| Quote of the Week |
"Summer's lease hath all too short a date."
- William Shakespeare |
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| Thank you to members of the community who attended Rep. Sprenger and Sen. Girod's Stayton Town Hall. They enjoyed answering your questions and hearing your feedback on the legislative session.
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Rep. Sprenger will be hosting a Lebanon Town Hall in September. Look for the date and time in our next e-newsletter. |
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Paying a Visit to Detroit & Idahna 
On August 10th, Rep. Sprenger spent a day in the area of her district known as "The Canyon" (the small communities along the Santiam Hwy 22). The Cedars Restaraunt in Detroit facilitated an Open House where she was able to answer questions about new legislation and brainstorm ways to bring economic stability to the area. After the event, she hand delivered her legislative report newsletter door to door in the town of Idahna and attended their city council meeting that evening. "The communities with populations of 200 are just as important as those with 200,000," she said. "They are especially vulnerable during the poor economy and I am here to assist with the challenges they face." |
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Constituent Highlight
LHS Agrictulture Program
Lebanon High School's agriculture program has been named the top ag program in the state.
Ag teacher Mike Wilson works at the land lab full time and runs the animal science program. Lindsay Whitcomb teaches the horticulture and ag mechanics programs.
About 200 students a year take classes and work at the land lab.
"Our key goal is to provide a project for every student who wants one," Wilson said. "We are able to offer a lot more opportunities for kids. We have everything at our disposal."
Many other schools with land labs focus on one thing, such as crops or a greenhouse. Those with multiple enterprises, or businesses, are not as extensive as Lebanon's, Wilson said.
The lab is home for 25 head of blackface commercial sheep, a lot of pigs, four head of registered Angus cattle, four horses and a bunch of chickens.
Students work on projects throughout the summer, especially students with breeding projects.
For the first time, Wilson said, students planted pumpkins. Should the crop be successful, students at the lab will sell them in fall.
"Best thing we're doing is making students aware of what's available out there, not only locally but globally," Wilson said.
Now that the program has won the top award in the state, it will go on to compete regionally.
To see the full feature in the Lebanon Express click here. |
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Ethanol Update
Our office receives more calls about ethanol than almost any other issue. Although the bill that Rep. Sprenger co-sponsored that would have repealed the mandate did not pass, we thought we would give you an update on some legislation that did get signed in to law. The Governor recently signed HB 3497 to amend Oregon's ethanol mandate by allowing service stations to sell premium, higher-octane gasoline without ethanol. House Republican Leader Bruce Hanna (R-Roseburg) and Rep. Tim Freeman (R-Roseburg) introduced HB 3497 to provide a common sense fix for certain classes of engines that don't operate well with ethanol-blended fuel.
This bill will give service stations the choice of selling unblended premium fuel and better enables loggers, snowmobilers, fisherman and others to purchase the fuel they need to operate their equipment safely and effectively.
Under previous law, retailers are required to sell gasoline that contains at least 10 percent ethanol. Though a 2008 law permitted the sale of unblended fuel for certain non-road uses, unblended fuel has been difficult to access because of distribution and storage issues.
"This bill will allow more retailers to sell unblended fuel to owners of the vehicles and tools who are exempted from the ethanol requirement," Rep. Hanna said. "While improving access to unblended fuel, this new law will give the state's renewable fuel standard an opportunity to work as it was originally intended."
House Bill 3497 exempts premium gasoline, which has an octane rating of 91 or above, from the 10 percent ethanol blending requirement imposed under ORS 646.913. The new law will apply to gasoline sales that occur on or after January 1, 2010. |
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The Detroit Dilemma
The past few weeks, our office has been working closely with Marion County, State, National and the City of Detroit governments to find a solution to an issue that may devastate the community of Detroit. To give you some background, Detroit Lake has long been a balancing act between residents, tourists, businesses, wildlife, a myriad of government agencies, as well as nature. Water flows into Detroit Lake at a certain rate and water is released from Detroit Dam at a certain rate, as controlled by the Corps of Engineers. Those flows are essential to maintain useable levels in the lake and the river below for the priorities of recreation, downstream irrigation, drinking water, power generation, flood control, and to preserve fish habitat. As conditions change, the volume of water sent through the dam can be adjusted to lessen the impact on these priorities.
A few weeks ago, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its most recent projections for runoff and snow melt coming into Detroit Lake this summer. The community was shocked to learn that projections show the lake at lower levels that will start to impact the operations at the two large marinas by the last week of August. In fact, current inflow (596 cubic feet per second) is only 16 cubic feet per second greater than the 2001 inflow (580 cfs)when the lake was turned into a mud flat. Businesses were devastated and it has taken years for tourism and recreation to recover. These projections by NOAA show we are on track for a similar tragedy unless the outflow at Detroit Dam is recalculated to allow as much water to be retained at the lake as possible to allow recreation - at least through Labor Day weekend.
Immediate action is necessary. The presence of drought conditions allows the Corps of Engineers to reduce the outflow at the dam to 750 cubic feet per second, or even less if needed. The area cannot wait for drought conditions to be officially declared before we design a response that protects this community and their delicate and recreation-based economy. The outflow must be immediately reduced and a new flow schedule proactively calculated to carry the lake through Labor Day. If not, the livelihood of the Detroit area is in jeopardy. This has not affected this season's marinas or recreation yet and all are still encouraged to visit the area.
I have met with the Corp and NOAA who have been informative during this process. However, we must find answers that will keep a balance between the two not only in the next few weeks, but in the years after since this problem is long term. I will keep you updated with this situation next month.
Sincerely,
Sherrie Sprenger
State Representative |
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