Sitka Visit
Dear Editor: I was fortunate to travel to your beautiful city last week. Nice friendly folks, lots of scenery and history. Went out to the Alaska Raptor Center, Totem Park, Fortress of the Bear (saw my first brown bear up close!) and walked a few trails. Then last Thursday I was talked into going to a presentation at UAS about Fish and Game’s work with tasers and bears. Have to say it was a most amazing and remarkable presentation and not anything at all like I expected. All my golf buddies back home think I must have partied all night to come back with the stories I’ve been telling them.
So I’ll be back to take in more of this Sitka and will probably be bringing a few fishing, photography and golf buddies with me. I didn’t get a chance to try the golf course here but the locals told me it is “rather unique.” Thanks for the hospitality and my advice is to keep this place just as it is because you’ve already got a gem.
Jackson Christianson
P.S. I love the ‘‘end of the road” at the Starrigavan campground. It’s a classic.
‘Citizenfour’
Dear Editor: Thank you, Sitka Film Society, for presenting ‘‘Citizenfour,’’ the story of Edward Snowden and ‘‘The Secrets,’’ this past Friday late afternoon at the downtown Coliseum Theatre.
Would it be possible to get that movie available to be shown again at say, the Fine Arts Camp campus, for example, with subsequent small-group discussions by folks who’d just watched the movie and want to talk about and maybe even do something about all the roots of all the un-questioned answers and the un-answered questions contained therein? And about what has and has not happened since the events portrayed occurred?
For example (and focusing on people instead of policy, for the moment), how and why former U.S. Army four-star General and CIA Director Dave Petraeus is sentenced to two years probation and a $100,000 fine (about what he makes in a prime-time speaking engagement or three). (Sentinel, April 23, 2015).
Or how and why James Clapper – the chief spook-n-snitch, who told the first and biggest lie ever to the Congress and the American people about the NSA hacking our phone calls, text messages and e-mails, etc., way back in March of 2013 – is still out, and not even on bail.
While, in the meantime, ex-U.S. Army Private First Class Chelsea née Bradley Manning is rotting in prison for 35 years. And Edward Snowden is a fugitive from his own country. And Jeffrey Sterling faces a generation in jail.
Like … let me get this straight ... this is which ”Land of which Truth, Liberty, and Justice”? And for Whom?
Just curious. In any event, thank you, again, for bringing that movie here. And now. Especially now.
Jeff Moebus, Veterans Against War,
Sitka Platoon
City Electric Rates
Dear Editor: I am writing because I was somewhat stunned by the electric rate increase/decrease chart that was in the paper. Under one plan, the biggest users get a reduction? Excuse me, but aren’t the biggest consumers most likely businesses? Who get to write off their expenses on their taxes? And who we know will pass on any extra costs to their consumers?
I wonder if any of the Assembly members have considered the option of figuring out how much electricity is used citywide in a year, and how much money the city needs to make from it. Am I naive to think it would be fair to divide the money by the usage and simply charge everyone the same rate? Whatever you use, you pay for, and however much you can or want to conserve, you don’t pay for. Businesses will still get to write off their electric bills and pass on the cost to consumers. The wealthier people of Sitka will be able to afford the increased prices, and the less wealthy can choose whether or not they can afford the price or do without.
People who use the least electricity are generally single people, living on a single income, and unless they have a really good-paying job, probably pay one-half their income in ridiculously high rent. If anyone was going to get a reduction, shouldn’t it be them? Just so you know, I am not in that group, but a friend of mine is. She works a full-time job (which she loves) helping handicapped people. She makes $10 an hour and lives alone. Do the math. Why should she be forced to subsidize a business’s expense? Using a simple per-kilowatt rate for all users might actually result in her bill going down.
My best guess is that very few business owners in Sitka live in a trailer court, and I imagine they probably never will have to, while my friend may have to move out of the trailer court she lives in, leave the town and job she loves, and move south. She won’t be the only one in the coming years to move away because basic living expenses are simply too high.
I realize Sitka is a well-to-do community, and was recently described as a “resort community for the wealthy” – but there are people who work hard, work full-time, and work year-round, but make less than $25,000 a year. Give them a break. ... If you insist on different rates for different groups, why don’t we turn that proposed usage chart upside down – give the lowest users a 7 percent reduction, and the highest users a 19 percent increase? That seems way more fair to me.
I wish to thank the Assembly for their time in considering this, and for their service on the Assembly.
Kris Hoffmann, Sitka
