Gov. Tina Kotek sat down on Friday afternoon in a conference room in Wallowa Resources and started a conversation about housing.

She was surrounded by Wallowa County residents who have been working on the shortage of affordable housing in the county for months, if not years. County officials sat next to Planning Commission members, who shared table space with representatives of organizations like Wallowa Resources and Working Homes, the nonprofit entity recently launched by Wallowa Resources to find solutions to the housing crunch.

Kotek was visiting Wallowa County on Friday as the latest stop on her “One Oregon” tour, in which she’s pledged to visit every county in the state during the first year of her term. As has been the case in other stops, Kotek let others do most of the talking, but asked pertinent questions and offered thoughts of her own about the housing issue, which was one of her priorities during the campaign — and which, to her credit, has remained one of her priorities in office.

She said something else that struck me during the conversation: Although she outlined potential ways the state could help, from helping to arrange financing for housing projects (particularly important in rural communities) to easing regulations that make it harder for the state to build housing in the numbers required, she noted that real solutions have to be driven locally, with local buy-in.

This may be an area in which Wallowa County has a head start over other rural counties in Oregon. Working Homes is pursuing a pair of promising initiatives that would not just create new housing, but help preserve some of what the county already has. Enterprise has just completed a housing needs assessment, to get a sense of the demand in that city. (The county is awaiting state funding to do a countywide assessment; perhaps the governor could help pry loose that funding.) City councils and planning commissions throughout the county are grappling with the issue. Maybe most impressive, meetings on the issue have drawn crowds of residents, often enthusiastically pitching their own ideas. Kotek has noticed this, and she praised county residents for their work thus far.

But while it’s true that the housing shortage will require local solutions, the state still has a big role to play. The Legislature could take a huge step forward by passing and properly funding House Bill 3317, which would create a countywide board to work on housing and workforce issues. The bill, like so many others, is waiting for the Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee to decide which ones to fund in the face of a tightening state budget. Kotek said she would sign the bill if it passed the Legislature. But, again, perhaps she could pass the word to legislative leaders that the bill would not just help Wallowa County, but could blaze a trail for other rural counties battling the same issue.

After the conversation, Kotek stayed for an additional 20 minutes to answer questions from Chieftain reporter Bill Bradshaw and me. We asked about housing, of course, but also about topics such as the Greater Idaho measure on the May 16 ballot. She had interesting answers, and you can read about them in the Wednesday edition of the Chieftain (and sooner online, at wallowa.com).

Also in Wednesday’s edition of the Chieftain, we’ll check in with Sandy Lathrop, the Wallowa County clerk, about her preparations for the election and we’ll wrap up our election coverage with a look at school board races. 

It’s all part of our commitment to cover Wallowa County news to the fullest extent that we can. As always, if you have comments or questions about the Chieftain, or want to pass along a story idea, just send me an email at this address: mmcinally@wallowa.com. It sometimes takes me a few days to respond, but I try to answer every email — eventually.

And finally, let me take this opportunity to once again thank the Chieftain’s subscribers: We simply would be unable to do this vital work without your support.