Turbine company opens office on Colfax Main Street

COLFAX - An international company seeking to build wind turbines in Whitman County opened a local office at 119 S. Main St. on Thursday, Sept. 5.

"This is for us to be more engaged with the community," Harvest Hills Wind Project Director Shane Roche of Steelhead said. "This is a good spot for us to be able to work from when we're out here."

Steelhead Americas is a division of the international Vestas Corp. of Aarhus, Denmark, which has an American branch based in Portland, Ore.

Angellic Root, 23, born in Colfax and raised in Endicott, was outside the new office the first day it opened, reading a sign about the project.

"The more I learn about it and hear about it, the more I don't like it," Root said, noting she does not understand the need to destroy nature just for turbines.

She's not alone.

The local not-for-profit group Save the Palouse group is opposing the company's plans for wind turbines around Kamiak Butte.

"They have the right to have an office there," Save the Palouse member Tom Thompson said, noting the project is not a done deal until turbines go up.

Thompson said local officials should stand up and actively oppose the project.

"We have 3,000 signatures from people that have lived here one time or another saying no," turbine opponent Boyd Jeffries of Colfax said.

Roche said the company plans to submit an application for the project to the county early next year.