In case you missed it, last week’s edition of the Blue Mountain Eagle featured a fascinating story about an agrivoltaics development in Grant County. “Agrivoltaics” is the term for a photovoltaic (solar power) project on agricultural land. The concept sounds simple enough — until you stop and think about the fact that traditional solar power projects take up a whole lot of real estate and tend to interfere with agricultural land uses such as growing crops or raising livestock. 

What’s different about the 8-acre “solar pasture” project being developed by Portland-based Rute Foundation Systems on Jack and Teresa Southworth’s ranch in Bear Valley is a suspension system that holds the SunTracker solar panels 9 feet off the ground — high enough, the company insists, that the business of solar power generation (with the electricity to be sold onto the grid by way of a nearby OTEC substation) will not interfere with the business of cattle grazing. It is believed to be the first commercial project of its kind anywhere in the country.

The story was one of several in last week’s paper written by Neil Nisperos, the Eagle’s newest reporter. Neil has nearly two decades of experience covering a variety of beats for a number of California newspapers, including the Lompoc Record, Santa Maria Times, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and Los Angeles Business Journal. We’re happy to have him and we hope you’ll join us in welcoming him to Grant County.

Nobody is happier to have Neil on board than Justin Davis, who has been pulling double duty as the paper’s sole full-time reporter since November. Justin’s done a fine job for us, taking on extra news reporting duties without complaint while continuing to cover high school sports and John Day City Hall, but now the guy can take a much-deserved break.

Other points of interest in last week’s Eagle include stories on a church mission trip to Nepal, plans to improve Canyon City’s water system, a ninja skills challenge for kids and two local high school wrestlers who won state titles in their weight class.

Among the stories we’re working on for this week are reports on a runway improvement project at the Grant County Regional Airport, a plan to save the county a quarter-million dollars a year, a tombstone restoration project in Monument and John Day’s new city manager.

As always, I want to take this opportunity to thank our subscribers for their support. We can’t do this work without you!

— Bennett Hall, Editor