Why can’t OPALCO be more like the town? | Letters

My wife and I live in the town of Friday Harbor. Our monthly water/sewer bill has a “base” rate charge... Why can’t this same scenario be used by OPALCO?

I have two questions for OPALCO. The first is for board member Bob Myhr.

When he was on the San Juan County Council (2005-2010) and, at the same time, on the OPALCO board, why didn’t he excuse himself when the cell phone task force was making its recommendation to the county board?

He clearly (in my humble opinion) was against advancing cell phone reach throughout the county.

I submit that his “No” vote on wireless technology improvements was a conflict of interest given his being an OPALCO board member. Even in 2007 it was widely known cell phones would do far more than just make telephone calls.

Was Bob really concerned about undocumented health and unsightly cell tower (BTW: each OPALCO electric pole is in essence a tower) concerns or was he privy for what was to come down the road from his OPALCO board position?

For the record, I am all in on OPALCO’s expanding internet access throughout the county. I just wish Bob Myhr had been more transparent.

The second question has to do with OPALCO’s electricity rates. My wife and I live in the town of Friday Harbor. Our monthly water/sewer bill has a “base” rate charge.

Within this base rate is an allowance of gallons of water. Using any or all of that allowance and your base rate remains the same. Exceed the allowance and you pay per gallon.

Why can’t this same scenario be used by OPALCO? Within its base rate it would be very appreciated for those of us living full time in San Juan County if we got X-number of kilowatts of electricity within the base rate.

Obviously the infrastructure requires everyone to contribute (pay) for the convenience of having a light turn on when needed.  It would be a useful conversation to adjust the base rate charge to provide some measure of service. Just saying…

Bill Wertz/Friday Harbor