http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/04/04/1140802/oregon-skeptical-of-idaho-power.html
JOHN DAY, Ore. - Signs declaring "United Against Hate" hang in the windows of nearly every business on the Main Street in this isolated timber and ranching town nestled in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon.
The signs went up earlier this year when Aryan Nations national director Paul Mullet came to the John Day River Valley, looking for a national headquarters.
"The community just came together and said 'We don't want you here,'" says Grant County Commissioner Boyd Britton.
The external threat sensitized people about how they talked to each other about race and other issues that rural Oregon was long able to ignore.
So when the next threat came to the valley - a proposed transmission line of 190-foot-high towers that would run through their ranches and obscure their scenic views on its way to the Columbia River - folks here knew that words mattered.
That was a lesson Idaho Power executives had to learn the hard way.
After a March 2 public meeting to talk about the power line, company executives and contractors went to John Day's Outpost Pizza, Pub & Grill for drinks and dinner. They loudly made fun of how local people talked, expressed disdain for the locals' complaints and said that in the end they would simply take their land through the utility's power of eminent domain. . .
"People were shocked and angry," said Tracey Watson, manager of the Outpost bar. "Both the Aryan Nations and the power line were coming from Idaho."
The company has made several return trips to Grant County to listen and apologize. In doing so, Idaho Power has learned that, away from its home turf, it has to fight in Oregon for its credibility as well as permission to build its transmission lines. . .
Peyron, whose ranch surrounds the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center just off Interstate 84, has her house just a half-mile from the cheapest proposed route. . . praised Idaho Power's community-advisory process. But when maps of the three proposed routes came back with most of residents' suggestions ignored, she said, it was apparent that even if the people putting on the process were listening, Idaho Power wasn't . . .
The signs went up earlier this year when Aryan Nations national director Paul Mullet came to the John Day River Valley, looking for a national headquarters.
"The community just came together and said 'We don't want you here,'" says Grant County Commissioner Boyd Britton.
The external threat sensitized people about how they talked to each other about race and other issues that rural Oregon was long able to ignore.
So when the next threat came to the valley - a proposed transmission line of 190-foot-high towers that would run through their ranches and obscure their scenic views on its way to the Columbia River - folks here knew that words mattered.
That was a lesson Idaho Power executives had to learn the hard way.
After a March 2 public meeting to talk about the power line, company executives and contractors went to John Day's Outpost Pizza, Pub & Grill for drinks and dinner. They loudly made fun of how local people talked, expressed disdain for the locals' complaints and said that in the end they would simply take their land through the utility's power of eminent domain. . .
"People were shocked and angry," said Tracey Watson, manager of the Outpost bar. "Both the Aryan Nations and the power line were coming from Idaho."
The company has made several return trips to Grant County to listen and apologize. In doing so, Idaho Power has learned that, away from its home turf, it has to fight in Oregon for its credibility as well as permission to build its transmission lines. . .
. . . When Ontario and Adrian residents protested the initial route in 2009, Idaho Power went back to the drawing board. It set up the community advisory process and began helping residents propose new routes and identify problems that would make it harder to get approval for the transmission line.
It was out of this process that the western route through the John Day River Valley was added. Idaho Power officials acknowledged at the public meeting Wednesday that the route was more expensive and presented the utility with several permitting challenges. Some residents took that as a hopeful sign the company will recommend a different route when its makes its decision this week. . .
The company hopes for final approval from all federal, state and county officials in 2011, with construction scheduled to begin in 2012. It hopes to put the line in operation by 2015. . .
"If you're talking behind people's back in John Day, you're talking behind people's back in Baker," said Nancy Peyron, chairwoman of a group formed in Baker to oppose the line, Move Idaho Power.
Peyron, whose ranch surrounds the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center just off Interstate 84, has her house just a half-mile from the cheapest proposed route. . . praised Idaho Power's community-advisory process. But when maps of the three proposed routes came back with most of residents' suggestions ignored, she said, it was apparent that even if the people putting on the process were listening, Idaho Power wasn't . . .
"It seems like they are acting like Idaho cowboys," Peyron said. "They're saying we can spit where we want and run our cattle through your back yards."
