Letter to the Editor: "There is no harm in looking at options"

(The following Letter to the Editor has been submitted by Paul Kadlec from the Highlandville area):

"I am not a local citizen in Decorah who gets to vote in the great Alliant versus Local choice, but it seems that with all the vitriol and yard signs, you all seem to be missing the point. From all the letters to the editor that have been written from both sides, the vote is not if you throw out Alliant, but to merely pursue further investigation as to the feasibility of continuing investigation into the possibility that it might be a good or bad way to to go for the city.

If the vote passes, you get to investigate further. You get to look at the books, you get to investigate the possibility. There will be more expense to the city because both sides have a motive in pushing their viewpoint and with all the "experts" it will take an honest third party to sort it out.

There is an expense for training and hiring competent people to run and maintain what has been built by Alliant over the years, and purchasing the talent and infrastructure will not be cheap initially. However, over a decade or two, it may be cost effective, or it may not. You have to look at the longer view, not just the first year or two.

Good timing by the water and sewer folks, it kind of skews the discussion.  Would your water and sewer services be better served by a corporation? Pay by the the pound? Who is the unfortunate soul that gets to measure that?

The vote is to merely continue the examination and discussion, it is not making any decisions. Why would anyone be against this? Getting all sides of the story is not a bad thing.

Looking at the future, if the city owns the infrastructure, you can also string the fiber for the internet access to every home without paying a monthly rental fee for every pole and deliver high speed internet to everybody in the municipal area. On the other hand, Alliant has provided solid service for many decades, and will have to move to more renewable sources of energy in a fair way based simply on market forces and they know how to deliver product and service. Honestly, how many long-term outages has Decorah had over the years?

As a member of a co-p, I don't have pay shareholder profits, yet we do have to set aside money for capital expenses if we have to replace old poles and new transformers over time and make improvements to the infrastructure and services the co-op offers.  And this is honestly not a diss to corporations or the purposes they serve, which in the case of Alliant, is providing a high level of service and support.

It is not a vote to move away from Alliant, it is merely a vote to examine options further, and there is no harm in looking at options."