• A rebate seems in order with meters • There are no extra costs for analog meters • Dogs, cats keep rats in check • Mailing doesn’t seem very fair A rebate seems in order with meters I have never
• A rebate seems in order with meters • There are no extra costs for analog meters • Dogs, cats keep rats in check • Mailing doesn’t seem very fair
A rebate seems in order with meters
I have never claimed to be a math whiz, but I have some questions about the upcoming vote on smart meters. I haven’t made up my mind yet on asking for my old meter back or not.
My wife thinks the smart meter is affecting her health and I am not sure that is the problem. Still researching.
Economically, however, there are some issues. Since we have always had meter readers and that was always a fixed cost, now that we have smart meters and don’t require a meter reader, it seems a rebate would be a more equitable way to even out the costs.
The 90 percent of us with smart meters get this rebate and the other 10 percent don’t.
There are other costs that concern me as well. Certainly the cost of sending out the ballots and holding this election is being paid by all of us. How much will this cost and why?
Also, this card I got in the mail today telling me how to vote. Who decided to send these out and how much did that cost and why?
It seems there is some explaining to do. Anyone?
Allan B White
Hanapepe
There are no extra costs for analog meters
Today I was dismayed to receive a postcard from KIUC asking for my yes vote in the upcoming election. I cannot help but be struck by the irony of the utility spending member money to advocate for the management’s position on this issue.
The ballot is the result of a member petition, and therefore it is up to the members to decide how to vote on this issue. KIUC management is to take a neutral role in this process or it is a sham and shows no respect for the by-laws or the co-op membership.
The post card says that there are extra costs for choosing an analog meter, which is false.
We are already paying for the cost of reading and maintaining these analog meters, and until the utility actually reduces rates, those costs are covered. I wonder what is the real reason they think they need to add these extra charges?
There’s nothing fair about member money being spent on a mass mailing telling people to vote for KIUC management’s position on the ballot, and there is certainly nothing fair about claims of added costs that don’t in fact exist.
Roland Barker
Wailua Homesteads
Dogs, cats keep rats in check
I understand the concern about the quantities of stray cats but I hope we will not forget the lesson learned during the black plague in Europe.
See the info provided by http://www.britainexpress.com/Hi story/plague.htm
When they eradicated the cats and dogs in Europe there were no natural enemies to control the mice and rats and the plague spread like wildfire.
In the year 1665 death came calling on the city of London. Death in the form of plague.
People called it the Black Death, black for the color of the tell-tale lumps that foretold its presence in a victim’s body, and death for the inevitable result.
The plague germs were carried by fleas, which lived as parasites on rats.
Despite the precautions, the early spring of 1665 brought a sudden rise in the death rate in the poorer sections of London.
The authorities ignored it. As spring turned into one of the hottest summers in memory, the number of deaths escalated and panic set in.
By mid-July over 1,000 deaths per week were reported in the city.
It was rumored that dogs and cats spread the disease, so the Lord Mayor ordered all the dogs and cats destroyed. Forty thousand dogs and 200,000 cats were killed.
The real effect of this was that there were fewer natural enemies of the rats who carried the plagued fleas, so the germs spread more rapidly.
Anna Bell
Kalaheo
Mailing doesn’t seem very fair
As a long-time KIUC member, I was deeply unsettled to find a postcard in my mailbox urging me to vote yes on the ballot.
I do not understand how this is in any way fair, above-board, legitimate, you name it. I did believe that you would play by your own bylaws in this election and allow the members to vote freely.
I would like answers to the following questions:
Who decided upon this mailing?
Who approved use of member funds for the printing and mailing of these postcards?
How much did the mailing cost, including fees for design, printing, postage and any other fees?
Will you release the contact info of those you sent the mailing out to, for any member who wishes to send out similar mailings in an attempt to sway the vote?
The smart grid is an agenda being forced on us here on Kauai, just like experimental, open-air GMO testing and the associated RUPs.
Both smart meters and GMO’s are not proven to be safe.
The precautionary principle is being completely ignored in favor of huge money/corporate interests in both cases.
Smart meters have the added disadvantage of having privacy and national security concerns, since the grid is vulnerable to hacking.
Members who wish to retain time-tested, non-RF emitting meters must be allowed to do so without punitive fees.
Remember the whole cost-sharing basis of a rural utility cooperative. Otherwise, members living farther from the electric plant would need to pay more for infrastructure maintenance.
Victoria Holloway
Princeville
