Richard Jolly, the man who filed the Goal 5 amendment aimed to disallow windmills in a 200,000 acre area of the Blue Mountains, may re-file his amendment.

Jolly said he wanted to rewrite it to include more than just the viewshed, which was the basis of his Goal 5 amendment addressed by the Umatilla County Planning Commission at its last two meetings. The proposal has flared up opinions on both sides - those who want to preserve the beauty of the Blues without wind farms, and those who want a chance to get their share of the wind energy gold rush by putting windmills on their land, or at least having the option to.

At this third meeting, to be held Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Umatilla County Justice Center in Pendleton, Commission Chairman Gary Rhinhart had promised citizens would get to speak first. In past meetings, experts and county officials have taken up much of the commission's time.

But if Jolly withdraws his ammendment, it's unclear if it will even be on the commission's agenda.

When he filed his Goal 5 ammendment last spring, he thought he would be able to make changes to it.

As he's worked his way through the process, Jolly said he learned many of the things he wanted addressed would actually be discussed in the second phase of the Goal 5 process, called an ESEE, or economic, social, environmental and energy study. Before that happens, the commission has to designate the area "significant."

It's been up to Jolly and the group, Blue Mountain Alliance, to prove that.

Jolly said he'd been told that if his Goal 5 amendment were rejected by the commission - if they didn't find it significant - he would have to wait a year before he could file again. Rather than doing that, Jolly is working to find out if he can withdraw the current proposal, rework it, and submit a new one.

"We need to restart the whole process again," he said.

Jolly said by Tuesday, he hopes to have things figured out, and have decided whether or not he will file a new amendment or not.

The East Oregonian was unable to contact Umatilla County Planning Director Tamra Mabbott or Rhinhart by press time.