Thornburgh sues electric cooperative

Published 5:00 am Friday, June 9, 2006

In an effort to block the installation of 80-foot metal towers on their property, representatives of the proposed Thornburgh destination resort sued Central Electric Cooperative this week.

It’s the latest chapter in an ongoing legal feud between landowners and the power cooperative over upgrading the Jordan Road power line that runs 11.5 miles from Sisters to Cline Falls.

Two weeks ago, the cooperative began replacing wooden poles on the Jordan Road power line with metal towers that reach as high as 83 feet. The Thornburgh lawsuit argues CEC began the work without authority from state and county agencies and should stop immediately. A judge will consider a temporary restraining order today.

The electric cooperative has said the towers are part of upgrades necessary to bring more electricity to the growing Sisters and Black Butte Ranch areas. But land owners have protested that CEC’s plan – to replace the power line’s wooden poles with taller metal towers – is unnecessary and will decrease property values.

”Do you like overhead power poles, do you think they’re a beautiful and aesthetic thing?” said Thornburgh President Kameron DeLashmutt.

The poles run directly through his proposed destination resort. Deschutes County Circuit Court Judge Stephen N. Tiktin is scheduled at 10 a.m. today to consider whether to grant a temporary restraining order to ban further work on the line.

On Thursday, CEC Chief Operating Officer Dave Markham declined to comment on the case and referred questions to attorney Martin Hansen. Hansen did not return several phone calls.

DeLashmutt’s lawsuit argues that CEC should wait for the result of several legal challenges before it upgrades the power line. And although the cooperative won a waiver of land use restrictions from Deschutes County, it has not received a waiver from the state of Oregon, which is also required, the suit says.

”The issue is that the electric company is doing something that they’re not allowed to do right now,” DeLashmutt said.

CEC has tried to upgrade the Jordan Road line since 2003, when the Deschutes County Commission initially approved CEC’s request. The Oregon Court of Appeals later overturned the county’s decision after neighbors Keith and Connie Cyrus filed an appeal. Last year, the county commission granted land-use waivers to CEC to allow the work, in response to a Measure 37 claim seeking permission for the new towers.

The law was ruled unconstitutional by a Marion County Circuit Court judge in October 2005. But after the Oregon Supreme Court upheld the property compensation law in February, CEC Member Services Director Jim Crowell promised the company would start work on the line as soon as possible.

”We can start putting poles in the ground and stringing wire,” Crowell told The Bulletin earlier this year. ”We will be moving on that project with all deliberate speed.”

If the improvements are completed, the Jordan Road line, which currently can carry 69 kilovolts, would nearly double in capacity to 115 kilovolts.

Meanwhile, DeLashmutt’s destination resort has legal hurdles of its own to clear. Although Deschutes County approved plans for the Thornburgh destination resort last year, that ruling was appealed to the Land Use Board of Appeals. The board hasn’t scheduled a hearing on the matter.