By BENNETT HALL
MILL CITY - All Shelly Wilson wanted for Christmas was to get the power back on in her trailer. But she had to wait a long time for that little bit of holiday cheer to arrive.
"I've been without power for two weeks," Wilson said this week.
The lights went off in the rented mobile home at 640 S.W. Fairview on Dec. 22, when a winter storm knocked out electricity to much of Mill City.
Wilson was spending Christmas at her dad's house in Idanha with her husband, Michael, and their four young children, so she didn't worry about it. But when the family returned home Dec. 26, they found their place still dark even though all the neighbors had their power back.
It turns out a falling tree had taken out the power line to the Wilsons' trailer and knocked off the conduit where the wires connect to the meter and junction box. A substantial repair job was required.
So she called her landlord, Corvallis-based Bula Enterprises, and ran into a roadblock. As previously reported in the Democrat-Herald, the company has racked up a lengthy record of complaints about long waiting times for repairs.
Wilson says she spoke with Michelle Schoning, who co-owns the business with her husband, Kip.
"Her words were 'I don't know if I can get an electrician out there because of the holiday,'" Wilson recalled. "I said, 'This is an emergency!'"
Wilson did some research and called the Bula office back the same morning with names and phone numbers of three electricians in the area. One, Mark Griswold of Lyons, called Bula with a bid the next day and offered to do the work right then, but the company wanted to wait.
"They were kind of shopping around for a cheap electrician," Wilson said.
That was Dec. 27, a Saturday. Griswold said he called the Bula office again to schedule a repair call for the following Monday but got no response.
"I would call and leave messages, and they wouldn't get returned," Griswold said. "This went on for a couple of days."
Finally, on the afternoon of Wednesday, Dec. 31, Griswold got the green light. But by then he had other jobs lined up and didn't want to work New Year's Day, so it was Friday, Jan. 2, before he made the repairs - a full week after Wilson reported the problem to her landlord.
That kind of delay is highly unusual, Griswold said - most landlords he works with respond quickly to emergency outages.
"It's a three-day turnaround, maximum," he said. "Usually it's one day."
In general, the Oregon Landlord-Tenant Law gives landlords 48 hours to fix any interruption of "essential services" such as electricity.
Even after the repairs were done, Wilson's troubles still weren't over. Because of a paperwork mixup and other problems over the weekend, it was late Wednesday afternoon before a Linn County inspector finally signed off on Griswold's work and a Pacific Power repair crew reconnected her trailer to the electrical grid.
"Finally!" Wilson said. "We get to go home." She and her family have been bunking in the basement bedroom of her father's house, but she said his patience was beginning to fray.
The Wilsons are running out of patience, too, but their options are limited. They say they're looking for a new rental but don't have the money to move. Both are unemployed and living on public assistance while Shelly takes classes at a community college and Michael works toward his GED.
Phone messages left at the Bula Enterprises office and the Schonings' home were not returned Wednesday.