HEPPNER
G T
50¢
azette
imes
VOL. 138
NO. 8 8 Pages
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Local Physician pleads guilty
to tax evasion
Kenneth Wenberg, 72,
a medical doctor from Hep-
pner, pleaded guilty Feb.
12 to a single count of tax
evasion. The government
demonstrated it could prove
Dr. Wenberg failed to re-
port income resulting in a
tax loss of approximately
$187,000, according to a
press release from the Unit-
ed States Attorney’s Office
of Oregon.
According to court
documents, Dr. Wenberg
created nominee entities
to hide assets and income
he personally earned while
serving as a physician at
the Morrow County Health
District (MCHD) in Hep-
pner and Urgent Health
Care Center (UHCC) in
Hermiston. Dr. Wenberg
instructed MCHD and
UHCC to make payments
for services he performed
directly to what prosecu-
tors called sham entities to
avoid income tax liabilities.
Dr. Wenberg opened nu-
merous bank accounts and
purchased real property in
the names of his nominee
entities. He opened the
two companies, including
Opal Butte Health Services,
in 2000 the same year he
entered into agreements to
start providing services for
both MCHD and UHCC.
In an indictment from
2017, Wenberg was charged
with three counts of tax
evasion, one for each year
from 2012 through 2014.
Dr. Wenberg also paid
for his and his family’s per-
sonal living expenses out of
the nominee accounts, the
Attorney’s Office said. Dr.
Wenberg failed to report his
income to the IRS, despite
knowing he owed taxes, the
Attorney’s Office added.
Wenberg faces a maxi-
mum sentence of five years
in prison, a $250,000 fine
and three years of super-
vised release. He will be
sentenced on June 6 before
a U.S. District Court Judge.
As part of the plea
agreement, Wenberg has
agreed to pay restitution to
the IRS in the full amount
of the tax loss as deter-
mined by the court after
sentencing.
This case was inves-
tigated by IRS-Criminal
Investigation and was pros-
ecuted by Assistant U.S.
Attorneys for the District
of Oregon.
Following the guilty
plea Morrow County
Health District CEO Bob
Houser released the fol-
lowing statement: “Dr.
Wenberg has worked for
and with MCHD for over
30 years. He has been an
independent practitioner
and since the late nineties,
early 2000 the district has
had a contract with Opal
Butte Health Services, INC.
for the services provided to
the district by Dr. Wenberg.
He has and continues to be
helping in covering the ER
(Emergency Department) at
Pioneer Memorial Hospital.
Morrow County Health
District pays Opal Butte
Health Services for Dr.
Weinberg’s service. Each
year, Opal Butte is issued
a 1099 by the district for
the monies paid them as is
legally required. It is not the
responsibility of the district
to oversee Opal Butte to
ensure they pay their taxes.
“Currently Dr. Wen-
berg has a medical license
to practice in the state of
Oregon. If that changes ei-
ther before or after sentenc-
ing, the district would then
have to deal with the effects
of that decision. Currently
the district is considering
its options in this matter,”
Houser said.
1969 New Year’s baby turns 50
Nation’s first wind, solar and
battery facility to be built in
Morrow County
PGE partnering with NextEra on wind farm north
of Lexington
Portland General Elec-
tric Company, PGE, and
NextEra Energy Resources,
LLC, has announced plans
to construct a new energy
facility in Morrow County
combining 300 megawatts
of wind generation with 50
megawatts of solar gener-
ation and 30 megawatts of
battery storage. The new
project, called the Wheat-
ridge Renewable Energy
Facility, will be the first of
this scale in North America
to co-locate and integrate
these three technologies.
Power from the facility
will be generated by 120
turbines on a wind farm
to be located just north
of Lexington. Wheatridge
will provide up to 300 jobs
during construction of the
wind site and up to 175
jobs during construction of
the solar and storage sites.
Approximately 10 full-time
employees will operate the
combined facilities once
they’re commissioned for
service, a PGE spokesman
said.
Swaggart Wind Power
of Ione began develop-
ment and permitting of the
Wheatridge wind farm in
2009. The project was then
acquired by a NextEra En-
ergy Resources subsidiary
in 2017. NextEra and PGE
expanded the project scope
to include solar generation
and battery storage.
PGE will own 100
megawatts of the wind proj-
ect. A subsidiary of NextEra
Energy Resources will own
the balance of the project
and sell its output to PGE
under 30-year power pur-
chase agreements. NextEra
Energy Resources’ subsid-
iary will build and operate
the combined facility.
The wind component
of the facility will be oper-
ational by December 2020
and qualify for the feder-
al production tax credit
at the 100 percent level.
Construction of the solar
and battery components
is planned for 2021 and
will qualify for the federal
investment tax credit. The
Above is a map of where the new wind farm towers will be built
in Morrow County north of Lexington.
Batteries such as these at a NextEra facility in Arizona will
soon be coming to Morrow County.
tax credits help reduce the
cost of the project over
time, thus reducing costs to
PGE’s customers.
PGE expects to invest
approximately $160 million
for its owned portion of the
project.
The Wheatridge proj-
ect was the prevailing bid
submitted in response to
a request for proposals
for renewable resources
PGE issued in May 2018.
The agreements signed by
PGE and NextEra Energy
Resources’ subsidiary will
be subject to review by
the Oregon Public Utility
Commission. The agree-
ments are also subject to
approval by NextEra Ener-
gy management, which is
anticipated in March.
“This is great news for
Morrow County’s residents
and businesses. This project
will benefit our communi-
ties through jobs, property
taxes and community sup-
port. We have a long, posi-
tive history of working with
PGE, and they have been a
good community partner.
We look forward to work-
ing with them to make this
project a success,” said Don
Russell, Morrow County
Commissioner.
“We are excited to hear
this news. These types of
renewable Oregon-based
projects are critical to the
growth and economy of
the region, including Mor-
row County and Port of
Morrow. PGE is one of the
businesses located at the
Port of Morrow Industrial
Park, and we have appre-
ciated PGE’s partnership
and continued investment
in Morrow County,” said
Ryan Neal, Port of Morrow
general manager
“We’re pleased to
work with Portland General
Electric on the Wheatridge
Renewable Energy Facility,
an exciting opportunity
to combine wind, solar
and energy storage. This
venture will allow PGE’s
customers to benefit from
more renewable energy
over more hours of the
day and create substantial
economic value for the
communities that host this
project, many of whom
stand to benefit for years
to come,” said Armando
Pimentel, president and
CEO of NextEra Energy
Resources.
Upgraded sensors being
installed in dam
Jerry Alan Blanckaert
The first baby born at
Heppner’s Pioneer Me-
morial Hospital in 1969
just turned 50. Jerry Alan
Blanckaert, born Feb. 2 that
year was the first baby born
in the new year. His family
said they enjoyed telling
people he was a New Year’s
baby even though he wasn’t
born until Groundhog Day.
Information regarding
his birth from the Hep-
pner Gazette-Times Feb.
13, 1969 issue is reprinted
below:
Happy family is this
threesome. Jerry Alan
Blanckaert, born Feb. 2,
is the center of interest for
father and mother, Sgt. and
Mrs. Jerry Blanckaert of
Condon. As the first baby
born in Pioneer Memorial
Hospital in 1969, Jerry, Jr.
won many prizes for him-
self and his parents. The
Blanckaerts, whose home
is in Denver, CO, have been
in Condon for 29 months
where he serves at the Air
Force Station. Young Jerry
is their first son. While col-
lecting prizes around town
Friday, Sgt. Blanckaert said
that he had a surprise in
store for his wife. He had
arranged for Mrs. Dorothy
Beuchat of Denver, mother
of Mrs. Blanckaert, to fly
out for a visit and met her in
Pendleton Friday evening.
Vehicle fire spreads to nearby
house
A vehicle that caught fire in Irrigon on Feb. 13 quickly spread to the single-wide
house trailer next to the location where it was parked. Irrigon Fire Department, Irrigon
Ambulance, Morrow County Sheriff’s Office, Boardman Fire and Umatilla Fire all
responded to the scene when the call was received shortly after 7 p.m.
According to the press release, nobody was home at the time of the fire and there
were no injuries. After the investigation by the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office was
completed, Joseph Palmer, 20, from Irrigon and Echo was arrested and charged with
Reckless Burning and Criminal Mischief II.
ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE:
MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M.
Starting in mid-Febru-
ary, the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers, Portland Dis-
trict, will install new sen-
sors in the foundation of
Willow Creek Dam, which
will provide early warning
if the dam’s performance
changes over time. The cur-
rent status of the dam does
not indicate any problems.
Corps contractors will
work from within the in-
terior “gallery” of the dam
to install replacement in-
strumentation in the dam’s
foundation, by drilling new
holes through the concrete
dam and into the rock be-
low. The Corps expects
installation to be complete
by the end of March.
The new sensors will
measure and record the
pressures at the base of the
dam over time, replacing
and modernizing exist-
ing dam safety monitoring
equipment installed during
original construction in
1983. These upgrades will
enable USACE to contin-
ue to monitor the general
health of the dam and en-
sure public safety.
The Corps’ top priority
at Willow Creek Dam is
reducing flood damage to
downstream communities
like Heppner and reducing
risks to public safety. Reg-
ular inspections, conducted
every 10 years, are a critical
part of the effort to reduce
those risks. The most recent
inspection, in 2017, showed
that the risk associated with
Willow Creek Dam meets
risk guidelines and there
are no immediate concerns.
Long term monitoring of
the dam’s foundation by the
new sensors is particularly
important in reducing flood
risk.
Willow Creek Dam is
located in Morrow County,
Oregon, directly upstream
from the City of Heppner.
The Portland District op-
erates the project for flood
control and irrigation, and
other benefits include recre-
ation, sportfishing and wild-
life. The dam also provides
space for sedimentation
(trapping of sediment from
upstream sources).
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