During its regular meeting on Sept. 5, the Harney County Court approved payment in lieu of taxes agreements between the county and South Burns Solar I LLC, Riley Solar I LLC, Suntex Solar LLC, Starvation Solar I LLC, West Hines Solar I LLC, and Harney Solar I LLC.

With these agreements in place, the solar companies will pay the county $7,000 per megawatt of nameplate capacity in lieu of property taxes. During the county court meeting on June 6, Harney County Assessor/Tax Collector Ted Tiller explained that nameplate capacity “is just kind of a fancy name for how much power they’re going to be producing.”

During the Sept. 5 meeting, Harney County Judge Pete Runnels explained that, “Taxes will still come into the county, but it’s even for 20 years. Instead of huge payments the first five [or] ten years and dwindling to almost nothing, this is even for 20 straight years from each project.”

There are three different sites and two 10-megawatt farms per site.

“This is private folks who have put up their land. It’s not on public lands,” Runnels said. “It’s definitely what you would probably consider scrub brush area. It’s not high-value farm land that they’re going on.”

Jim Campbell asked, “If for some reason at year 10 they picked up and moved out, would you recoup the taxes you would have got under the different scheme?”

Harney County Commissioner Mark Owens replied, “They’re locked in for 20 payments, a payment each year.”

He added, “I said a couple months ago that I would not trade taxes for jobs, and that these weren’t increasing jobs, so I’d have a hard time reducing taxes. In fact, when our tax assessor, Ted Tiller, came in, we calculated that it’d be about a $500,000 loss, and I went on the record by stating there’d have to be a $500,000 sale for me to enter into a payment or fee in lieu of taxes. It was. After doing some due diligence, there’s a couple things that became clear in my mind.”

He noted that the agreements are one of the major factors for determining whether the projects will be built.

“The people who are putting this on are looking for industrial money to actually build this site up. Industrial money has very detailed lines on it. They need to know exactly what they’re payments are going to be for a prorated period of time for them to invest,” Owens explained.

He also noted that most Oregon counties are entering into these agreements, and the cost of the infrastructure to build a solar facility is rapidly declining.

“So the assessed value on the infrastructure is going to keep going down. If these projects are not built out for more than one or two years, more than likely, the assessed value on them will be less than the $70,000 minimum,” he said. “When I added all those things up, it became a $500,000 sale in my mind. In fact, it became an $8,400,000 sale. If these are built out to nameplate capacity, the tax revenue that would be generated from the county in 20 years is $8.4 million. Without signing a fee in lieu of taxes [agreement], I have a concern that that would not occur, and we could have lost everything. So that’s what made me change my mind. I don’t think I sacrificed. I think we actually guaranteed ourselves a set payment of $420,000 a year for the next 20 years, which will go into the normal tax payroll. All taxing districts will get their fair share. I think it’s a home run for the county.”

Runnels noted that the agreements don’t apply to the land, only the improvements. The land will be assessed separately.

“This is probably one of the biggest private infrastructures that will go into Harney County,” Owens said. “If they did not choose to build here, there’s plenty of other places in the state that they would have gone to.”

Runnels reported that the solar companies plan to begin construction next spring and be operational by fall 2019.

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The court approved Ordinance 2018-82, which allows the Harney County judge to authorize open burning during the burn restricted season (June 1 through Nov. 1) on a case-by-case basis.

Discussion regarding the ordinance began after Owens was approached by a constituent who needs to burn his field in order to grow blue grass.

“Burning of some specialty seed crops is common practice throughout a lot of the state,” Owens said. “If we’re going to transition to alternative crops that don’t require as much water, this one is one that is very compatible with Harney County. I really appreciate the judge looking into this because it’s something we need to be proactive on. The difference between burning and not burning is the difference [between] whether that can become an economical crop or not.”

The ordinance states that the county judge may issue burning permits if:

• evidence is presented that the material must be disposed of prior to Nov. 1, and there is no satisfactory alternative to burning available;

• appropriate fire-control measures are provided by the permittee as specified by the burning permit to prevent unwanted spread of the fire; and

• the appropriate permit is obtained from the state Department of Environmental Quality, if under its jurisdiction.

Burning will be done with a Rural Fire Protection Association (RFPA) on site. Harney County Emergency Management and the RFPA will make a joint decision on burning status, weather conditions, and time of burn. Local dispatchers will also be notified about the burning.

Violation of the ordinance, which took effect Sept. 5, is a Class A violation.

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The court received correspondence from the Burns Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announcing that the agency updated an environmental assessment and unsigned finding of no significant impact analyzing the effects of the Spay Feasibility and On-Range Behavioral Outcomes Assessment and Population Management Plan for Warm Springs Herd Management Area (HMA).

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) originally partnered with Colorado State University (CSU) to evaluate the safety, complication rate, and feasibility of ovariectomy via colpotomy (spay) on wild horse mares and the impacts to mare and band behavior once returned to the range as compared with an untreated herd. However, CSU withdrew from participation in the project Aug. 8.

“Although we withdraw from this particular effort, wild horse and burro overpopulation is a critical animal welfare issue that must be solved through objective, collaborative, and transparent research. Our efforts include multiple approaches to solving this problem,” Dr. Alan Rudolph, CSU vice president for research, stated in an email.

In its correspondence, the Burns BLM stated that it respects CSU’s decision, but conditions (population level, water availability, and rapid population growth) remain the same on the Warm Springs HMA, and BLM must continue to pursue management actions to move toward achieving and maintaining the established appropriate management level and reduce the population growth rate.

USGS updated its proposal to include only the behavioral research portion of the original proposal. The study would take place on mares spayed by BLM as a management action.

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In other business, the court:

• recognized Beth Brooks of Harney County Home Health and Hospice and Miranda Moulton of Harney County 911 Dispatch for their five years of service to the county. The court also recognized Joe Pettyjohn of the Harney County Road Department for his 25 years of service;

• discussed the Workforce Housing Roadmap Technical Assistance Project.

Harney County Commissioner Patty Dorroh explained that the county received a grant to hire a contractor to help create a “road map” for strengthening middle class housing in the community. After some additional discussion, the court accepted Greater Eastern Oregon Development Corporation’s proposal for the project;

• discussed the process for purchasing county-owned land and approved an order of sale of county property;

• recommended Katharine “Kali” Wilson for the grazing permittee position on the Steens Mountain Advisory Council;

• approved the Special Transportation/Statewide Transportation Improvement Fund Advisory Committee bylaws;

• signed a letter encouraging the Federal Communications Commission to continue reducing regulations that impede the deployment of broadband wireless infrastructure;

• was addressed by Campbell regarding speeding and noise from truck compression breaks near Airport Lane. He asked the court to prohibit the use of compression breaks and reduce the speed limit in the area.

Runnels discussed the process for reducing the speed limit and said he will follow up with Harney County Roads Supervisor Eric Drushella;

• discussed water use requests;

• held a meeting on Aug. 21. The minutes can be found online at http://www.co.harney.or.us;

• will hold the Frenchglen/Diamond rural meeting Oct. 10, from 5:30-7 p.m. in Diamond;

• will hold the Crane rural meeting Oct. 18, from 5:30-7 p.m. in Crane.

The next meeting of the Harney County Court will be held Wednesday, Sept. 19, at 10 a.m. in Runnels’ office at the courthouse.