Reaffirmation that the Klamath County Board of Commissioners opposes Klamath Dam Removal

find videos of KCBOC meetings: http://www.klamathcounty.org/commissioners/weekly_meetings.asp

Tom Mallams, former Klamath County Commissioner and Beatty rancher, addresses the board, and response by Klamath County Commissioner Minty Morris

"... however I've had a number of calls and emails after Gerry O'Brien's article of January 7th mentioning the new board is not going to oppose dam removal; people had a lot of questions about that. I asked Gerry O'Brien about it and he wasn't sure when that actually happened. The only thing he mentioned was that Commissioner Boyd had mentioned the ship had sailed or something like that, and there was no point doing anything there.

I strongly disagree with that. In Washington D.C. the common comment was, over and over,

every time I've been back there, the only reason dam removal in the proposed agreements haven't gone forward was because of the lack of local support from both the elected and the citizens themselves. And I'm reminded of the 80% in Siskiyou County against dam removal and 73% in Klamath County against also.

As we speak right now there are pro dam removal people in Washington D.C. saying that the Klamath County Board of Commissioners are no longer opposing dam removal. That's nothing unusual; they do that on a regular basis but this gives them an extra tool I guess to claim that the board is not opposing dam removal any longer.

I do appreciate the conversation I had with Commissioner Morris and Commissioner DeGroot yesterday on this issue and a lot of clarification you gave me, so I really appreciate that.

And believe it or not I'm not hear to criticize, I think we all want the best for Klamath County. I'm not here throwing rocks or anything; if I was going to do that I'd have a lot more people here. I'm just here by myself as one citizen bringing this up.

Just for clarification I'm here to remind you that all three of you when you campaigned you said you were against dam removal. I'm here to remind you that the advisory ballot that all three of you did oppose, that was very definitely against dam removal. 

An interesting sidenote is that even after this is probably going forward here the media brought this up, but the media has been very definitely silent on this neutral position.

And the last reminder, this is still considered cattle country, an old saying says, "being neutral is like voluntarily being castrated." And I want the commissioners to have a very strong voice.

Thank you for your time."

Commissioner 52:29 Kelley Minty Morris: "Commissioner Mallams, it's great to see you again and nice to chat with you yesterday. As you know, the formal commitment of the Klamath County Board of Commissioners has been against dam removal and there have been no efforts by this board to change that so, I would say, it's status quo right now." .....

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