Clark Letter 6-9-2005

June 9, 2005

Good evening.  My name is Eileen Clark.  My husband Wayne and I live at the end of Rink Creek Road.  We’ve been here 26 years, mostly seasonal, but have recently retired and will be able to spend more time here in our home.

We’d like to thank the Gustavus City Council for the opportunity to go on record with our concerns about roads in conjunction with the proposed hydroplant construction.  We’d like to first express our thanks for the city’s current road maintenance of Rink Creek Road and Wilson Road.

Our first concern is for the management of Rink Creek Road during the construction of the the access road to the hydro plant site.  We live on the corner of Rink Creek Road and the easement that will be used for the hydro plant corridor.  Our concern includes

1.  Safety on Rink Creek Road especially the “S” curves through the woods between the Bruce Steadman place and the Rink Creek Bridge.  This is basically a one-lane road with dense alder overhang on both sides.  Since it is on an east-west directional line, drivers are sometimes blinded by the sun while traveling this corridor.Residents and tourists alike travel this road.

2.  The structural integrity of the Rink Creek Bridge.  We would like to know which governmental or professional agency, if any, will or has certified the structural integrity of the bridge for a project of that magnitude.  We’d like to know if a performance bond will be posted for the maintenance of the road during the hydro project’s duration by Gustavus Electric Company and/or any private contractors hired by GEC.

3.  Road blockage.  Rink Creek Road has previously been blocked by GEC work with no prior notification, preventing residents on either side of the blocked area from reaching either their homes or their work.  We have had instances of private contractors for GEC blocking/using our driveway access to Rink Creek Road. In one instance my husband was sworn at and human feces was left in our driveway when he approached the contractors blocking our driveway. Just recently our easement access was blocked by a private contractor building a road farther along our easement.

I have been told by Mr. Levitt that a draft road management plan for Rink Creek Road has been submitted to the city and to all the other government agencies involved in the project. Unfortunately, we were not sent a copy of that draft (nor were half dozen or more other Rink Creek Road residents whom I queried).  Mr. Leavitt referred me to the FERC website for a copy of the document, but my computer does not have the capacity to obtain the document.  I was not able to find a copy of that draft plan at City Hall.  We did read a letter from the mayor  of Gustavus addressed to Mr. Leavitt stating the city’s concerns (most of which echo ours) but do not know if the draft plan has been approved by the city or the other agencies.

Our second concern is about the use of the easement road between our property and the Olneys’.  We know this is not a city concern at this time, but we’d like to have our concern on record.  Although we paid Tommy Buoy for the construction of that road and we know that it is an easement for utility access, we have never been approached about the use of our section of that road.  According to the survey and our land deed, our property  line is down the middle of that road. 

Currently a road is under construction beyond our property line to the north.  After a fair amount of research, we found out that the road is being constucted by Chuck Gilpen  (via Ponch Marchibanks) as an exploratory road for a gravel (borrow) pit for use by the hydro power project access..  According to Roger Schnabel easement access was granted by John Schnabel for the building. Mr. Levitt told me that he hoped to use that road later for the hydro plant access. Nate Borson, when contacted, did not know that a road was being constructed along his section of this easement.  We have not yet found out who surveyed the road under construction to make sure that easement allowance is not violated.

Several other instances that have happened to us and our neighborfs recently have lead us to question the integrity of work by GEC and its contractors for this project.  At the very least we would hope that GEC and its private contractors would maintain a modicum of good neighborliness and at the very most we hope that integrity of work and communication on the hydro plant project as it affects us and our Rink Creek neighbors will be maintained at high quality -- the same high quality demanded of us as public servants -- teachers of your children and grandchildren.