Walden rejects Green
New Deal
HEPPNER
G T
50¢
azette
imes
VOL. 138
NO. 36 6 Pages
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
County approves money
agreement with new windfarm
Orchard Wind Project to construct up to 16 towers
By David Sykes
The Morrow Coun-
ty Commission last week
approved a SIP (Strate-
gic Investment Program)
agreement with a company
planning to build a new
windfarm just southeast
of the bombing range. SIP
agreements allow energy
companies to receive a
reduced tax payment over
a 15-year period.
Under the agreement
Orchard will pay the regu-
lar tax rate on the first $25
million of investment, and
then a reduced rate on value
over that for 15 years. The
amount starts out low at
$2,600 per year and gradu-
ally increases until the com-
pany will pay the county
$159,100 in the final year
for a total of $400,250 over
the 15 years. In addition,
the wind farm will pay the
county a yet undetermined
community service fee up
to 25 percent of the taxes
that would have been paid
without the SIP agreement.
Before approving the
agreement, the county dis-
cussed if the money should
be earmarked for certain
taxing entities within the
county. Commissioner Don
Russell said he didn’t think
he should be making deci-
sions now for where mon-
ey should be spent fifteen
years from now. “Is it my
decision to decide how
that money will be spent?”
he asked. “I don’t think we
should do that.” Various
entities will apparently get
together later and decide
how the community service
fees will be divided up,
however.
Robert Guertin, devel-
oping engineer on the proj-
ect was at the meeting and
talked about the long time-
line to put in a windfarm.
“You have to find the wind,
get the permits and get the
investors.” Guertin said he
has been in the wind busi-
ness for 35 years and still
sees a strong future for re-
newables, however he sees
more solar being built in the
near future. In long term he
said lots of wind power is
still to be built, however.
County officials say they
may be seeing more of the
smaller renewable projects
in the future since they
don’t have to go through
the more cumbersome state
licensing process and can
be approved on the county
level.
Projected population
growth and housing needs
In other business the
county received a county
housing report. Part of that
report included a projection
of population growth in
various areas of the county.
Morrow County population
is expected to grow at .8
percent over the next 20
years. Boardman will grow
the fastest at 1.4 percent
followed by Irrigon at 1
percent and then Ione and
Heppner each at .1 and
Lexington at a minus .4
percent rate.
In housing, Heppner is
expected to need 29 more
housing units in the next
20 years, Ione 13 more, and
Lexington 17 more units.
Boardman is the largest
with an expect need of
542 more units. Irrigon is
second in the county with a
need for 153 more housing
units.
Need for more small
land parcels
In further discussion
on housing, County Plan-
ner Carla McLane said
her department is trying to
“provide more opportunity”
for south county residents
to create small acreage par-
cels in the two to five-acre
range for home sites. There
are quite a few small farm
parcels around Irrigon but
not many in south county,
she said. “I’m not sure if
it will be easier,” she said,
“but maybe we can relieve
some of the pent-up desire”
for the small acreages.
Commissioner Rus-
sell said he thinks creating
smaller parcels for home
sites is perfectly logical. “I
look at the nonproductive
ground and think it’s ok.
I certainly wouldn’t want
to take productive farm
ground for housing,” he
emphasized. He pointed out
that a lot of ground in south
county is out of production
now in the conservation
reserve program.
The commissioners
also discussed a river front
parcel owned by the Port
of Morrow west of Board-
man. “That is an extremely
unique piece of property,”
said Commissioner Jim
Doherty. McLane pointed
out it might be possible for
the Port of Morrow to put in
a planned unit development
on the parcel along the river
located past Loves Truck
Stop on Highway 84.
Flu shots
In other business the
commissioners heard a re-
port from County Health
Nurse Sheree Smith who
said her department would
begin giving flu shots soon
in preparation for the winter
flu season. She was asked
how the decision is made
what kind of flu shots to
give as there are many dif-
-See WINDFARM/PAGE SIX
Heppner weather slightly
warmer in August
According to prelim-
inary data received by
NOAA’s National Weather
Service in Pendleton, tem-
peratures at Heppner aver-
aged slightly warmer than
normal during the month
of August.
The average tempera-
ture was 70 degrees, which
was 0.5 degrees above nor-
mal. High temperatures
averaged 84.3 degrees,
which was 1.2 degrees be-
low normal. The highest
was 95 degrees on the 8 th .
Low temperatures averaged
55.6 degrees, which was 2.2
degrees above normal. The
lowest was 48 degrees, on
the 17 th .
On three days in Au-
gust, the temperature ex-
ceeded 90 degrees.
Precipitation totaled
0.53 inches during Au-
gust, which was 0.14 inches
above normal. Measurable
precipitation, at least .01
inch, was received on four
days with the heaviest, 0.33
inches reported on the 10 th .
Precipitation this year
has reached 11 inches,
which is 1.62 inches above
normal. Since October, the
water year precipitation at
Heppner has been 15.01
inches, which is 1.57 inches
above normal.
The outlook for Sep-
tember from NOAA’s Cli-
mate Prediction Center
calls for above normal tem-
peratures and near normal
precipitation. Normal highs
for Heppner fall from 82
degrees at the start of Sep-
tember to 71 degrees at the
end of September. Normal
lows fall from 50 degrees
to 43 degrees. The 30-year
normal precipitation is 0.56
inches.
ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE:
MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M.
Believes in man-made climate change, but favors
more hydro and nuclear power
Rep. Greg Walden addresses a town hall meeting in Heppner last week.
By David Sykes
While he believes in
climate change, and that
humans are “contribut-
ing”, Republican Rep. Greg
Walden thinks legislation
proposed by Democrats,
and endorsed by most Dem-
ocratic presidential candi-
dates, to stop global warm-
ing is just too far reaching
and expensive.
In response to a question
from Heppner eighth-grad-
er Hunter Houck at a town
hall meeting last week on
why he does not support the
Green New Deal, Walden
said that with a price tag
of $93 trillion, or $285,000
per American citizen, it was
just too expensive. He also
says the Green New Deal
includes much unrelated
to the environment, such
as nationalized health care
which he doesn’t agree
with.
The Green New Deal
is legislation proposed by
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez Alex-
andria, a Democrat from
New York, and calls in
part for the upgrading of
all existing buildings in the
United States to achieve
energy efficiency, working
with farmers to eliminate
pollution and greenhouse
gas emissions, overhauling
our transportation system to
reduce emissions — includ-
ing expanding electric car
manufacturing and building
charging stations every-
where, and expanding high-
speed rail to a scale where
air travel becomes unneces-
sary. The Deal also calls for
more government spending
unrelated to climate change
such as a guaranteed job
with a family-sustaining
wage, adequate family and
medical leave, paid vaca-
tions, retirement security
for every American, and
high-quality health care
for all.
“I think climate is
changing and I think we are
contributing to it,” Walden
told a crowd of about 30 at
the town hall, “but I think
there are other ways to
get there (reducing carbon
emissions). He proposed
more hydroelectric and
small nuclear generation,
both of which produce no
emissions and are afford-
able. He said relying on
just so called “green power”
like windmills and solar,
can cause brown outs and
shortages because it’s not
a steady reliable source of
energy. He said switching
to lower carbon natural
Walden discusses an issue following the town hall with Kim
Cutsforth of Heppner.
gas generation, which he
supports, is already helping.
“No other country has done
more for emissions than
when we started moving
from coal to natural gas,”
he said. “The Green New
Deal is overreach,” he said
on why he opposes the leg-
islation.
Several questions from
the public asked about the
extreme partisanship they
see in Washington DC. “Is
there any chance the speak-
er (Speaker of The House
Nancy Pelosi) will get a
trade agreement passed?”
asked Jeff Bailey. Walden
said he didn’t think enough
votes were there to pass
the Canada-Mexico trade
deal although he thinks it
would be good for America
and is a better deal than the
now defunct North Ameri-
can Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA). On the on-go-
ing trade battle with Chi-
na, Walden says President
Trump is trying to isolate
China, which he says has
not been trading fairly. He
said he originally voted to
allow China into the World
Trade Organization but ac-
tions since make him think
we need to “revisit that.”
He added he is “somewhat
hopeful” a trade deal can
be reached. After another
question about the dis-
function most Americans
see in the nation’s capital,
Walden says it isn’t quite
as bad as the mainstream
media portrays. “We do a
lot of bipartisan work, but
the national news doesn’t
report on that,” he says.
“If we agree, it’s not what
cable (news) wants to hear.
Walden also said social
media has been a cancer
on civility. “We reinforce
our own beliefs and listen
to only those who agree
with us,” he said. Walden
says when one party tries to
“cram something through”
it doesn’t work.
Morrow County Com-
missioner Don Russell
wanted to know why it is
so hard to get a species off
the endangered list once it
is recovered. “There should
be a mechanism to get them
off,” he told Walden. As
an example Russell cited
all the sea lions eating up
the salmon run. Walden
agreed it was hard to get a
species off the list but said
he was trying to get the wolf
delisted.
In other questions, Al
Osmin of Heppner wanted
to know what could be done
about all the scammers and
robocall people stealing
from people. “Why can’t
we put these outlaws in
jail,” Osmin asked. Walden
took a scam letter Osmin
had received in the mail and
said he would look into it.
At the beginning of
the town hall Walden went
through some of the things
he has been working on in
Congress. He said there are
47.8 billion robocalls so
far this year in the United
States. He said the phone
companies have the tech-
nology to determine where
a call is coming from and
that they should do more to
help stop the calls.
On health care related
issues, he said they have
passed legislation to pre-
vent pharmaceutical com-
panies from blocking the
release of generic drugs that
want to compete and make
drugs more competitively
priced. He is also working
on legislation to make hear-
ing aids more affordable.
When asked if he en-
joyed working in Wash-
ington DC, Walden said
he did and especially liked
meeting guests from his
district who come to town.
“Like those on the freedom
flight.” The freedom flight
was veterans brought to
Washington. He said he
also liked when he gets to
appoint people from his
district to the military acad-
emy, and “I enjoy solving
problems.”
MORROW COUNTY GRAIN GROWERS
350 MAIN ST
LEXINGTON, OR 97839, CONTACT: JUSTIN BAILEY
541-989-8221
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