NEWS
Wednesday, september 18, 2019
HermIstOnHeraLd.COm • A7
Merkley announced disaster relief funding now available
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
S
enators Jeff Merkley and Ron
Wyden announced last week
that $150 million is available
to certain counties hit by severe
winter storms and flooding this
year, including Umatilla County.
Merkley said he didn’t know
exactly how much of that money
would end up being awarded
to Oregon projects, but munic-
ipalities, nonprofits and tribal
nations could turn in grant appli-
cations for everything from top-
soil being washed away to dam-
aged buildings and roads. He said
he and Wyden would send letters
of support for recovery projects in
Oregon.
The money now available is
combined with other provisions
Merkley pushed to have included
in a $19.1 billion bipartisan disas-
ter relief package passed by Con-
gress, including financial relief
for wineries and hazelnut growers
severely impacted by the heavy
wildfire smoke of 2018.
“This is part of an ongoing view
from the front row as the top Dem-
ocrat on the Senate Appropriations
Agriculture and Rural Develop-
ment Committee,” he said.
While spring flooding damaged
parts of rural Oregon, wildfire sea-
son was more mild than in 2018.
Merkley said it was important to
put money toward preventative
measures.
He said the Senate Appropri-
staff photo by ben Lonergan
Senator Jeff Merkley waves to parade-goers during the Westward Ho! Parade in Pendleton on Friday morning.
ations Committee had included
$8.5 million in the Department
of Defense appropriations bill for
training National Guard mem-
bers to fight wildfires. That was
a $1.5 million increase from the
first two years he helped secure
that funding.
“I think it’s now pretty well
established as a regular thing,” he
said.
In addition to worries about
weather damage, Merkley said
he also knows farmers are wor-
ried about the effects of the Trump
administration’s trade war. He
said they are right to be worried,
because there “doesn’t seem to be
a real strategy” to how tariffs are
applied.
“The thing that bothers me is
the lack of a cohesive plan,” he
said.
Merkley said the United States
does have a huge trade deficit
with China on manufacturing, but
the administration needs to sepa-
rate out manufacturing and agri-
cultural trade when developing a
strategy.
He said even if a Democrat
wins the presidency in 2020, it
will take time to repair some of the
interruptions to trade relationships
and reassure buyers.
Merkley said one bright spot
for Oregon farmers seems to be
the ability to now grow hemp
legally. He said there would likely
be some “ups and downs” as the
hemp market stabilizes, but it
is possible hemp will be a bil-
lion-dollar crop for Oregon this
year.
“I see a longterm future for
hemp,” he said.
Hermiston could become a
hemp-processing hot spot soon
as local farmer Alan Cleaver is
working to turn the former Herm-
iston Foods processing plant into
a facility for extracting CBD oil
from hemp.
Tackling another popular topic
in the country right now, Merkley
said the Senate needs to continue
to find ways to tackle the country’s
drug addiction epidemic, from
opioids to methamphetamines.
“We still don’t have enough
money to address addiction that
exists now, and to prevent future
addiction,” he said.
He said companies that sold
opioids under false pretenses
about the true potential for addic-
tion needed to be held accountable
for helping pay to clean up the
damage they caused.
Stanfield school bond will cost taxpayers less
By JESSICA POLLARD
STAFF WRITER
his October, Stanfield taxpay-
ers can expect their first pay-
ment on the school district
bond to be lower than previously
estimated, at approximately $2.49
per $1,000 of assessed value.
The $14 million bond, which
was passed with 65% of the vote in
May, was originally estimated to cost
$2.70 per $1,000.
Stanfield School District Superin-
tendent Beth Burton said that care-
ful timing helped the district success-
fully sell $12.7 million of the bond
at a premium in August, lowering the
estimated rate for taxpayers.
“We told the community they
wouldn’t pay more than $2.71,” she
said. “We’re really fortunate to have
good advisors who kept their eye on
the market.”
Tax payments on the previous
bond, which passed in 1999, wrapped
up in June. The money was used to
build a new elementary school.
T
photo contributed by Jessica mcCallister
LEFT: Christy Erickson holds her son, Jordy. RIGHT: Jordy is
pictured as a newborn with his father, Derrick Erickson.
Friends rally around family
who lost infant in crash
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
Friends of the Eastern
Oregon family whose infant
died in a crash last week are
spreading the word about
ways people can help.
Christy and Derrick
Erickson of La Grande lost
their 4-month-old baby
Jordy Erickson last Wednes-
day, after a crash on High-
way 82 in Wallowa County.
Jessica
McCallister,
Jordy’s godmother, said
the family is devastated.
She started a GoFundMe
campaign online to col-
lect money to help with
costs they will face, includ-
ing funeral expenses, a new
vehicle, time off work and
medical bills for their 2-year-
old son who was seriously
injured in the crash and left
the hospital Friday.
“I just want them to be
OK,” she said. “I feel like
this is the only thing I can do
for Jordy and his parents.”
McCallister, who grew
up in Hermiston and Stan-
field and now lives in Union,
said she was thrilled when
the Ericksons asked her to be
Jordy’s godmother, knowing
that she is unable to have
children of her own.
“They wanted to offer me
the honor of loving a child,”
she said. “I promised them I
would do anything for him.”
She was out of state when
Christy went into labor, but
hopped on a plane immedi-
ately and made it in time for
his birth. She said it is diffi-
cult losing him so soon, but
nothing compared to what
his parents are experiencing.
People can donate to
the family through the
GoFundMe online at bit.
ly/2lTzFIq or donate to an
account set up in the Erick-
son family’s name at any
Community Bank.
Candace Salim, another
family friend, is organizing
a dinner to collect donations
for the family on Wednes-
day at the American Legion
building at 301 Fir St. in La
Grande. Salim said she is
asking people to donate spa-
ghetti, salads and desserts
for the dinner. There will be
photos of Jordy and a journal
where people can write notes
of condolence for the family.
Doors will open at 4 p.m.
for people to drop off food,
and the dinner will begin
at 5:30 p.m. Anyone inter-
ested in helping with food
for the dinner can call
541-910-3991.
A funeral service will be
Sunday at 11 a.m. at Dan-
iel’s Knopp Crematory in La
Grande.
In 2017, the district had to increase
the levy rate on that bond for taxpay-
ers due to an assessment error discov-
ered during a 2015-16 audit. The pre-
vious years, they’d not been charging
enough to pay off the bond before its
expiration in 2019.
Burton said this time around, the
district is making sure that level pay-
ments are a priority.
When Burton stepped into the
superintendent position in 2018, she
said she saw how past rates were
completely staggered over the years.
“It caused a lot of strife in the com-
munity, people were really unhappy.
It really was a wild swing from year
to year,” Burton said. “One of the
things that was really important to us
was a level payment.”
The $14 million bond, along with
$4 million in grants from the Oregon
School Capital Improvement Fund,
which were secured last September,
will be used to construct a middle
school wing at Stanfield Secondary
School.
Currently, the middle school and
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the music program are being housed
in two modular buildings on school
property.
Burton said that if all goes accord-
ing to plan, the district hopes to take
out the modulars before the end of
this school year. Renovations on the
secondary school are set to take place
at the beginning of summer.
Part of the bond money also
went toward purchasing the prop-
erty that Stanfield Elementary was
built on this July. The property was
previously being leased from Union
Pacific.
Other projects include security
updates, the addition of windows to
the secondary school and a parking
lot reconfiguration for the elementary
school.
Burton encouraged Stanfield resi-
dents to give a call to the district if
they have any questions or concerns
about the bond. She said the district
will try to release information on the
bond projects regularly.
“I feel like we did right by the
community,” she said.
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