Council should 'stand firm'

The following letter, addressed to Mayor Margaret Black and King Township council, was submitted to the Sentinel for publication

I attended the last council meeting (April 28). The room was packed; the hallway was packed. It was too bad that the facility was not opened up in order to allow everyone in to witness the proceedings.

Of course, the reason for the large attendance was interest and concern over the possible location of a peaker plant in King.

Some councillors think they are in a tough position. Please help me understand how it is tough.

In October 2006, council passed a motion to the effect that King does not support the location of a generating plant within its borders. Now it seems impossible to restate that position.

The fact that council no longer seems able to stand firm on a motion not even two years old is telling the electorate that council no longer firmly supports the idea of opposing power generation in King. How could one think otherwise? It was, presumably, a wellinformed motion or it wouldn't have been passed. Our council is being so cautious regarding a motion at this stage. So what has changed?

At the time of the transformer issue, many said that to allow this was the thin end of the wedge. We were patted on the head and reassured that if we allowed this violation of our countryside, we would be "doing our fair share." This lack of immediate action has set the stage; for entirely the wrong scene. And no amount of hand wringing will change the play's conclusion.

"Fair" only works for distributing candy to children. "Fair" doesn't work for power generation or, by the way, highways, transmission lines, development, water diversion or any of those things required by an expanding population. I believe it is naive to think otherwise.

According to the advice of the Township's lawyer, if all six northern municipalities say "no" vociferously at this point, then it may make no difference. But to continue that line of reasoning, if five say "no" vociferously, and King says nothing, what message is that?

That thin end is about to get a lot bigger.

Carol Ann Trabert,

Pottageville