Glen Diehl seeks to retain
Justice of the Peace position
HEPPNER
G T
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VOL. 139
NO. 19 8 Pages
Glen Diehl
hl) first purchased it in the
late 1970’s. I cannot wait
for my wife Tracie to join
me here full time when she
is able to fully retire.”
Glen believes it is im-
portant for the Justice of the
Peace to have a well-round-
ed background and believes
that his combination of
education, training and
experience makes him the
best candidate. His record
of commitment to the law,
in addition to his balance
and fair-minded approach
makes him uniquely qual-
ified to continue serving
the citizens of Morrow
County as their Justice of
the Peace. Glen says that his
time serving as the Morrow
County Justice of the Peace
has been the pinnacle of
the criminal justice career
and he is looking forward
to continuing to serve the
citizens of Morrow County.
Glen Diehl, Morrow
County’s current Justice
of the Peace, is a former
law enforcement officer
with more than 35 years of
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
criminal justice experience.
Glen graduated from
Heppner High School in
1978 and studied Criminal
Justice at Blue Mountain
Community College. He
stated, “With the current
The most common is a graduate of the OSSA
number of patients, we can symptoms of COVID-19 Command College, Oregon
now release demographic are fever, cough and short-
information, while still re- ness of breath. If you are ex-
taining patient anonymity.” periencing these symptoms,
The positive cases currently you should stay home, ex-
include eight in Boardman, cept to get medical care.
one in Irrigon and one in If medical care is needed,
Heppner. There are no re- call first. Be extra cautious
The Willow Creek Valley Economic Development Group (WCVEDG) has com-
ported cases in Lexington to limit your contact with pleted another round of grant disbursement, giving out $81,790 to communities and
or Ione.
people who are at higher groups in the south Morrow County area. WCVEDG awarded the funds with money it
Public Health also re- risk for severe illness. Do received from the Columbia River Enterprise Zone II (CREZII). See below for details.
ported four patients have not go to work, or to any
recovered and six are cur- public areas.
rently isolated at home.
Morrow County Public
None of the cases are hospi- Health reports that screen-
talized and there have been ing and testing are con-
no deaths in the county.
tinuing.
Morrow County reports tenth
case of virus, zero deaths
On May 4 and 5, Mor-
row County Public Health
confirmed two more indi-
viduals tested positive for
COVID-19, bringing the
Morrow County total to
ten. The eighth case was
reported on May 1 and the
seventh individual testing
positive was confirmed the
previous day. The seventh
and eighth cases were a
household contact with a
previously reported positive
case. Investigation contin-
ues regarding the ninth and
tenth cases.
The May 1 press release
Executive Development
Institute and the Oregon
Executive Academy. Glen
has also earned his basic,
intermediate and advanced
police certifications.
Glen has been married
to his wife Tracie for over
25 years and they have
raised two grown children.
He has volunteered as a
cubmaster, Boy Scout mas-
ter, Girl Scout leader, 4-H
advisor and a Pendleton
Round-up volunteer. Glen
is an avid outdoor sports-
man and lifetime member
of the NRA.
Glen has lived in both
Heppner and Boardman and
currently resides on a piece
of property in the moun-
tains south of Heppner that
he purchased seven years
ago. Glen said, “I have a
lot of memories associated
with this property when my
father, (Dr. Joseph H. Die-
$81,790 in CREZII community
grants disbursed
Utility Commission to hold
public hearing on property
condemnation request
Umatilla Electric seeks approval to take property
for new power line easement at Boardman
By David Sykes
The Oregon Public
Utility Commission (PUC)
will hold a public hearing
next Tuesday to take public
comment on a proposed
Umatilla Electric Cooper-
ative (UEC) plan to con-
demn certain property near
Boardman for construction
of a new 3.4-mile overhead
power line. UEC has filed
the required application
with the Utility Commis-
sion to begin condemnation
proceedings against sever-
al property owners along
the route, which have not
signed easement agree-
ments with the co-op.
If the condemnation is
successful it would clear
the way for the co-op to
apply to the Morrow Coun-
ty Planning Commission
seeking approval to build a
3.4 mile overhead 230 Kilo-
volt transmission line from
the planned Highway 730
switchyard near I-84 to a
new Olson Road substation
at Boardman.
The electric co-op says
the new line is needed to
service a surge in customer
growth in the area, however
critics say the line is mainly
to service one customer,
Vadata, a subsidiary of
Amazon which is building a
new data facility in the area
and needs the additional
power. Critics, including
Morrow County Commis-
sioner Jim Doherty, say the
proposed property condem-
nation is the result of poor
planning for construction
of the new data facility, and
that another route north of
the I-84 freeway would be
better and not require any
condemnation.
However, according
to reports filed with the
PUC, engineers did look at
two other routes and found
them unacceptable because
of a combination of costs,
safety issues, environmen-
tal impacts, impacting new
properties or adverse effects
on agricultural land. The
engineers also looked at in-
creasing the size of existing
115kV lines in the area to
the larger 230kV but found
that economically unfea-
sible because of a cost of
over $30 million. UEC has
already obtained consent
from about 64 percent of
the landowners along the
transmission line route,
which covers about 80 per-
cent of the property needed
for construction of the new
line. However, there are
still some holdouts which
may require the condem-
nation to obtain easements
on their land, and UEC is
preparing for that with the
PUC filing. The UEC says it
does not want to go through
the condemnation process,
pointing out the co-op is
just doing its job providing
electricity to consumers,
and is still negotiating with
the affected landowners to
avoid the process.
One of the main land-
owners whose property
is actually needed for an
easement, but so far has
not consented, are former
county judge Terry Tallman
and his wife Cheryl. The
Tallmans are critical of the
project and the condemna-
tion proceedings, saying the
Heppner averaged slightly
warmer in April
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 April.
The average tempera-
ture was 50.5 degrees which
was 1.4 degrees above nor-
mal. High temperatures av-
eraged 62.6 degrees, which
was 1.7 degrees above nor-
mal. The highest was 75
degrees on the 30 th . Low
temperatures averaged 38.3
degrees, which was 1.1
degrees above normal. The
lowest was 26 degrees, on
the 13 th . There were four
days with the low tempera-
ture below 32 degrees.
Precipitation totaled
0.61 inches during April,
which was 0.90 inches be-
low normal. Measurable
precipitation, at least .01
inch, was received on six
days with the heaviest, 0.25
inches reported on the 23 rd .
Precipitation this year
has reached 3.51 inches,
which is 2.11 inches below
normal. Since October, the
water year precipitation
at Heppner has been 4.89
inches, which is 4.79 inches
below normal.
The outlook for May
from NOAA’s Climate Pre-
diction Center calls for
above normal temperatures
and near normal precipita-
tion. Normal highs for Hep-
pner rise from 64.0 degrees
at the start of May to 73.0
degrees at the end of May.
Normal lows rise from 40.0
degrees to 47.0 degrees.
The 30-year normal precip-
itation is 1.66 inches.
power line is being sold as
a transmission line when it
is “clearly a power distri-
bution line coming from a
switch yard directly to an
end user (Amazon).” The
Tallmans also said when it
comes time to redistribute
power from the end of the
new line, there will be more
negative impacts which
must be addressed. They
suggest all distribution lines
be placed underground to
lessen the impacts on the
city and surrounding com-
mercial, residential and
farmlands. Tallmans say
there may be damage to
humans and plant life when
exposed to strong electrical
fields like those produced
by the overhead power
lines. The Tallmans operate
a family farm on land need-
ed for the new line, so their
property would be subject
to condemnation if unable
to come to agreement with
UEC. They also cited lack
of planning as a reason
condemnation proceedings
are even being considered.
The public hearing next
Tuesday, May 12 will be
held over the phone in the
evening from 6 to 8 p.m.
and the public can call in to
give comment. The phone
number is 866-390-1828
and the access code to join
the hearing is 2252868.
According to a notice on the
PUC web site: “The public
comment hearing is an
opportunity for customers
and members of the public
to offer unsworn testimony
to the commissioners and
Administrative Law Judge.
Because the purpose of this
hearing is to take comments
from the public, Umatilla
Electric Cooperative (UEC)
and the other parties to the
-See CONDEMNATION/
PAGE THREE
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