During its regular meeting on June 20, the Harney County Court signed a court order declaring a state of emergency in Harney County to address the May 25 storm.

“I’m doing my due diligence, or the court’s due diligence, to this county to sign this declaration,” Harney County Judge Pete Runnels said. “I think we are making the right move.”

Fred Flippence, who is the general manager of Harney Electric Cooperative Inc., said the cooperative can’t receive Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding if the county doesn’t declare a state of emergency.

He acknowledged that the declaration has to move up to the state and federal levels and total losses have to be a certain amount per capita before FEMA funding becomes available, but said, “If you make the declaration, it allows you to be eligible.”

He explained, “It’s kind of like if you want to play Texas Hold ‘em, you’ve got to ante to get in the game. If you don’t ante, later on, you can’t bet, fold, or do anything.”

Flippence said Harney Electric lost five power poles at a cost of about $2,500 per pole with overtime expenses. He and Robert Cargill of Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative noted that power poles and wires aren’t insured because the premiums are  extremely expensive.

Burns City Manager Dauna Wensenk said the city accumulated more than $2,100 in overtime expenses and about $3,200 in equipment costs, and Fair Manager Jordon Bennett reported that two barns and a canopy were lost at the fairgrounds at an estimated insurance cost of $250,000. He added that the fair garnered about 10 hours of overtime expenses.

Hines City Administrator Judy Erwin asked whether the declaration could include the ongoing threat of dead and dying trees, explaining that most homeowners can’t afford to remove them.

“Riverside Drive is a really good example. Nobody down there can afford to take those trees down,” she said, noting that, years ago, removal was estimated at $25,000 per tree.

“We can’t afford to assume that cost either,” Wensenk said, adding that there are still widow-makers and several months of high wind and thunderstorms ahead.

Flippence suggested adding tree removal to the county’s hazard mitigation plan, which could provide access to mitigation funding, if it’s available.

Harney County Commissioner Patty Dorroh said the more she heard from the cities, the more she was inclined to understand the value in declaring an emergency.

Harney County Commissioner Mark Owens suggested some language changes and said, “I’m still not positive this is an emergency in my own mind, but I will sign for potential relief that we don’t see yet.”

“It doesn’t hurt to ante up,” Flippence said.

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Lt. Brian Needham of the Harney County Sheriff’s Office attended the meeting to discuss a residence on South Court Avenue. He said the property is a law enforcement burden, as there were about 100 calls for service in approximately eight months for issues such as drug use and assault.

Needham added that he and Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward recently responded to a dog complaint at the property, and the owner allowed them to do a walk through. According to Needham, the property contains a lot of trash, used toilet paper, mice, bugs, and probably rats. He said there’s electricity, but no running water, and the manufactured home lacks plumbing and contains buckets of human feces. People are also living in recreational vehicles without doors and windows through the winter months.

“It’s basically turned into a homeless camp,” Needham said, estimating that three or four people currently live on the property, but upwards of 10 lived there at one time.

He noted that there aren’t currently any children or people with disabilities  living on the property.

Needham said the county paid for a dumpster to be placed near the property in April, but the residents didn’t use it.

Runnels added that the owner was sent an abatement notice on September 28, 2017, noting the violations that were reported by law enforcement.

The last paragraph of the letter stated, “If you do not make corrections to alleviate the issues, the Harney County Sheriff will be forced to deem the property unsafe for human occupancy and be forced to remove all occupants of the property and to proceed with cleanup and/or abatement procedures.”

Runnels said the owner was given time to clean up, and Needham said some of the human feces were cleaned up or buried, but there are now buckets of it in the manufactured home. He added that some trash was bagged, but it wasn’t removed from the property.

Runnels said the county can proceed with eviction and cleanup.

Noting that there may be hazardous materials, Needham asked, “How do we go about cleanup?”

Runnels replied that they will probably need to contact the Department of Environmental Quality.

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Harney County Assessor/Tax Collector Ted Tiller attended the meeting to continue the conversation concerning an optional agreement that would allow solar companies to pay the county $7,000 per megawatt of nameplate capacity in lieu of property taxes.

During the previous meeting (held June 6), Tiller explained that nameplate capacity is “just kind of a fancy name for how much power they’re going to be producing.”

During the meeting on June 20, Tiller provided estimates of the revenue that the county could receive with and without an agreement in place. He also noted that solar facilities are unlikely to create jobs in Harney County.

“I said before, I’ll trade jobs for taxes, but if we’re not getting jobs, I’m not going to be in support of trading for taxes,” Owens said.

Regarding a potential agreement he added, “I’m all in support for having that option available, but I want to make sure we don’t lock ourselves in.”

“You can keep that on hand as a template to perhaps use in the future,” Harney County Counsel Tim Colahan said. “There’s no requirement that the county court approve this at this point and say, ‘Moving forward, this is the only type of agreement we will use.’”

However, he cautioned that entering into an agreement with one company could set a precedent for agreements with future companies.

“I’d be in favor of having this as a tool that we could discuss on a project-by-project basis,” Owens said.

The court approved a form that can be used as a tool for negotiations for potential payment in lieu of taxes agreements. However, the court hasn’t entered into any agreements with solar companies at this time.

Tiller and the court also discussed Rural Renewal Enterprise Zone Exemptions.

Owens said, “At first glance, I would not be in favor of a Rural Renewal Enterprise Zone because I believe enterprise zones should be set up on job creation,” adding that the company would have to convince him to forgo the estimated $500,000 in taxes. “It’d have to be a $500,000 sell,” he said.

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Hannah Hinman, executive director of Grant-Harney County Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), provided an update.

Hinman explained that the organization’s mission is to train and support volunteers who will advocate for abused and neglected children in juvenile dependency proceedings. Volunteers determine the children’s support systems, strengths, and needs and advocate for the their best interests. They also facilitate and negotiate among parties and monitor court orders to ensure that services are implemented.

“The concept is that a volunteer has the luxury of time and focus on an individual child or individual case,” Hinman said, adding that attorneys and caseworkers are overburdened.

She said the number of children coming into care has increased in Harney and Grant counties, adding that Harney County currently has about 54 children.

She added, “I would not be surprised to see that number for the [2017-2018] fiscal year significantly increase.”

According to Hinman, anecdotal accounts suggest that the increase could be contributed to changes in Department of Human Services policies and procedures as well as unemployment, poverty, and substance abuse issues.

“As an organization, we were not fully prepared to respond to this sharp increase,” she said, explaining that she was hired as a part-time employee to singlehandedly cover Grant and Harney counties.

However, she noted that, in collaboration with the Oregon CASA Network, all CASAs throughout the state secured federal funding, which was used locally to bring Hinman’s position to full time and hire Maggie Thompson as a full-time Harney County staff person.

“We’re working to be able to be in a position to respond to the number of children coming into care and assigning more advocates,” she said. “The model is incredibly effective. Children who have a CASA do better in school, they spend less time in foster care, they receive more services while they’re in foster care, they’re less likely to reenter the system when they leave, and then they score better on a number of protective factors.”

For additional information about Grant-Harney County CASA, call 541-575-5574 or email casa@grantesd.k12.or.us. The organization is actively recruiting volunteers.

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In other business, the court:

• held a public hearing to announce that Harney County is preparing an application for a 2018 Community Development Block Grant from Business Oregon for housing rehabilitation that will benefit owner-occupied homes for rehabilitation for low- and moderate-income individuals;

• was addressed by Lynn McClintock who said she saw spray-painted graffiti while walking the nature trail and reported it to law enforcement;

• acknowledged and thanked members of the Harney County Fair Livestock Committee for their continued work during the last several years;

• upon recommendation by Runnels, Dorroh, and Denise Rose of Harney County Economic Development, awarded the Broadband Strategic Plan Grant Proposal to Vantage Point;

• discussed water use requests;

• received correspondence from U.S. Forest Service Contracting Officer Arnie J. Cole regarding the IZ Deck, Lope DxPre Reoffer, and Soldier DxD timber sales;

• received correspondence from the Burns Bureau of Land Management regarding the Determination of National Environmental Policy Act Adequacy and proposed decision for Folly Farm pipeline;

• received correspondence from Jerry Grondin, Oregon Water Resources Department hydrogeologist, regarding ongoing groundwater level measurements in the Harney Basin;

• learned from Runnels that chip sealing will take place on four miles of Frenchglen Highway between milemarker 32 and milemarker 36 beginning June 28;

• held an executive session to conduct deliberations with persons designated by the governing body to carry on labor negotiations;

• plans to adopt the budget and resolutions to levy and categorize tax Wednesday, June 27, at 1:30 p.m.

Due to Independence Day, the next meeting of the Harney County Court will be held Thursday, July 5, at 10 a.m. in Runnels’ office at the courthouse. The following meeting will be held Wednesday, July 18.