Quit funding wars, and start focusing on tsunami cleanup
There are two recent articles I feel to compelled to comment on. The Compass piece Friday was incredibly heartbreaking. Life along the Alaska coast is going to be devastated for years because of the raft of toxic waste from the tsunami in Japan. The food chain will be inedible for years to come because of this. What is even worse is the fact that the current administration in Washington has sat on their hands while it is befouling our coastline. A call to Sen. Begich's office yielded a letter written to Obama with clear frustration that nothing is being done. We are destroying our planet and the precious resources that feed us. Call Washington and demand that funding for foreign wars stop and money made available to NOAA for cleanup.
As far as a litter-free Anchorage, ha. The trash problem has gotten worse because of the mass exodus North with resource rakers that don't care. They ruined the Lower 48, now it's our turn; and they wonder why we don't want Pebble?
-- Liz Bowen
Anchorage
Bush Alaska greatly in need of alternative energy sources
I agree with much of Sean Cockerham's article on May 25 on the Bush energy crisis.
I have been working on these problems for years. I am concerned for the original Alaskans. I have worked on hydro, gas, and electricity transmission for 50 years and I am innovative. There are means of solving many of these problems more economically. I foresee the time when we will not be able to finance our wasteful ways.
All we need is a $40 to $50 drop in the value of our oil and the lack of new development to see a reduction in the population in Alaska.
I see so much wasteful use of your paper, writing about opinions and not addressing facts. So I am sending you a short discussion on solutions to go in your opinion section.
I have individually spent much time and money trying to help Alaskans have a better future. So I am glad to discuss this personally in detail whenever you wish.
P.S. -- I am an owner of the only small hydro selling power to the Railbelt and am building the South Fork project as we speak.
-- Earle V. Ausman, PE , president
Polarconsult Alaska, Inc.
Anchorage
Bigger Rabbit Creek church won't be good for community
Concerned residents on Rabbit Creek Road, have you seen the signs? The Rabbit Creek Community Church wants to expand ... again, nearly doubling the size of their current building, 12 new classrooms, lockers, auditorium and "ponding" coffee/teachers lounge.
The community needs to decide if this $5 million expansion at the base of the steep hill on Rabbit Creek Road is a safe place for a facility that can hold at least 200 children. (They want to expand from 250 members to over 750 members). The neighbors on lower Rabbit Creek Road say "no" because they have cleaned up their share of spectacular car wrecks, moose kills and pileups. If you come down that hill, you will be impacted. There are no traffic control lights (yet), no turn lanes, no water and no sewer facilities.
Email: rabbitcrneighbors@gmail.com for more information on how you can help stop this project.
It's your community; help preserve it.
-- Cheryl Robinson
Anchorage
Contact assembly person and ask about cost of fair election
Ten citizens of Anchorage paid the municipality $1,500 for a hand recount of 15 precincts as required under municipal law. The municipality did not follow the letter of the law in that recount. Those same ten citizens have asked for a records request of those 15 precincts. The municipality has estimated the cost for these public records at $40 an hour and print costs for a total of $8.500.
If ten citizens have to pay $1,000 a head, what is the cost to get a fair election?
I urge everyone to contact their elected Assembly person and ask.
-- Wendy Isbell, volunteer election worker,
Anchorage