September 25, 2008
Thursday

The hedonistic clouds parted for the day in Ketchikan's Daily News [9/22/ 08], the weekend edition article entitled, 'Timing is perfect for Stedman.' Thank you Mr. Stedman; your clear and honest disclosure is refreshing and should be alarming; quoting Bert Stedman - 'it appears Ketchikan's power needs will exceed the excess power available from the Tyee Lake power plan within five years' end quote... the Intertie won't be able to support us, get it? Won't be enough left to heat that big new swimming pool, or the city's shiny new library... and us poor folks out here huddled around our Chinese manufactured electric space heaters, when the lights dim, just remember... don't bring in the BBQ.

Got 38 gallons of fuel oil for $4.60/gallon last week [$175], but happy that we can still get oil up here on the rock. Oil, fuel, and food barged in from the south is going to become more precious, but we'll have that new library... and a book comes to mind; Isaac Asimov's 'Foundation'; we should name the Mahoney Lake hydroelectric project, 'The Foundation', because it might be what saves our collective bacon. Anyone with a pulse should log on to Yahoo/Google and read the many Swan vs. Mahoney power project meeting minutes and Southeast Alaska Intertie Project reports. It really is a matter of our survival, not just a nice weekend hot tub for the few. That "lipstick on a pig" cliché pales in comparison to our dilemma described in our children's Grimm's fable, 'three little pigs and the wolf'.

The sunshine we didn't get this summer, might be a sign to tighten our belt and start preparing for the wolf; will it hurt or help to have Mahoney Lake, just five miles away, "hydroelectric plant on line" vs. "Swan Lake", 57 miles away, supporting Wrangell, Petersburg and... who's the highest bidder? Canada... the lower 48? The shelved Mahoney Lake power project should be at the very top of our borough's and city's priority... first and foremost to heat all our homes, and then to power any future industry, with enough left over to heat that new pool and library when we get around to them lesser, non-life supporting, would be nice, projects. Future inhabitants, them folks wanting to come here and buy real estate, new businesses ventures, our tourism industry, and not forgetting [again] the ordinary local citizens, the folks with families who deserve to have a government that will be working for them.

Ken Bylund,
Ketchikan, AK

Received September 23, 2008 - Published September 25, 2008

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