UC Board of Commissioners vote to formally inform legislators about local Greater Idaho measure

Feb. 10—LA GRANDE — The Greater Idaho movement in Union County has taken a small but possibly meaningful step forward.

The Union County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday, Feb. 8, voted to send letters to Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, and Rep. Bobby Levy, R-Echo, formally telling them that Measure 31-101, the Greater Idaho ballot initiative, was approved by Union County voters in the 2020 general election. The measure mandates that the Union County Board of Commissioners meet three times a year on the second Wednesday of February, June and October to discuss the Greater Idaho movement with the public.

Measure 31-101 will be considered memorialized once the letters to Hansell and Levy are sent.

Union County Commissioner Donna Beverage said board members have already talked to Hansell and Levy about the passage of Measure 31-101 but they have not formally notified them of its passage in writing

The board of commissioners voted to memorialize Measure 31-101 after being encouraged to do so by a number of Greater Idaho supporters, including Grant Darrow, of Cove.

"The ball is now in your court, do your job and pass it on to the state via Union County's representatives," Darrow wrote in a letter read at the Feb. 8 meeting prior to the vote.

Beverage said she decided to vote to memorialize Measure 31-101 after legislation was proposed in Idaho earlier this year indicating that some Idaho legislators were willing to investigate the feasibility of moving the Idaho border west.

She said that in memorializing Measure 31-101 the board of commissioners is carrying out the will of Union County voters.

Darrow was very pleased with the vote of the Union County Board of Commissioners.

"It validates what we did and bumps it to the state level through our representatives," Darrow said.

He said promoting dialogue is a big part of the Greater Idaho movement.

"The west side needs to know why we feel disenfranchised," said Darrow, who added that as an Eastern Oregonian he does not feel he has been represented in Salem for 40 years.

Curt Howell, of Union County, shares the sentiment.

"I believe my state of Oregon has left me, my family, neighbors and fellow rural Oregonians without a voice in our government," he said. "The state government has become oppressive and dictatorial. The state has become very socialistic to the point of leading down the Marxist path. It promotes personal behaviors and lack of personal responsibility unsavory to me and most of the population of Eastern Oregon."

Those opposed to the Greater Idaho movement include Anita Metlen, of Union County, who submitted a letter that was read at the meeting.

"I did not vote to move Oregon's borders. I am an Oregonian, not an Idahoan and I prefer it that way," Metlen wrote. "Those who prefer Idaho politics should move to Idaho. If the border change did happen, rural Oregon would still be dominated by a metropolitan area."

The complaints would be targeting the liberals in Boise not Portland."

Dick Mason is a reporter with The Observer. Contact him at 541-624-6016 or dmason@lagrandeobserver.com.