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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 2011)
The INDEPENDENT, October 5, 2011 Kiger mustangs up for adoption this weekend More than 100 mustangs from the Kiger and Riddle Mountain wild horse Herd Man- agement Areas in southeastern Oregon will be available for public adoption October 6-8, 2011. This is the first offering of the Kiger horses since they were last gathered from the range in 2007. The adoption and event activities will be at Oregon’s Wild Horse Corral Facility in Hines. Photographs and statistics for each horse available for adoption, a complete event schedule, and special shipping information for non-local adopt- ers can be found at www.blm. gov/adoptahorse. Click “Facili- ty Photos,” then click “Kiger Adoption” to locate all the im- portant details. The 3-day event gives those in atten- dance the opportunity to close- ly view mustangs up for adop- tion, and watch and participate in a variety of equine clinics, presentations, gentling demon- strations and trained mustang displays. Numerous vendors and home-cooked barbeque will be on-site for those inter- ested. The oral competitive bid adoption for the Kiger mus- tangs is noon on Saturday, Oc- tober 8. Anyone planning to participate in the bidding process must have an ap- proved adoption application and bidder number before 11:30 a.m. that day. Submit an adoption application early to the Bureau of Land Manage- ment’s Burns District Office at 28910 Hwy 20 W, Hines, Ore- gon, 97738, or visit the adop- tion office at the Corral Facility during the event. No other horse in America is quite like the Kiger mustang. Most wild horses are of mixed influence and characteristics, while the Kiger mustangs pos- sess many characteristics of the original Spanish Mustang. The Spanish Mustang was a part of early American history, having roots in Native Ameri- can history, and is the horse that helped settle the west. The Kiger mustang exhibits physi- cal color characteristics known as the “dun factor” which were also common to many of the horses the Spaniards reintro- duced to North America in the 1600's. Kiger mustangs have devel- oped a tremendous following with private adopters. The Oc- tober 6-8 event is expected to bring 100-200 people from across the United States and even overseas to Harney County for the chance to sub- mit the winning bid for one or more of these unique horses. For information about the Kiger mustang adoption, call the BLM Burns District Office at 541-573-4400. Oregon’s Wild Horse Corral Facility is located along Hwy 20 W near milepost 122 in Hines. Additional information about the BLM’s Wild Horse and Bur- ro program is available online at: http://www.blm.gov/or/re sources/whb/index.php . Power of the People By W. Marc Farmer, General Manager, West Oregon Electric Cooperative You’ve Got to be Kidding Me! I find myself gritting my teeth as I write this article. I don’t know that I have been more frustrated and upset during my six years as the General Manager of West Oregon Elec- tric Co-op. Two times that come the closest were the destruction and stealing of seven miles of transmission line between Timber and Elsie substations, and when someone stole our ATV during the chaos of the flood. This latest incident is as bad as these two previous thefts. During the move from our old facility to our new one, we kept the trucks in the old building due to the new truck bays being used as a stag- ing area for the move. During the early morning hours, (between 3:00 and 3:35 a.m.) someone broke into the old building and went into our truck bay. They removed wire, hand held radios, cell phones, chainsaws, keys from one of the trucks, and other items from the trucks, they then loaded them on truck #48 and drove it away. Police surveillance video and security video on our new building show them driving by our new building at 3:35 am. The video is being analyzed by the crime lab as I write this article. The taking of this truck is of deep concern for several reasons. The first is that it took a vehicle we use every day out of our fleet and lessened our ability to fully meet the needs of our Co-op to serve our members, espe- cially in the event of a major outage. Second is the concern that someone could or would use the vehicle to take out power or steal parts of our sys- tem, or even worse, use it to Reward offered in Clatsop elk killing Oregon State Police (OSP) Fish & Wildlife Division is ask- ing for the public’s help to de- velop leads that will identify the person(s) responsible for the unlawful killing of a spike bull elk in Clatsop County. The Ore- gon Hunter’s Association is of- fering rewards of up to $1,000 for information leading to an ar- rest and conviction in this case. According to Trooper Jim O’Connor, on October 3, OSP Fish & Wildlife Division troop- ers started the investigation fol- lowing the discovery of the ille- gally killed spike bull elk on Snow Point Road near mile- post 2. The elk was shot with a firearm within the last few days during closed season and the entire animal was left to waste. Anyone with information is asked to call the OSP Turn-In- Poacher (TIP) line at 800-452- 7888 or Trooper O’Connor at 503-791-7003. O’Connor may also be contacted by email at jocon- Page 15 no@osp.state.or.us. impersonate our crews and use the truck to steal from others who would not question seeing a WOEC truck on their premises. Third is the cost and the time to replace this much-needed vehicle. The replacement cost of this truck is over $110,000, without the added cost of all of the equipment, tools, saws, radios and phones. The replacement time is a problem as these trucks take almost a year to receive, once you have ordered it, as they are specially made to order, not a stock vehicle. The fourth concern to me is just the fact that we have people among us who would do such a thing. It is disconcerting and demoralizing to know that individuals have such a disregard for others’ property, and to take a vehicle used by an essential service dedicated to taking care of the power needs of everyone within the 1,224 square miles of our service area. My staff and I are understandably angry and feel violated. The City of Vernonia Police are analyzing the surveillance video, investigating leads, and working with Washington County and Oregon State Police to solve these crimes that include breaking and entering, theft, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, grand theft auto, and so on, all felony crimes that will put the people respon- sible away for a while. WOEC is offering a $2,000 reward for information leading to the ar- rest and conviction of the people responsible for this. The bottom line is that the cost to replace the truck and all of the lost tools and equipment will come out of all of our pockets, and our ability to do our work will be hampered while we wait for the replacement truck to be built and delivered. I hope you are as outraged by this as we are.