Letter to the Editor: Alliant lied to our community

(The following Letter to the Editor has been submitted by Jeff Foster of Decorah):

"Alliant Energy lied to our community about their plans for rate increases in order to convince voters to reject a municipal electric utility. And then they turned around and requested a 24 percent rate increase. And now Alliant says that they will charge our community $1.5 million dollars to move the utility lines along Locust road unless we legally bind ourselves to them for another five years with a franchise agreement? Seriously??

This is extortion.  This is not the fault of the local Alliant employees. But this is the fault of the very much not-local Alliant managers, making decisions that benefit their shareholders, instead of Decorah.  We should be trying to make a better place for our children and the community rather than feeding a fear mongering, lying, publicly-traded monopoly. I appreciate that our Decorah City Council members are trying to stand up to these Alliant bullies. I look forward to the day when an electrical graduate can work with a locally owned municipal electric in the town they grew up in."