LOCAL
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2019
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A7
Cold, windy harvest could
affect Eastern Oregon potatoes
By GEORGE PLAVEN
EO MEDIA GROUP
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Sharon Remillard counts ballots after removing them from their envelopes in the offi ce of the
Umatilla County Elections Division on Nov. 5.
Voters revise county charter,
back ambulance service
By PHIL WRIGHT
STAFF WRITER
Umatilla County’s char-
ter is getting a pair of
updates. And an ambulance
service in Milton-Freewater
got a big lift in last week’s
election with a new service
district and higher tax rate.
County voters approved
measures to change the pro-
cess to elect county offi cials
and revise the charter’s
language on the sheriff’s
offi ce. The results are not
offi cial yet, but the margins
of victory in both are wide.
Measure 30-132 to
revamp elections was pass-
ing 79.8% to 20.2%. The
proposal asked whether
voters would elect county
offi cials in November and
only require a May primary
election if more than two
candidates fi led.
The answer was yes.
The move cuts down on the
number and thus expenses
of elections. Kim Lindell,
county elections manager,
said elections cost about $1
per ballot, so for Umatilla
County, around $44,000.
Measure
30-13
to
replace the term “depart-
ment of law enforcement”
with “sheriff’s offi ce” in the
charter was passing 68.2%
to 31.8%.
The change makes the
county’s foundational doc-
ument consistent with the
actual name of the law
enforcement agency and
refl ects the sheriff is an
elected offi ce. It does not
affect the department’s
operations in any way.
Both measures came out
of the work of the county’s
Charter Review Committee.
Michele Grable chaired the
committee, which kicked
the tires on the charter
during a span of 19 months
to recommend improve-
ments. Grable called the
outcomes “excellent” but
described the measures as
housekeeping. The change
to use “sheriff’s offi ce,”
she said, “has no substan-
tive effect whatsoever.”
Grable stressed the
committee’s most import-
ant recommendation never
got before the voters.
That was the recommen-
dation to adopt language
in the charter requiring
the county commission-
ers to hire a county man-
ager. That was the “meat
and bones” of the com-
mittee’s work, she said,
which garnered the support
of Commissioner George
Murdock. Fellow commis-
sioners Bill Elfering and
John Shafer, however, did
not vote to place that pro-
posal on the ballot.
Last week Echo voters
also renewed an operational
levy for Echo Fire District
by a 146 to 26 vote. The
levy is for $30,000 a year
for fi ve years, costing prop-
erty owners an estimated 38
cents per $1,000 of assessed
value.
Umatilla County Planning lowers fee for hardship
By PHIL WRIGHT
STAFF WRITER
Umatilla County soon
will give a fi scal break to
folks enduring a hardship
and needing temporary
housing.
The county board of
commissioners at its meet-
ing Nov. 6 voted 3-0 to
knock $400 off the fee for
a conditional use permit
for a temporary hardship
dwelling.
County Planning Direc-
tor Bob Waldher told the
board the permit fee is
$750, but his department
wanted to reduce it to $350.
“We felt like (it) aligns
a little more closely with
the work that is involved
in that,” he said. “And
also a fair amount of these
that come to our offi ce, we
felt like the applicants are
already in a bit of a hardship
situation, and so reducing
this fee should have a little
benefi t to them.”
This would apply to
temporary homes, such as
mobile homes, someone
locates on property that
already has a home, Wald-
her explained, such as a sick
family member who wants
to live on the property and
needs care.
Commissioner George
Murdock praised the pro-
posal, and Commissioner
John Shafer added, “Clearly
you guys have the county’s
best interest at heart.”
The change to the lower
price takes effect Jan. 1. All
other conditional use per-
mits will remain at $750.
In other business, the
board took the following
action:
• Adopted the plan-
ning department’s code
amendments to improve
the aesthetic character
and economic vitally of
the Highway 395 North
Corridor.
• Approved transferring
the jurisdiction of a por-
tion of Powerline Road to
the city of Umatilla. The
section is from Highway
730 to the end of the city’s
urban growth boundary
and includes Dean Place.
The county also is provid-
ing $200,000 to the city for
improvements on Power-
line, including engineering
studies.
Murdock said the trans-
fer would help with residen-
tial development in the area.
The Umatilla City Council
also has to approve the deal.
Farmers in Eastern Ore-
gon are optimistic about
the size and quality of this
year’s potato crop, despite
cold weather during harvest
that can lead to issues with
starch content and bruising.
Mark Ward, who grows
roughly 200 acres of Rus-
set Burbank potatoes near
Baker City, estimated yields
are up 5% over the previ-
ous year, thanks in part to
a more mild summer and
much-needed reprieve from
wildfi re smoke choking out
sunlight in the valley.
Ward said potatoes also
benefi ted from a longer
growing season, as the fi rst
fi eld frost did not come
until late September, giving
potatoes more time to fi n-
ish bulking underground. In
the past, Ward said farmers
could expect frost by Sept.
10.
However, Ward said,
when the cold weather did
come it was “one of the
coldest, windiest harvests
we’ve ever had,” with tem-
peratures not getting much
over 50 degrees during the
day and two below-freezing
nights in the teens.
“It defi nitely affects the
quality,” Ward said. “With
colder temperatures, the
potatoes are going to bruise
more.”
Ward, who serves as
chairman of the Oregon
Potato Commission, grows
spuds for J.R. Simplot Co.
that are used to make french
fries for restaurants includ-
ing McDonald’s. Apart from
bruising, he said colder
weather can prompt potatoes
to convert some starches
into sugar, which makes for
a darker colored, less appe-
tizing french fry.
“That is not what the
potato companies want,”
Ward said. “They want a
white, very light colored
french fry.”
Mother Nature has
been particularly unkind to
potato growers in places like
Idaho and across the Mid-
west, where early frost and
freezing weather are forc-
ing farmers to rush harvest
or risk losing thousands of
acres of spuds.
Though the 2019 harvest
was challenging, Ward said
the Eastern Oregon crop
appears to have avoided
disaster.
“We don’t have a hor-
ror story to tell, but it’s not
perfect,” he said. “I have
HH fi le photo
Farmers in Eastern Oregon are optimistic about this year’s
potato crop.
some concerns about qual-
ity coming out of the (stor-
age) shed.”
Oregon grows about
7% of all U.S. potatoes,
with 46,000 acres state-
wide. More than two-thirds
of those spuds come from
Umatilla and Morrow coun-
ties in the Columbia Basin.
Greg Harris, farm man-
ager at Threemile Can-
yon Farms near Board-
man, said snow in March
delayed planting by a few
weeks, but otherwise he
was very pleased with the
growing season. The sum-
mer was more mild com-
pared to recent years, Har-
ris said, with fewer days of
triple-digit heat stifl ing the
plants’ growth.
“We usually get a hot
spell where the plants just
shut down, and they quit
growing for a bit,” Harris
said. “We didn’t really see
that this year.”
Threemile Canyon Farms
is a large, diversifi ed opera-
tion with about 8,000 acres
of organic and convention-
ally grown potatoes. The
primary customer is Lamb
Weston, which makes a
variety of frozen potato
products at its processing
plants in Hermiston and
Boardman.
Harris, who recently
replaced Threemile Can-
yon General Manager Marty
Myers on the Oregon Potato
Commission, said cold
weather at the end of Sep-
tember did impact harvest in
the basin, as farmers waited
for tubers in the ground to
reach 50 degrees to avoid
bruising.
“There were defi nitely
some farms around that were
experiencing lower bruise-
free when it got cold,” Har-
ris said.
Harris said he expects
average to slightly above-av-
erage yields for potatoes.
The USDA National Agri-
cultural Statistics Service
released its fi rst production
report for the 2019 crop on
Nov. 8, said Oregon state
statistician Dave Losh.
Last year, Oregon har-
vested 45,000 acres of pota-
toes at 60,000 pounds per
acre, according to NASS.
Average production nation-
wide was 44,300 pounds per
acre.
The state’s other big
potato-producing
region,
the Klamath Basin, was bol-
stered by a wet spring this
year that helped ensure full
irrigation water supplies for
farmers in both Oregon and
California.
Dan Chin, who farms on
both sides of the state line,
said it was a stark contrast
to 2018, when water uncer-
tainty due to drought and
lawsuits over fi sh conser-
vation made it diffi cult to
know what to plant.
“The year before, we
didn’t know we were going
to get water until July,” Chin
said. “It’s really hard to
make a plan.”
Chin grows 900 acres of
conventional and organic
potatoes for fresh mar-
kets. He said the growing
season was cooler over-
all, and though some late
season rains delayed har-
vest by a few days, farmers
are pleased with yield and
quality.
“We really produced a
nice potato crop,” Chin said.
“I think we have the poten-
tial to make some money
this year.”
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