Paisley votes down big change
A recall election pits small-town tradition against councilors working for growth
Friday, October 26, 2007
MATTHEW PREUSCH - The Oregonian
You can gripe about the price of hay or worry on the drought; heck, even take a dig at those city folks from Bend. But talk up big change in little Paisley and you've stepped in it, alright.
That's what three city councilors from the remote southeast Oregon town learned this week when voters recalled them after less than a year in office. The problem: advocating new development.
Nearly 83 percent of the city's voters, about 160 people, participated, and all three councilors were recalled by about a 3-2 ratio.
"The three individuals were trying to change everything, and when you get into a small town and try to change everything, you are going to have a lot of backfire," said Bob Davis, one of two remaining councilors, both of whom supported the recall.
The circumstance that led to the divisive vote are familiar ones in rural Oregon: The last mill is long gone, the good jobs left with it and what's left is a community struggling to hold on to what was while fearing what may come.
Since the late 1990s, when the population peaked at about 350, people have seeped away from the Chewaucan Valley just as sure as the waters of Summer Lake recede every August, leaving a cracked white playa that sends up boiling clouds of alkali dust.
At the center of town is a bluish, two-story stucco building that most agree is all that holds Paisley together. Paisley School's student-run radio station provides the only decent signal in the valley. And on winter nights, residents fill the old gym to see the Broncos run the parquet, their squeaking sneakers echoing in the wooden rafters.
But the school has fewer than 80 students and risks closing. The district currently has 13 tuition-paying students from across the globe -- Haiti, Mongolia, Ecuador -- to boost enrollment.
"Our eight-man football team hasn't played for two years now. Not enough students," said Ken Hamlington, one of the three recalled councilors.
If the school closes, students would have to be bused to Lakeview or Christmas Valley, each more than 60 miles away.
Hamlington and the other two -- Rose Bagley and Larry Duckworth -- took office less than a year ago with a promise to add at least 150 residents and 40 students to the town.
"We ran on a platform of economic development, creating jobs, bringing people into the community, and apparently I got voted out for the same reason," Duckworth said Thursday.
But the three rubbed many the wrong way for advocating controversial ideas -- such as the city taking over the nearby airport operated by Lake County -- in the face of public outcry. They also tossed around ideas like an assisted living facility, equestrian center, mini-mall, an RV park and an industrial park.
"It aggravated enough people that they said, 'This is bull.' And I agree with them," said Davis, who owns the Chewaucan Garage.
Those sort of plain-spoken opinions have led to some uncomfortable moments when folks gather for pizza at The Pioneer Saloon, with its 102-year-old bar shipped around Cape Horn, or pass through the squeaky screen door of the Paisley Mercantile for coffee or movie rentals.
"It's kind of like a dysfunctional family," Duckworth said. "You've got to live with them no matter what's going on."
Matthew Preusch: 541-382-2006; preusch@bendbroadband.com
©2007 The Oregonian
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