{"id":19647,"date":"2024-05-21T13:14:26","date_gmt":"2024-05-21T17:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/?p=19647"},"modified":"2024-06-05T13:16:45","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T17:16:45","slug":"u-s-sen-jeff-merkley-holds-town-hall-meeting-in-seneca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/u-s-sen-jeff-merkley-holds-town-hall-meeting-in-seneca\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley holds town hall meeting in Seneca"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bluemountaineagle.com\/news\/u-s-sen-jeff-merkley-holds-town-hall-meeting-in-seneca\/article_ae25ee26-16e7-11ef-8759-dfe7477f3ed0.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u00c1guila de monta\u00f1a azul<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PRAIRIE CITY \u2014 U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., met with Grant County residents at Seneca School on Friday, May 17, to respond to questions, discuss issues of local concern and share his recent funding accomplishments for the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The town hall was held in the school\u2019s gymnasium and comes days after Merkley and U.S. Sen. Wyden, D-Ore., announced an investment by the U.S. Forest Service of $24 million to projects across Oregon to strengthen and defend communities from wildfire threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The funding included $982,000 for Grant County-based Iron Triangle, with the money going toward equipment for the company\u2019s post and pole mill in Seneca and a firewood packaging plant in John Day. Company representative Zach Williams said the funds will help add value to biomass, the leftovers from timber harvesting such as tops, limbs and small-diameter trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Williams thanked Merkley for his part in the grant disbursement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis grant money will continue to help Iron Triangle attempt to add value to biomass material from the national forest that historically has been a negative value to us,\u201d he said. \u201cThe ability to remove small-diameter material from the forest is an important piece of forest restoration and reducing the risk of wildfire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of the money, Williams said, will go toward a new firewood packaging machine and a drum saw that will help its John Day plant produce the smaller 3.75 cubic foot bundles that have become more popular with customers in the marketplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou explained that far better than I could, because you\u2019re right at the heart of it, so congratulations and I am happy to help,\u201d Merkley told Williams at the town hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prairie City Recorder Shonalie Oakes thanked Merkley for his help in securing about $600,000 for a project to replace water meters and repair some leaky lines in her town. Oakes said the work is planned to begin this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are getting ready to go out for bid for our water meter project for &#8230; Prairie City,\u201d she said. \u201cThank you to you and your team for making that happen for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Merkley said when he was a child he kept hearing the phrase, \u201cWhiskey\u2019s for drinking and water\u2019s for fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI never understood that until my first year in the state Legislature,\u201d he said. \u201cI was assigned to the water committee, and every bill was for some water war somewhere in Oregon and the challenges of clean water supply, wastewater treatment, irrigation water for ranching and farming \u2014 it\u2019s the lifeblood. \u2026 In this case, knowing who\u2019s using what and where makes a big difference in the management of the water, so we\u2019re happy to help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oakes also mentioned a concern about subsidized Canadian wood flooding the American market and salvage logs from last year\u2019s fires coming into play next year. She asked Merkley about the possibility of border tariffs to help domestic mills stay open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re absolutely right that we have had an ongoing challenge with how Canada supports their timber that creates an unfair and uncompetitive relationship,\u201d Merkley said. \u201cI have not heard recently whether we were facing another trade case, so I will have to look into where that stands. \u2026 I will get the information and find out if there\u2019s a case that\u2019s being adjudicated right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Didgette McCracken, who received an American flag flown at the U.S. Capitol from Merkley for her team\u2019s efforts with opening CyberMills in Grant County, inquired about difficulties that high school seniors are having with new college financial aid procedures involving the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. McCracken said people are behind by four months and the uncertainty over aid applications is causing a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI work with students across the county \u2026 and it\u2019s been very difficult,\u201d she said. \u201cWe looked at the percentages for completed FAFSA forms and it was 29%, which is well below half of what it normally is this time of year in Oregon, and we advise them as best as we can, but we have students unable to see their results because they haven\u2019t been processed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Merkley called it \u201ca complete mess-up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a five-alarm fire with the Department of Education, so they are working night and day trying to remedy it,\u201d he said. \u201cThis was a case where they were supposed to design a simpler system and completely messed it up. \u2026 It\u2019s really messed up a lot of lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Merkley said he is optimistic the problem will be fixed by next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt has to be fixed, and when I say it\u2019s a five-alarm fire, yes it\u2019s a fire for the students who have been affected, but it\u2019s also that the Department of Education has been treating it like they have to get this solved.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blue Mountain Eagle PRAIRIE CITY \u2014 U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., met with Grant County residents at Seneca School on Friday, May 17, to respond to questions, discuss issues of local concern and share his recent funding accomplishments for the region. The town hall was held in the school\u2019s gymnasium and comes days after Merkley [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley holds town hall meeting in Seneca - Merkley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/u-s-sen-jeff-merkley-holds-town-hall-meeting-in-seneca\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley holds town hall meeting in Seneca - Merkley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Blue Mountain Eagle PRAIRIE CITY \u2014 U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., met with Grant County residents at Seneca School on Friday, May 17, to respond to questions, discuss issues of local concern and share his recent funding accomplishments for the region. 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