the Boardman
kids. Ione would bus its
players to Boardman for
practices and games.
The Morrow County
School Board unanimous-
ly approved the proposal,
which now goes before the
Ione board Tuesday night
(after the Gazette-Times
deadline) where it must
be approved. It then goes
before the Oregon Schools
Athletic Association for
final approval.
“I think it sounds
great,” Morrow County
School Board Member Bar-
ney Lindsay said. “I’m all
about opening doors for
kids. I would like to see
more of that for kids,” he
added.
MASSAGE
-Continued from PAGE ONE is, and she continues to
and a chance to let go and
heal if need be.”
During her education
in Portland, she spent three
months in an internship
with cancer patients who
were receiving both chemo
and radiation treatment.
“Massaging feet and
hands gave me an oppor-
tunity to get a glimpse of
reflexology and how it
works,” she says.
Her first “real” job was
renting a room at a salon in
Ontario, OR in May 2006;
she spent two years there.
In June 2008 she moved to
La Grande.
“I met and learned
from some great therapists;
I taught massage theory
and practice, anatomy and
physiology and ethics at
a massage school for two
years, and continued to
grow a very special practice
with amazing people,”
says Patterson.
In May 2013 and again
in October 2015, her full-
time job changed to be-
ing a mom, as she and her
husband Coy welcomed
children Cooper and Col-
bie. The family relocated
to Heppner recently when
Coy’s job with JS Cattle
Company moved him here.
Even though massage
became a part-time pur-
suit, she says it continued
to be a big part of who she
take classes and learn new
skills.
“Continued education
has greatly helped me con-
tinue to grow my under-
standing and appreciation
for the human body,” she
says, adding that her skills
now include hot stone,
Thai, Ashiatsu, Reiki, and
spa treatments; specifics
for the neck and sciatica;
and neuromuscular therapy
for shoulder to hand, lum-
bar and thoracic region of
the back. She also says she
looks forward to learning
more about reflexology,
esalen massage and acu-
pressure.
“I consider myself an
eclectic therapist, mean-
ing I take a little from ev-
erything I learn to make a
massage I enjoy giving as
well as one that can be ap-
preciated being received,”
Patterson says. “I look for-
ward to working with ev-
eryone here in Heppner by
sharing massage.”
Patterson has Thurs-
day hours from 10 a.m. to
5 p.m., and plans on add-
ing Wednesday hours start-
ing in October. She can be
found at Dickenson Chi-
ropractic Clinic on May
St. in Heppner, and can be
reached at 541-219-1662,
541-676-5292 or at kway-
patterson@gmail.com.
WEDDING TABLES
Chris Sykes &
Rachel Parm
September 23, 2017
217 North Main St., Heppner • Phone 676-9158 • Floral 676-9426
MORROW COUNTY FAIR'S MASTER, GRAND CHAMPTION AND RESERVE CHAMPION SHOWMAN
CONGRATULATIONS!
WAY TO
SHOW!!!!
124 N. MAIN STREET HEPPNER OR 541-676-9481