Pique is such an ugly word

William Yardley has an article in The New York Times about the fall and potential rise of Shaniko, Oregon:

Robert Pamplin Jr. arrived in this lonesome fleck of the West nine years ago with a plan to renovate its tilting buildings and perhaps one day stage re-enactments of Oregon pioneer life. A wealthy art collector, ordained minister, and owner of a Civil War museum in Virginia, Mr. Pamplin said his love of history brought him to town. The two dozen or so residents of Shaniko, once a thriving railroad hub, would only benefit from his interest, he said.
Now this town, which long ago was reduced to marketing itself as an authentic ghost town, may remain one. Mr. Pamplin is threatening to leave and take his money with him because of the most Western of piques: his troubled water supply. He has already effectively halved Shaniko’s municipal revenue by stopping his monthly $4,000 donations. He has also put up for sale the most prominent structures in town, including a century-old hotel and cafe, a historic barn and an RV park. “He has lost confidence in the ability of the people there to run the town,” said Floyd Aylor, who oversees several of Mr. Pamplin’s enterprises, including a vast cattle ranch south of here.
Of course, not everyone in Shaniko thinks the town needs Mr. Pamplin. “I know, ‘Why not make the little rich man happy so he can help you with your town?’ ” said April Pitre, who runs a candy shop in the former City Hall, a building Mr. Pamplin helped restore. “No, no, no, no. This town is not for sale. It’s not for one man to take control of.”
For more than a century, Shaniko has relied on freshwater springs for its public water. The springs sufficed in the 19th century when sheepherders and cattle ranchers got into gunfights over grazing rights; it sufficed when the railroad arrived and the population rose to several hundred people, and later when the railroad moved away and the people did, too.
But not long after he renovated the hotel and other structures, Mr. Pamplin, 67, decided he needed more water and assurances that it would be clean. The municipal water supply has long been fragile; if its use goes up too fast, the pressure drops and the water becomes vulnerable to contamination. So Mr. Pamplin had a well dug near the old barn. Residents were stunned at what happened next: water gushed up at more than 250 gallons per minute. “He got more water than they’d ever seen,” said Keith Mobley, a lawyer who grew up on a ranch north of town and represented Shaniko in some of its dealings with Mr. Pamplin. “He just has the magic touch.”
Still, Mr. Pamplin needed easements from the town to draw water to his properties. But the town, after consulting with the state, decided that the well should also serve the rest of Shaniko as the municipal water supply. The town said it would allow the easements if Mr. Pamplin also contributed $2,000 a month for five years to help pay for operating the system. An agreement appeared to be in place.
But there was a hitch. Mr. Pamplin asked the town to allow an unspecified amount of residential development, ostensibly to provide housing for workers at the hotel and cafe and elsewhere. Some accounts say he wanted to build up to 35 homes. A historic district could have been affected. New buildings might have blocked views of high-desert hills for the few homes here. “We were like, ‘What’s your plan? What’s your vision?’ ” said the town recorder, Debra Holbrook, who has led the opposition to Mr. Pamplin. “He would never tell us what his ultimate plan was.”
Early last year, the Shaniko City Council voted not to allow Mr. Pamplin to go forward with some of his plans. He responded by closing the hotel and cafe, capping the well, and putting up the “for sale” signs.
Mr. Pamplin, who lives in Lake Oswego, a suburb of Portland about a three-hour drive from here, could not be reached for comment. A lawyer for him, Richard Canaday, said Mr. Pamplin had only wanted the town “to commit to grow enough so that you can support yourself.”
Mr. Canaday pointed to Mr. Pamplin’s past generosity, including the $4,000 donations. (He said he had advised Mr. Pamplin to stop the payments because “it seemed to me that somebody might construe it as buying influence, and the one thing I know about my client is he’s as honest as the day is long.”)
Richard Roberts and his wife, Goldie, are among the residents who think it was a mistake not to come to terms with Mr. Pamplin. They run an ice cream parlor, perhaps the town’s most bustling business, in a building they lease from Mr. Pamplin. Mrs. Roberts, who is Shaniko’s mayor, said that she did not want to be interviewed for fear of a backlash from others in town, but that her husband expressed her views. Mr. Roberts said he hoped that Mr. Pamplin would return and uncap his well, “because I want to see something happen in this town besides nothing.”
Some residents noted that Mr. Pamplin had not listed the properties with a broker. Some suggested that the “for sale” signs were a bluff intended to press the town to see things his way. Mr. Aylor chuckled at that notion, saying his boss had “washed his hands” of Shaniko. Then again, Mr. Aylor conceded, the market for ghost towns is limited, particularly expensive ones. The asking price is $3.1 million for nearly everything, including the well. “It’s going to have to be someone who is really high on history,” he said.