By JESSICA KELLER ARGUS OBSERVER Sunday, May 3, 2009
http://argusobserver.com/articles/2009/05/04/news/doc49fdf7529d562506590110.txt
ONTARIO-Members of the local grassroots effort to stop a 500-kilovolt transmission line from crossing Malheur County farmland are feeling “guardedly optimistic” about achieving their goal in light of recent developments, but Jean Findley, one of the organizers of Stop Idaho Power, said the group remains no less vigilant.
. . . “We have had a large group of citizens, and we have been very focused, and I think Idaho Power has eventually realized that the citizens’ groups were very serious in protecting their exclusive farm use land,” Findley said . . .
“I think a talented, energetic, focused group of people can accomplish a great deal,” Findley said.
The group goals have always been more than about protecting personal interests, Findley said, and have always focused on protecting a resource — farmland — that Oregon has already taken great pains to protect. . .
“I think that was the biggest thing in our court,” she said. “It just took us a long time to get the word out and keep the pressure on.”
What she said she hadn’t anticipated was how much support government officials on all levels have given the cause.
“That’s been a wonderful surprise,” Findley said. “No, we did not expect the kind of legislative support that we had, but it has been extremely gratifying, and I think it has furthered our case.”
. . . Stop Idaho Power member and Malheur County resident Patty Kennington said she is also feeling positive about the new direction the Idaho Power transmission line plan is going. . .
Kennington said, when she first saw the map of the proposed Boardman to Hemingway line and realized that she and her husband’s farm would be split in half by the proposed power lines, she knew something had to be done . . .
"I feel a lot better about things than I did six months ago,” she said.
