I was shocked to learn that Bainbridge Downtown Business Association Director Andrea Mackin sent out a March 29 member newsletter misstating that RAiSE, an island community advocacy group, opposes PSE’s efforts to poll the community’s opinion on three proposed options to build new infrastructure.
In fact, RAiSE (Reliable and Safe Electricity for Bainbridge Island) asked BIDA to inform its members of PSE’s revised 2011 construction plans to build four miles of redundant high-voltage transmission lines along Wyatt Way, Madison Avenue, Wallace Way, High School Road, Finch Avenue, Fletcher Bay Road and State Route 305.
RAiSE has concerns that PSE’s transmission loop project will not solve 90 percent of our heavily treed island’s outages problem.
The $4 million-plus seven percent interest price tag and the one less outage for every 2.5 years that PSE’s plan will provide, does not justify the costs to the devaluation of property, huge impact to our environmental landscape, and concerns of electromagnetic field health dangers from high-voltage lines placed in highly populated areas and near our children’s schools.
RAiSE asks city leaders and PSE to be forward thinking and evaluate alternative technologies and backup power options to address our outages problem.
Patty Fielding, president of the Bainbridge Island School District Board, and Supt. Faith Chapel have also denied RAiSE’s requests since October 2009 to bring the issue to the attention of parents of school- age children or to add RAiSE’s April 6 community event to the district’s newsletter community calendars.
RAiSE is confident that if tax-subsidized groups such as BIDA and BISD would stop interfering with allowing its constituents access to learn about the important issues of the day, islanders are smart enough to make up their own minds. After all, islanders are BIDA and BISD’s customers, aren’t we?
Only with community pressure can we get a more effective, safer solution with less impact to our island environment. Learn more about the issues at raisebi.org.
Attend the community event hosted by RAiSE on April 6 at 7 p.m. at Bainbridge Library with City Council members attending. Attend one of PSE’s open houses. Make your voice count with PSE’s “poll.”
Laurie Rice
RAiSE member and pare
