Lane board majority discloses accepting campaign contributions from rock quarry applicant Ed King

By DOUG BATES/Editor/The Herald — Despite yet another flood of public opposition, Lane County commissioners kept a business mogul’s Oakridge quarry project alive Tuesday, even as a majority of them disclosed financial and personal ties to the man. The revelations came on the advice of legal counsel as board members sat through two more hours of impassioned testimony against the project that wealthy winery owner Ed King III has been pushing for the past six years.

Board Chairman Joe Berney was the only commissioner who said he has never accepted campaign cash from King or had any personal connections with him.

But board members Pat Farr, Heather Buch and Laurie Trieger, speaking on the advice of lawyers, all disclosed that their campaigns had received money from King and that they had previous personal connections with him through his charitable activities on boards of directors. In declaring their potential conflict of interest, all three said they have not been in contact with King and could remain unbiased in ruling on the quarry controversy.

Oregon law requires public officials to make such declarations before taking action on legislative matters in which they have a potential conflict of interest.

The fifth county commissioner, Jay Bozievich, who like Farr has voted twice in support of King’s quarry proposal, was not present at Tuesday’s hearing. Buch and Trieger are new to the board but were aware of King’s project when they accepted his contributions.

At the end of Tuesday’s outpouring of testimony, which included not a single public comment in favor of the quarry, the board voted 4-0 to close the hearing and keep the process going until August.

An Oakridge-Westfir group called Save TV Butte has been fighting the Old Hazeldell Quarry proposal since 2015, when King, the co-founder of King Estates winery near Eugene, applied to have the county rezone the Oakridge landmark from forestland to mining use. County commissioners have twice supported King’s request, and the opponents have twice won appeals that led to Tuesday’s remand hearing. It produced several important headlines:

Mayor introduces City of Oakridge letter of opposition

Tuesday morning, Oakridge Mayor Kathy Holston read into the record a formal letter approved by unanimous vote of the city council last Thursday, April 29:

“The City Council has an ethical and legal responsibility to ensure that our citizens receive an adequate supply of safe drinking water free from contaminants, clean air free from silica dust, acceptable noise levels, suitable livability, and safety on our roads. We believe that we have a community to protect. Allowing a mining quarry on the very edge of our city limits will negatively impact Oakridge,” the letter states.

“It makes no sense to approve this land-use change giving the go-ahead to a quarry that will; pollute our air with silica dust; contaminate our water, threaten our rivers with runoff, impact our aquifer and threaten our wildlife inventory.”

City of Westfir adds its voice to opposition

“Allowing a quarry to be built in neighboring Oakridge would negatively impact Westfir,” said Westfir Mayor Melody Cornelius, reading from a letter from the city council, which voted Monday night to oppose the quarry site. “We are urging you, our elected commissioners, to courageously make a statement and to stand with the citizens of our community and your county.”

Big concern voiced for big game

Wildlife on TV Butte — especially Roosevelt elk and black-tail deer — featured heavily in opponents’ testimony Tuesday. Attorney Sean Malone, representing Save TV Butte, noted that the county has received a letter from the Oregon Department of Wildlife saying the quarry operation would increase the mortality of these big-game species, decrease their birth rate and force their redistribution — all of which Malone argued was a “significant impact” over the proposed 50-year gravel mining operation.

A wildlife biologist hired by Crown Properties, King’s investment group, testified that there would be no significant impact on wildlife on the butte.

More opposition from community leaders

Several Oakridge-Westfir business people and civic leaders added their voices Tuesday to those who have testified against the quarry previously. Besides Cornelius, the mayor of Westfir, they included Michelle Emmons McPharlin, co-owner of an outdoor recreation business and a High Prairie guest house; Eugene Cathcart, an Oakridge business property owner and bike shop manager, and McKenzie Bowerman, owner of Cathcart’s mountain bike and outdoor store.

All objected to the quarry on grounds that it would diminish the community’s attraction as an outdoor recreation destination while seriously harming the town’s air quality, wildlife, groundwater and quality of life. They and others said the county should require an analysis of the environmental, social, economic and energy impacts of the quarry proposal — a procedures King and his team have resisted.

“This is not the time for mountaintop removal on a highly visible landmark,” said Bowerman.

Supportive comments from commissioners

All three county commissioners who have never previously voted on the quarry rezoning made comments that gave hope to Save TV Butte supporters.

Berney, the board chair, said he “can’t see going forward” without the ESEE (environmental-social-economic-energy) analysis demanded by several opponents.

Buch said she questions the county counsel’s legal opinion that commissioners may consider only groundwater contamination, not depletion, in the remand hearing. She said she has experienced water-well shortages and is not convinced groundwater depletion by the quarry should be off-limits for discussion.

Trieger voiced concern that silica-dust mitigation appeared to be limited to wind velocity in the quarry proposal. What about wind direction? She asked for more information about that.

What’s next?

Although commissioners voted to close the public hearing Tuesday, the public record will remain open for written testimony until May 18. The deadline for replies to such testimony is June 1, and a final applicant rebuttal must be submitted by June 8. A fifth reading of the rezoning ordinance is set for Aug. 3, after which commissioners may deliberate to a decision.

Herald Editor Doug Bates is a retired newspaper journalist who lives in Oakridge.