The Wasco County Commissioners met on Wednesday. In discussion items Commissioners gave the green light to the Oak Park Ranch Project. Interim Commissioner Rodger Nichols gave a compelling reason to support the project:
“We got a gift here. We got a million-dollar grant and we got the Gorge Commission approval, with no objections from the Friends and your never gonna get that again, which is why I strongly support it, doing the maximum that we could with what we were given, so delighted to have that result”.
Commissioners also held a Hearing on an Outdoor Mass Gathering permit for the Harvest Festival to happen at the end of the month outside of Dufur, off of Dufur Valley Road. After discussion with all the parties involved, commissioners granted the permit.
The biggest discussion was about a memorandum of understanding between Wasco County and Waste Connections about making a private road for Waste Connections to get to the landfill. Right now, 5-mile road and Steel Road leading up to the landfill, with the local traffic and the heavy truck traffic on the roads, the County estimates they spend around $50,000 a year maintaining the two roads.
The advantage of building a road just for Waste Connections use, would make it safer for the traveling public and safer and a better road for truck use to get to the landfill.
The County Public Works department will develop preliminary surveying and engineering, pursue all landowner outreach, easements and potential purchases of land to create the new road and reach out to coordinate with the Oregon Department of Transportation. Waste Management will essentially foot the bill for the project.
Commissioners granted the Memorandum of Understanding.
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