Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 79. Sunrise is 6:03 and sunset is 7:53 for 13 hours 50 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 25.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater School Board meets at 6 PM. Whitewater’s Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1978, Double Eagle II becomes the first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey, France, near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.
The Whitewater Common Council, as with other local governments, has an obligation to defend its residents’ property and the prospects for development of that property from others, whether those others are public or private entities. The proposed route of a 190-mile, $1.2 billion, 765-kilovolt transmission line across nine Wisconsin counties (including Jefferson, Walworth, and Rock) comes too close to Whitewater, unfairly and needlessly threatening the city’s present property values and future development.
A power line of this size will require transmission towers nearly two hundred feet tall, imposing easements of hundreds of feet on local property owners, thereby diminishing the value of their existing land and significantly reducing the prospects for further development nearby.
Unfairly: Use of eminent domain to advance the interests of a few private investors should not come at the expense of thousands of private landowners in the City of Whitewater. The search for more electrical capacity for some private parties should not — must not — come at the expense of many private owners and residents in this city. Successful development benefits all sixteen thousand residents of the city by making the community more prosperous. A giant power line that rings the city too closely will make the whole community less attractive to present and future development.
Needlessly: The specific placement of a large power line is neither a law of nature nor a divine command. The Wisconsin Public Service Commission will be able under law to choose between route options, some of which will be more favorable for this city and nearby communities.
Whitewater’s elected and appointed officials have an obligation to work diligently and zealously to protect the present and future interests of this city. A resolution Opposing the Routing of the BECI 765-kV Transmission Line is before the Whitewater Common Council this Tuesday, August 18. This resolution must serve as a starting point (and discussions may already be underway) for the successful defense of residents’ present and future development prospects.
Immediately below appear the thorough memo and well-drafted resolution in opposition to the BECI 765-kV line’s routing that are part of the Whitewater Common Council’s August 18 session:
Skip to PDF content_____
Forthcoming topics (in no particular order): Development in Downtown Whitewater, the Value of a UW-Whitewater Education, A New Ethics Ordinance, and Polling Places in the City (further considerations).