A4 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 2015
BUSINESS
County bans ag burning
Agriculture burning in
drought-stricken
Umatilla
County is prohibited until
conditions improve.
The Umatilla County
Board of Commissioners held
an emergency meeting July
22, and voted for a temporary
ban to all burning in areas un-
der county jurisdiction, includ-
ing agricultural burning. The
ban went into effect July 23.
The ban also covers camp
¿ res at the county-run +arris
Park campsite. County coun-
sel Doug Olsen said the board
last took this action in 2012.
County commissioners
cited dry conditions, low hu-
midity and multiple wild¿ res
as reasons to prohibit burning.
County Commissioner Larry
Givens also said the county
needs to be ready to help oth-
er agencies ¿ ghting ¿ res, par-
ticularly in neighboring Walla
Walla County, where an ag
burn ban already is in place
and a wild¿ re threatens the
Mill Creek watershed.
The county has an agree-
ment from 1999 with other
local governments to give
mutual aid for big ¿ res, said
Jack Remillard, Umatilla
County emergency manager.
+e told commissioners the
agreement still is valid, but
agencies probably should re-
new it every ¿ ve years. With
any luck, he said, signatures
from area department heads
and of¿ cials will be on a new
agreement in a day or two.
RDO offers test drives at the fair
John Deere lawn and util-
ity tractors will be on display
for customers to try out Aug.
11-15 at the Umatilla County
Fair.
The event gives people
a chance to get behind the
wheel of the latest utility
and lawn tractors, as well as
see live product demos, and
check out
attach-
FAIR
ments
and other
equipment from RDO Equip-
ment Co. and John Deere.
Attendees also receive
special savings offers, and the
chance to win a John Deere
tractor and attachment pack-
age.
Dennis Mof¿ t, regional
sales manager at RDO Equip-
ment Co., says this event is a
great opportunity for anyone
who has been interested in a
new tractor or attachments to
try and test different models,
and ¿ nd out which is right for
their needs.
“The best thing about this
event is that we give folks the
opportunity to actually op-
erate the equipment and see
how easily it is to change out
attachments on the machine,”
he said “It’s a great chance
for them to get hands-on ex-
perience with the equipment
before they take it home, and
equips them for success.”
The Drive Green event
will be held at the RDO
Equipment Co. booth at the
Umatilla County Fair. It is
open to all fair attendees, free
of charge. Equipment, parts
and service experts from
RDO Equipment Co. will
also be on hand to demon-
strate and answer questions.
The ¿ rst 50 adults who
register at the event receive
a $500 discount coupon that
can be used toward the pur-
chase of John Deere equip-
ment, a coupon for hun-
dreds off attachments and a
chance to win a John Deere
3032E Compact Utility
Tractor with D160 Loader
and Frontier RC2060 Rota-
ry Cutter.
This is the seventh year
that John Deere dealers have
hosted Drive Green events.
Depot land transfer won’t happen before 2016
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
It may still be another
year before the land of the
former Umatilla Army De-
pot site is returned to local
control.
Greg Smith, the new
executive director of the
Columbia
Development
Authority, said it is hard to
make timeline predictions
w h e n
ork-
DEPOT w
ing with
the fed-
eral government. But he
believes it will be another
10 to 15 months before the
Army is ready to transfer
the land to the local reuse
authority.
“The Army is just knee-
deep in procedure and you
have to work within that,”
he said.
Smith replaced former
Columbia
Development
Greg 6mith
Authority director Don
Chance this summer, work-
ing with the development
authority in his capacity as
an economic development
consultant and not in his
role as a state representa-
tive.
The authority’s board
is made up of represen-
tatives from the Port of
Umatilla, Port of Morrow,
Umatilla County, Morrow
County and Confederat-
ed Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation. Now
that the chemical depot has
been dismantled, the group
is working with the Army
on transferring part of the
land to the Oregon Nation-
al Guard and transferring
the rest to the local reuse
authority for use as indus-
trial land and a wildlife
preserve.
Smith said the Colum-
bia Development Authori-
ty has made it clear that it
is only willing to take the
land off the Army’s hands
if it doesn’t have to pay for
it, if it is environmentally
sound and if the necessary
water rights are available
to use the land for industri-
al purposes.
“It has to be clean, it has
to have water and it has to
be free,” Smith said.
As part of that set of
conditions, the Army is
currently demolishing more
than 20 buildings on the
site, several of which are
visible from Interstate 84,
that have asbestos in them.
It is also in the process
of completing cultural and
environmental studies for
the site, ensuring that it is
development-ready before
the local reuse authority is
ready to take it over. The
Army can’t transfer the
land until it has an of¿ cial
Finding of Suitability of
Transfer, which depends on
the results of the studies.
The next meeting of
the Columbia Develop-
ment Authority is Thurs-
day at noon at the Port of
Morrow’s Sand +ollow
Conference Room. The
meeting will include an
overview of milestones
and objectives for the com-
ing year and approval of
the budget summary for a
grant.
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