If alliance of Eastern Oregon counties forms, Wallowa County will be part of it

ENTERPRISE — The Wallowa County commissioners last week agreed to the concept of joining an eight-county alliance.

The Eastern Oregon Regional County Organization includes Baker, Grant, Harney, Malheur, Morrow, Umatilla, Union and Wallowa counties. The focus of the organization would be to tackle the issues in common among its members.

The agreement states its purpose is to create an organization that “will facilitate the pooling of resources to more effectively represent the common interests of its members.” It goes on to say the organization “shall not be used for policy development but instead shall be used to further already established common concerns or issues.”

If formed, each county will designate a member to the organization’s board. County Commissioner Susan Roberts has agreed to represent Wallowa County.

Roberts said most of the concerns would be about common federal issues. Examples are travel management, forest revision and transmission lines.

County Commissioner Mike Hayward agreed with Roberts that the forest revision plan is a “biggie.”

He also said an issue that is pervasive throughout all eight counties is “payment in lieu of taxes.” Since the federal government does not pay property taxes, PILT is a federal reimbursement to counties containing federal land.

Roberts said a base dollar amount would be contributed by each county into a common fund. In the case of an issue that only concerns some of the counties, those involved would raise money on their own and not obligate counties that are not involved. Such topics might include transmission lines or a species only located in specific areas.

Both Hayward and Roberts said they are interested to see how this new organization will act in concordance with the Eastern Oregon Rural Alliance, an 18-county organization that focuses on issues specific to counties, cities and special districts east of the Cascades.