No on 14-55: But not a ‘yes’ to Nestlé

However, Measure 14-55 is a flawed idea that amounts to ideological micromanagement. It’s a template placed over a specific issue, and changing the county charter to deal with this particular case has that throwing-away-the-baby-with-the springwater feel.

Opponents to 14-55 are justified in saying it deprives the community of local control, but that is not the total picture.

Cascade Locks leaders should have learned from the casino experience of 10-15 years ago not to put all your chips on one number. But it seems that its leaders put excessive stock in Nestlé as the solution to all Cascade Locks’ problems, just as the casino plan had mistakenly been seen as the economic savior for the town. Nestlé spokesman Dave Palais first arrived in town in 2008, and not much has actually happened or changed beyond a lot of local discussion and some major changes at the state level that put the proposal a step backward. Like the casino idea, the Nestlé proposal is a deeply complex one, and not universally favored among constituents.

Pleading that the town’s lifeblood depends on tapping a pristine water source has always felt somewhat desperate, and given that the hydrological source of the water that the city does control starts well outside the city boundaries, it pushes the boundary of the local control argument. In other words, Cascade Locks leaders should think seriously about the 14-55 supporters’ argument that there is a broader geographical interest in the fate of the Oxbow Springs water than just Cascade Locks.

Further, let us be clear about the argument that the water should be bottled to prevent it being “wasted.” Tell that to your average working class salmon. Our wildlife species and the environment itself depend on springs, creeks and tributaries feeding the main waterways.

So while 14-55 is not the best way to legislate against a controversial resource use proposal, that is not to say that the idea of bottling that water and trucking it far away is in the best interests of Cascade Locks or the Gorge in general.

In the years since the casino proposal finally went away, Cascade Locks has had opportunities for economic development in the form of new companies bringing new jobs, but other than an expansion of Bear Mountain Products and the arrival of Thunder Island Brewing, Brigham Fish Market, Jumping Jax Espresso, the pending Heuker family project and The Renewal Workshop, little new has happened in the past three years.

The community had Puff Factory poised to settle in Cascade Locks, but that one got away. Odell will be an overall better fit, but who knows what might have happened with some more effort by Cascade Locks in the right way to woo Puff Factory? What might the result have been if all that focus had stayed on ensuring the investment by that locally-sourced, earth-friendly employer? In terms of job numbers and wage scale, it would have matched what Nestlé offers.

Like any small rural community, Cascade Locks does not need one big employer, it needs several small- to medium-sized ones, and while Measure 14-55 may not become the law of the land, it is not too late for Cascade Locks to earnestly look at the Nestlé idea and ask if instead it should poise itself with a selection of smaller, more earth-friendly businesses, in particular ones that tap into the community’s geographic splendor and growing role as a recreation destination.