This letter is meant to add some perspective to Darrell Kirk’s Dec. 2 article about the unpermitted wireless tower Rock Island erected without the owners’ permission. We are the immediately adjacent homeowners; the tower sits just across the property line and its equipment spills across onto and dug into our property, all less than 250 feet from the front door of our home. When we purchased our property in 2016 and started building our home, we didn’t find any records of a proposed wireless facility near our home site. Imagine our surprise and horror at finding a huge hole in the ground and Rock Island construction crews on one of our home construction visits. Then imagine the additional surprise when we learned the neighbors also hadn’t given permission for the tower.

We never thought Rock Island would just install a wireless facility without any permission from anyone, so we initially tried to be good neighbors even when they said we couldn’t park in part of our driveway because it blocked their access. As an aside, they never explained why they needed to use our private, dirt road and property to access the tower when it already had a paved road to that property from the other side.

When they expanded operations in 2023 without even asking us, and when it was far more intrusive than they predicted, we dug further into the details. We confirmed that Rock Island has no easement to use our property. When we explained this, they indicated that when we became members of their parent entity, OPALCO, we gave them control over our property to use as they deemed fit. They even threatened to shut off our electricity if we declined to let them use our property and the private road that leads to it.

So with no other option, we’ve been forced to hire an attorney and sue Rock Island to stop them from trespassing across our property to access an unpermitted wireless compound with no notice and no easements.

Is this what it means to be a member of our island electricity Co-op?

Norma and George Andreadis

San Juan Island