This has been a harried and hectic week for Rogue River  Wind, what with moving the prototype fabrication to our  new location and keeping abreast of the progress of the  Western Oregon Wind project. Unofficial reports from  Washington indicate that the WOW project has crossed  another hurdle and is moving forward in the Senate, however,  I state this with some trepidation as I have not been able  to get ‘official’ confirmation before we go to press.

Other funding opportunities for WOW, which will provide  an additional $2 million added revenue for local school  districts per year, are being explored at the State level as we  speak. The outlook is still good for funding in this upcoming  fiscal budget cycle but it will be weeks before I will be  able to report anything definitive.  It is not for lack of effort, however, as this project and  the myriad technical and financial and regulatory mazes a  project of this scope must go through are very time consuming.  The benefits of investing in our children, however,  make the effort and the expense well worth it.

Thank you to everyone that has exerted so much effort to  help us get this far in the process and who have offered to  facilitate the long list of bureaucratic steps looming ahead  of us. The plan is to put a website chronicling this project  from start to finish and encourage suggestions, feedback  and provide a list of tasks people may volunteer to do, if  they have the time and ability. The address will be published  when the site is available.

Rogue River Wind, Ltd moved the V-LIM wind generator  to a new location with 12’ rollup door in order to do the  final assembly. We have three full time workers now, four  if you add me, winding coils, rolling copper and buffing,  drilling, tweaking, measuring and calibrating.

We also have a four-member capstone team at Portland  State University working out the motor control circuitry and  data collection sensors and parameters. Everyone is working  feverishly now to make of for time lost awaiting one  part delayed by, of all things, weather.  The WOW (Western Oregon Wind) Project is making its  way through the House subcommittee on Energy and Water  and has garnered a lot of support around the state. There  are still hurdles to cross before we secure federal funding  for the 40% cost of WOW but thus far we are clearing  every one.  The smart/micro-grid proposed in the WOW project has  some very high-powered technical brains working in the  background to help make WOW a reality and provide alternative  funding for our local schools.

We have engineers in  Portugal and Washington State along with experts in  Brussels and Virginia all contributing to this unique concept.  Coos County is blessed to have such abundant renewable  resources and so many willing and capable contributors to  bring a wide scale renewable energy model to fruition here  on the coast. Things are beyond busy for me right now  hence the brevity of this week’s column but I can sure the  excitement for those of us working on this project is reaching  a fever pitch.  Brian McAndrew, a bright young journalism student  from the University of Oregon, interviewed me today. We  talked about the LIM and the WOW project and how important  it is to invest in our youth as well as our infrastructure.

For this reason, once again, I urge everyone to write or call  Congressman Peter DeFazio and thank him for carrying the  WOW project to committee. His contact information locally  is  Congressman DeFazio  125 Central, Suite 350  Coos Bay, OR 97420  Phone: (541) 269-2609

The name of the game was ‘spread the blame’ at the  recall debate between Commissioner Kevin Stufflebean and  chief recall petitioner, Larry Van Elsberg. Stufflebean  began his opening statement by informing the audience that  he did not act alone.

“I think it’s a critical point right now that people start  finding out what the truth is going on in your county. And  the first truth that is a fact is that we have three Coos  County commissioners that were hired by the voters of Coos  County, not just Kevin.”  Stufflebean continued to deny the claims of Van Elsberg  and Citizens for Fair and Open Government, that public  process had not been met.  “People keep talking about the process was flawed.  Coos County Commissioners and our managers followed  the process by law in order to do what was right for you as  a taxpayer.”  Previously, Stufflebean has blamed The World newspaper  for failing to inform the public about impending layoffs.  (The World reporter denies hearing anything about layoffs.)

At the debate hosted at the IBO Luncheon and held at the  Mill Casino, April 15, the commissioner accused a local  labor counsel representative for not getting the word out.  “There was no hidden agendas, there was no secret  meeting, everything was done on the up and up and we  have all the public proof, … if we were trying to be secretive  there is no way at any time that I would have had a  conversation with a member of the South Coast Labor  Council that handles the media information on December  3rd saying we needed to look at a budget reduction and layoffs  in the road department.”

There is no South Coast Labor Council, however The  Sentinel spoke with Shawn Jennings, Committee on  Political Education (COPE) Director, for Southwestern  Oregon Central Labor Council who regularly attends Board  of Commissioner meetings and she denies any conversation  regarding pending layoffs ever took place.  Before his opening statement was finished, Stufflebean  had taken a shot at The Sentinel and pointed out that  Commissioner Nikki Whitty, who confirmed this to The  Sentinel in January, was responsible for pressing the decision  to reorganize the County Road Department be made in  advance of Bob Main taking office.  “I personally wanted to hold off on the decision until the  first meeting in January however the other board members,  and I did support that, wanted to go ahead and act on that  on December 31st. I have no guilts with doing that on that  date because it was a board decision that we were going to  move forward with that.”  Stufflebean spread more than blame after a question from  the audience, asking why he would not vote to reconsider  the reorganization as moved twice by Bob Main, was  answered by accusing Main of collusion with the road  workers.

“We actually did consider that but the problem we ran  into was that it was obvious that Commissioner Main had  already met with uh, members of the road department and  made promises to them he couldn’t meet. Our job was to  move forward with the process that was best for the taxpayers  and not looking at hidden agendas like so many individuals  have.”  Main responded to Stufflebean’s accusation, “In my  opinion, supposed actions by someone else is never a reason  for a competent administrator’s business decision.

Diverting attention from his actions is a common tactic to  avoid responsibility.”  Van Elsberg, meanwhile kept his focus on the recall committee’s  belief that public process may have violated at least  the spirit of open meetings laws.  “Kevin, without any public input prepared ten year projections  that were never approved or ratified by the Board  or the public and used those projections despite having a  fully funded and approved budget to work with. Kevin  apparently felt the citizens who elected him and oversaw the  budget did not deserve the respect of having their budget  adhered to.”  County Counsel Jackie Haggerty was served with a subpoena  last week to provide tapes and notes taken during  executive sessions prompting an Unfair Labor Practice  complaint filed by Teamsters 223 on behalf of the road  workers.

Producing energy from renewable sources is clearly a  growth industry judging from the number of federal agencies  receiving stimulus money dedicated to renewable energy  and carbon neutrality.

While rural America is not a direct  recipient of most of the stimulus money, especially in  Oregon where it is being divvied out to more populous  areas, being able to produce energy locally opens the door  for indirect investment.  Developing manufacturing capability for solar and wind  generators on the South Coast allows public agencies to  spend their stimulus dollars here bringing in badly needed  outside capital.

Still, as written here before the real opportunity  in renewable energy is in the ongoing production and  sale of electricity.  It is this concept that motivated the development of the  Western Oregon Wind Project to help earn additional revenue  for local schools. Once again I want to personally  thank Congressman Peter DeFazio for supporting this project  and encourage everyone reading this to call or write the  Congressman or stop by The Sentinel and sign a letter of  support for this project.  Despite the tremendous potential of renewable energy it  is important to understand that clean storage technology  must be developed to fully capitalize upon clean energy.

Clean storage, the ability to capture power from clean  sources for later use, is the proverbial ‘holy grail’ of the  renewable energy industry.  Presently, renewable energy must be used, stored in batteries  or lost or fed back into the centralized grid as a credit  against future use. Using a coal-powered grid for clean  energy storage is counter-intuitive. For quite some time I  have been working to acquire the rights to an emerging  clean storage system to replace batteries and this week  made significant progress in that direction.  Ultra-capacitors are a clean storage source capable of millions  of charge and discharge cycles, utilize organic electrolytes  and dielectrics and unlike batteries need never to be  replaced. A capacitor roughly the size of refrigerator could  store sufficient power from clean sources to run an average  home for almost a week.

The capacitor technology will not be available for a couple  of years but I hope that it is encouraging to devotees of  renewable energy to know great strides have been made in  this area. With luck and perseverance the Southern Oregon  Coast may be a leader in the implementation of this technology  as well as wide scale distributed energy.

by Mary Geddry

Congressman Peter DeFazio received 200 appropriations  requests for the 4th District totaling $200M and last week  submitted 62 projects totaling $71M to the House  Appropriations Committee.

Four requests from Coos  County made it to committee.  The Port of Coos Bay submitted four requests only one  was chosen for Dredging and Jetty Repair for $5,091,000  reduced from the original request of $13, 625,000.  South Coast Interagency Narcotics Team requested  $600,000 to hire three detectives and support staff to maintain  ongoing SCINT activities.  Coos Historical and Maritime Center requested $780,000  for construction of a new waterfront community center and  walkway.

The WOW (Western Oregon Wind) filed with Operation  Coquille for $2,000,000 to create regional energy independence  and build a diversified, sustainable economic template  for coastal communities that will be driven by a clean,  renewable energy source. The WOW creates new jobs and  saves existing jobs and will provide $2,000,000 additional  revenue for local schools.  Please send Congressman DeFazio a big thank you for  supporting local schools and taking this request to committee.

On Wednesday, April Fools Day, Commissioner Kevin  Stufflebean must either resign his position or file a letter of  justification with Coos County Clerk Terri Turi triggering a  special election to be held May 5. Stufflebean has publicly  stated he will not resign and The Sentinel has requested an  official statement.

According to the recall committee Citizens for Fair and  Open Government, headed by former Roadmaster Larry  Van Elsberg, a recall had been under consideration for some  time but it was the 11th hour layoff of 22 road workers  from the County Road Department on New Year’s Eve that  pushed the committee to action.

Earlier, after an executive  session, then Commissioner John Griffith along with Nikki  Whitty and Stufflebean voted to ‘reorganize’ the department  despite adequate funding through the current budget year  and with no warning to the employees or the Teamsters  Union.

For weeks, citizens stood before the Board during regular  commission meetings and citing public safety concerns  pleaded with the Board to reconsider. So many people came  each week that Whitty was prompted to use a timer, limiting  public participation to three minutes further infuriating  the public. Newly elected Commissioner Bob Main twice  made a motion to reinstate the road crew through June  when their contracts were up to allow for public input and  both times Whitty and Stufflebean let the motion die.

The two incumbent commissioners claim there was ample  time for public input and cited December 3, 16 and 31 as  dates the matter was discussed. Citizens present during  these meetings remember nothing to indicate 60% of the  road department was about to be laid off and the Board was  accused of speaking in code to deliberate obscure their  actions from the public. This perceived opacity on the part  of the Board is the main premise of the recall effort.

An unexpected consequence of the layoff and the manner in  which the Board handled it prompted Teamsters Union 223  representing the road crew to file an Unfair Labor Practices  Complaint with the Oregon Employment Relations Board.  That complaint has been accepted by the Administrative  Law Judge and will be heard at the end of June. Should the  ULP prevail it could cost the County in excess of $650,000  in back wages and benefits with no services rendered. The  County has paid over $15,000 in legal fees to outside labor  attorneys.

Amidst public outcry questioning whether 14 people can  handle 600 miles of county roads Stufflebean, who acted as  interim roadmaster after Van Elsberg resigned April of  2007, claimed an analysis had been done and the new  department would be more efficient and would easily handle  critical road safety functions. After repeated attempts by  The Sentinel to obtain copies of the analysis it was  acknowledged that no written analysis existed adding fuel  to committee assertions the road department reorganization  was ill conceived and put the public at risk.

The recent drowning death of 88 year-old Dean Caudle  after trying to drive through 4’ of water on Arago Fishtrap  Road had new Roadmaster John Rowe scrambling to  explain why barriers closing off the road were not put up  until after Caudle drowned. Former road worker Dennis  Backman said this was, “…the type of thing we were afraid  would happen.”