PUD plans for Similkameen a boondoggle

Dear Editor,

Did you know the PUD is carrying a $39 million debt? This year we will pay a debt service of $3.5 million, $1.5 million toward principle and $1.9 million in interest. The 2012 budget will spend $2.7 million on the Enloe Dam Proposal, mostly on outside consultants and engineering firms. How many millions of our dollars have been spent since 2005 when this latest plan was hatched? Imagine if all those millions had been applied toward principle on the $39 million we owe.

The risk of borrowing $30-$40 million for a new powerhouse at Enloe Dam on top of $39 million already owed will double the PUD debt, increase debt service fees to $7 million annually, could raise our rates higher, and will negatively impact our tourism, fisheries and recreation, and leave us all poorer than we are now. Does this proposal make economic sense to ratepayer? No!

The Chinook Salmon and upper Columbia Steelhead running strong, and a wild Similkameen River flowing beside the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail will benefit Oroville and Okanogan County far more than a powerhouse at Enloe Dam. All the issues of water temperature and dissolved gases are solved by no powerhouse and improved planting of more trees to shade the water and provide habitat for birds, insects and other biodiversity.

More energy would be made available by improved insulation, more efficient heating/cooling systems and better insulated doors/windows, than this power plant will produce. The PUD has a low interest loan program of up to $10,000 available for energy savings investments like windows, heat pumps, solar and wind systems. It is low interest, paid back over five years and could transform residences and businesses into power producers feeding energy back into the grid. Our PUD is not required by I-937 to produce 15 percent of its energy from green sources until we grow from 20,000 meters currently to 25,000 meters which is many years ahead. By then, energy efficiency, solar and wind will meet our needs without this very expensive, burdensome project.

Joseph Enzensperger

Oroville

Gun sales a slap in the face

Dear Editor,

Just a heartfelt comment about the executive privilege initiated by Obama regarding the Congressional hearings involving the Department of Justice and particularly, Attorney General Holder. Fast and Furious guns have killed not only border patrol agent Brian Terry and many Mexican citizens, but also possibly ICE agent Jaime Zapata. The Department of Justice’s refusal to provide the most important documents required to determine the truth about who authorized Fast and Furious gun sales to the Zetas Drug Cartel is a slap in the face to every American who has ever served in law enforcement as well as every individual who cherishes truth and justice.

At this moment, we should look long and hard at what the real reason is for Obama to declare executive privilege in this matter. The most likely reason — that the President himself had knowledge of the gun sales to criminals.

Mitch Spears

Nighthawk

Can’t mend a broken heart

Dear Editor,

You cannot mend a broken heart! They will tell you that you can. Time will heal. It is all a lie! Those that have had their hearts broken, their souls ripped from their bodies, all they love and treasured destroyed in one faulty moment will tell you it is not true! We will continue our lives, those of us wounded beyond help, continue to appear normal, all is well, but inside we continue to bleed, hemorrhage, unbeknownst to the outside world. Walking shells of our former selves. Life more meaningless than before. We laugh, work, carry on as though all is well but in the late night hours it all comes to a head again and again. We hemorrhage tears, sobs of uncontrollable grief, no silence for us, no helping hand as none could console us. Our souls reaching out for those we have lost. Still needing, wanting, moments in time.

What of the world? What of us, you would ask, perhaps in a moment of concerned interest. Is there not a way to reverse this? Yes we would answer. Reverse time, bring back all we have lost, let us begin again before all was taken from us! Let us breathe again! Our grief is like a prison! Release us!

Hold your arms out to me! Begin again! Why did you leave me behind so broken! Unable to move! Unable to feel, breathe, function! Did you really think I would be okay? You feel n pain now. Weightless. Pure energy. A soul drifting toward eternity. I cannot see, hear or fell you now in this life of mine I must continue alone. I need to hear your voice, have your arms around me, smell you, taste you, feel your warmth against me, your love engulfing me. My rock, my escape from all this madness we call our life but you’re not here! I have no escape now. Only my nonstop grief and pain in my heart. Tears are easy now. I was never one to cry before but a broken heart will do this to you I suppose. Do you see? Do you hear me where you are? Continue your journey without me for now but I will join you someday and my soul will be whole again as our souls merge as one.

I’ll be okay they tell me.

In memory of my beloved Ken,

Vivian Taylor,

Oroville