News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Amy Berg hopes to save an old ponderosa pine.
As more and more houses are built in Sisters, tension has grown between the need to supply affordable, efficient electrical power and the urge to preserve the natural beauty that draws people to the city.
A group of local residents testified before the Sisters City Council on Thursday, January 12, seeking the council’s support to resist a planned Central Electric Cooperative (CEC) project that would run an overhead power line down Jefferson Avenue to Pine Street.
The residents are concerned about loss of views and property values and about the need to remove at least one big ponderosa pine tree.
CEC is proposing the line to serve 11 homes along Jefferson Avenue. According to a CEC spokesman, the need for the project was triggered by the in-fill construction of a townhouse by Piper Lucas and her husband near Pine Street.
Lucas was one of the residents testifying against the installation of the overhead line. She has temporary power to her home site and she agreed that the project should be delayed and re-planned.
Jefferson Avenue resident Amy Berg was the group’s chief spokesperson. The tree tagged for removal stands at the corner of her property. The line would run in front of her house but would not serve it. Her house is served by a different line.
“Property owners don’t want to lose property values due to a poorly planned project,” she said. “I do not want my quality of life (damaged) due to CEC’s bottom line.”
The group was unanimous in requesting that the city support them in urging CEC to re-plan the project to bury the new power line underground.
CEC spokesman Jim Crowell said that engineers did look at several options.
“They looked at, I think, two or three different routes,” he said. “The cost for underground is wildly more than overhead.”
According to Crowell, the cost for the planned overhead line serving 11 accounts is $17,260. The cost to run the same route underground would be $77,628.
“Somebody or some group would have to come up with the balance, which is $60,368,” Crowell said.
The residents don’t like that option. They favor running power underground eastward from Pine Street, serving about six accounts.
Crowell said that option would cost $47,655.
City attorney Steve Bryant told the council and the residents that city code requires underground lines in new development, but allows use of overhead lines for in-fill in existing neighborhoods.
“CEC is not required and the city cannot compel CEC to underground those lines,” he said.
However, even a handful of residents could band together and form a utility district to fund the upgrade to underground lines. They could pay up front or the city could issue a bond and recoup the funds from the residents by payment.
He noted that the issue creates a tension between livability and affordability — a common scenario in Central Oregon.
“Views are important in Central Oregon,” he said. “It may be worth $5,000, $6,000, $8,000 (per property owner) to preserve a view. In other areas, that may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back in terms of (someone) being able to own that house.”
Preserving trees is at least as important to the residents as preserving views. The residents urged the council to make preservation of trees a priority and seek designation as a Tree City U.S.A. That designation is recognized nationally and demonstrates a city’s commitment to preserving natural values.
Councilor Sharlene Weed noted that attaining that status is already on the city council’s list of goals.
It was also noted that underground trenching can also be a threat to trees.
The council did not act on the residents’ testimony, but indicated that they were in sympathy with their concerns.
“I totally understand where you are coming from and I’m in agreement with you,” said Councilor Brad Boyd.
City manager Eileen Stein noted that the issue has city-wide implications as more and more new houses are built on smaller lots in existing neighborhoods.
She said that such situations could be handled “line-by-line,” but that the council might want to develop a mechanism that can address such situations in advance.
Action on the power line is in abeyance for the moment. Crowell said that CEC has many other projects to work on and indicated that the cooperative would be willing to place the lines underground as long as the project was paid for beyond the $17,000 the co-op has already committed.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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