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Humphrey, who was instructed to give top priority to getting Dooley on
board.
At first, Humphrey's efforts to befriend Dooley got him nowhere. She
refused to even give him the time of day. How could Humphrey win Dooley
over if she wouldn't even chat with him? He knew that he had to be more
creative if he were to have any chance of succeeding. Humphrey started
dropping by Dooley's home with small, insignificant gifts and trying to get
just a few words in at the doorstep. Some attempts were more successful
than others, but Humphrey persevered.
Then, somewhat to Humphrey's surprise, Dooley started to soften. When
Humphrey stopped by on wintry days, she began inviting him to come
inside her humble ranch home to get out of the wind and cold. There,
Humphrey would sit and listen to Dooley tell stories of “the way it was” in
Goldendale decades ago and how the community had changed. Humphrey
complimented her on her garden. He asked her about her family. He spent
quality time with her and gradually became her friend.
Somewhere along the line, Dooley became convinced that Humphrey
was not visiting her purely so that he could induce her to execute a
wind energy lease with Cannon. It was at this point that she expressed a
willingness to sign.
Dooley ultimately became the single biggest landowner involved in
Cannon's wind farm project. Humphrey continued to visit her often, even
long after wind turbines had sprouted up on her land. Dooley passed away
in 2013 at the age of 97, but her legacy and name live on in Goldendale. As
an expression of gratitude, Cannon named one of the project's transmission
substations in her honor.
Building community support
As difficult as it was to get some landowners to execute wind energy leases,
Cannon knew the greatest opposition it would face in trying to develop a
wind farm in Klickitat County was not likely to come from its own lessors.
Once these landowners signed wind energy leases with Cannon, they
generally became ardent supporters of the project and pushed for its speedy
completion so that they could begin collecting lease income. Instead, the
most difficult opposition Cannon was likely to face was destined to come
from neighbors and other outsiders—individuals and groups who feared
that Cannon's project would not create any net benefits for them. These
outsiders had no prospect of receiving monthly rent checks under wind
energy leases and thus had far fewer reasons to support Cannon in its
goals.
In Klickitat County, neighbors and other citizens vastly outnumbered
the small group of landowners who would be signing leases with Cannon.
Without adequate support from these outsiders, Cannon's project stood
little chance of getting of of the drawing board. What could Cannon do to
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