Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
Wasco County Commissioners postponed a decision on the process for appointing a person to fill the vacancy on the Commission caused by the passing of Commissioner Phil Brady. Both Scott Hege and Jeff Justesen said they did not feel ready, though they did agree that they needed to be ready to make a decision at their next meeting on July 1.
Chair Hege had some good news to share:
06 18 26 Scott :28 “There’s a lot of stuff happening at the Center for Living, but the interesting news is they are very close to getting an $11 million grant from Oregon Health Authority to build a substance use disorder inpatient facility – 24 beds. And they have a site they’re looking at and they’re talking with a developer. And potentially, if everything goes perfect, which it never does, it could start maybe as early as this summer – in terms of construction.”
And Community Development Director Kelly Howsley Glover asked for input about a proposal she had received from BrightNight, LLC. That’s the firm that has a proposed a 1,000 megawatt solar farm and a battery energy storage system within 14,418 acres of predominately private land zoned for Exclusive Farm Use, approximately 10 miles southwest of Maupin.
The proposal from the company would involve the company paying an agricultural mitigation fee for the estimated impact the solar farm would have on neighbors. This is a new concept that came about as the result of changes in state regulations. It would require the county to appoint a committee to assess the impact to individual farmers, and determine distribution of the funds. Who should be appointed to such a committee and how it would operate was still up in the air, but Howsley Glover said it was still in the early stages, because the application for the solar farm is still under review by the Energy Facility Siting Council.
06 18 26 Kelly :14 “This is a new concept, and this is one of those things that we don’t have a lot of expertise about, and so staff is wanting more time to develop expertise to really understand how to approach an issue like this.”