Supporters of KBRA take mike at annual Potato Festival 

By TY BEAVER 

H&N Staff Reporter

October 17, 2010

H&N photo by Andrew Mariman  Steve Kandra, a basin irrigator and one of the organizers of the 73rd annual Klamath Basin Potato Festival, also held a KBRA rally Saturday in Merrill hoping to gain support in voting down ballot measure 18-80

     MERRILL — Cheri Unruh says she had questions when the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement was first completed and released to the public.

   The fifth generation Malin farmer wondered if other stakeholders would adhere to the agreement and whether the conditions of the agreement could actually be met.

   “But then I thought about whether we could go on like this,” she said, referring to years of uncertainty and litigation.

   Unruh and several other speakers addressed a group of about 30 supporters of the KBRA Saturday at Carleton Farms Scale & Storage following the parade and barbecue of the 73rd annual Klamath Basin Potato Festival.  

   Urging rejection

   In addition to rallying support for the agreement, the speakers urged voters to reject an advisory measure on the November ballot that asks whether the Klamath County Board of Commissioners should pull out of participation in the agreement.

   “How dare we be asked to stay away from the table,” said Klamath County Commissioner Cheryl Hukill.

   Rally attendees included irrigators on and off the Klamath Reclamation Project and members of the Karuk and Klamath tribes. Some wore shirts or stickers or carried yellow balloons emblazoned with the phrase “KBRA = JOBS.”

   Unruh said the Basin’s agricultural community is already reaping the benefits of the agreement this year. While in 2001 irrigators were left out of the picture and without water, some water was available this year partially because of the relationships forged through the KBRA.  

   Karl Wenner, a Klamath Falls surgeon, said he and his family are supportive of the KBRA because it can work to change the communities in the Basin for the better. He applauded those stakeholders who drafted the agreement and stuck   with it despite criticism.

   “I honestly think those people are heroes,” he said.

   Don Gentry, vice chairman of the Klamath Tribes, said he had a spiritual view of the agreement and the impact it could have on the community.

   “I honestly believe the KBRA is an answer to many prayers about brokenness,” he said.

   The speakers also criticized the agreement’s opponents, with Unruh saying they are naïve or have their own agendas.

   “I hope they’re just naïve,” she said.  

   Hukill said the founders of our country fought to have a government where citizens could be fairly represented and it was nonsensical for the agreement’s opponents to not want the commissioners representing the county’s residents.