The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON – County residents Julia and Skip Mead implored Columbia County Commissioners at last week’s public hearing to turn down an offer by Portland General Electric to pave a portion of Mead Road north of Dayton.

“We are passionate about our freedom and privacy,” Julia Mead told all three commissioners and the boardroom full of listeners last Wednesday. “We don’t have to let PGE impose their liberal ways on us... Please, please, please do not pave Mead Road!”

Commissioners Merle Jackson and Dwight Robanske were swayed by the Mead’s arguments; they both voted down the proposal for paving. Commissioner Mike Talbott disapproved, saying it was the board’s job to think of the county as a whole and not just the needs of one property owner.

“I don’t think we should turn down a gift of $2.5 million,” he said, quoting the approximate cost PGE was willing to incur for the paving. The county could have received another $25,000 or so in sales tax for the construction. PGE, however, did not plan to invest anything more into the project. After construction, the road would be turned over the county to maintain.

“If I lived there, I would certainly want my thoughts taken into account,” Commissioner Jackson said. “It’s a wonderful idea for a gift, but at the end of the day I still think the landowners should have a say.”

Mead Road, a gravel byway that branches off Kellogg Hollow Road to the north and west of Dayton, became the center of operations for PGE in 2013 when the company located its headquarters for the Tucannon River Wind Farm project there.

“I’ve driven that road several times, and it really is a road to nowhere,” Commissioner Jackson said last week.

But it is a road that winds past the Mead Ranch. Franco Albi, a project manager for PGE, told the board on Wednesday that four, permanent PGE employees and 18 Siemens personnel would work out of the operational building on Mead Road on a regular basis.

The Meads own both sides of the road that now leads to that building. When PGE proposed earlier this year to pave that road, at least up to their building, the Meads were alarmed.

“I’m the one who has to live on that road and deal with it,” Skip Mead told commissioners. He said he was “mad to the core” with PGE’s lack of a personal touch. The family accommodated PGE during construction and now has several turbines on their property, he said. But they were not aware until recently that PGE planned to pave their road.

Why wouldn’t they want “their” road paved? “Gravel roads are a deterrent to traffic,” Skip Mead said last Wednesday. The Meads were confident that their humble little road would become a major thoroughfare once paved. “And it will increase the speed,” Skip Mead said. “Our safety and security is our first and foremost concern.”

Albi said PGE was not offended by the rejection of its gift. “It’s just part of our process to do that,” he said.

“My vote has no reflection on you coming here,” Robanske assured Albi and other PGE representatives at the public hearing. “I’m kind of a landowners’ rights kinda person. We really do appreciate the offer, but I think the landowner has some rights. I think paved or gravel won’t make much difference to you folks.”