Voting for Burchell, Jones, Kincaid for MEA Board

To the editor:

The editorial in Friday’s Frontiersman on the MEA Board was very good, but incomplete. Without a bit more explanation it doesn’t make clear that the recent electric rate increases are not something anyone can do much about. It doesn’t explain that our rates were going to change significantly anyway with a newly negotiated purchase contract with Chugach. Our past contract expired on Jan. 1, 2015 — we would have been at their mercy again.

I’ve already received my ballot for the MEA election and see a couple of new candidates making the rate increases an issue, and insinuating that they can do something about them. To make that statement, I don’t think they understand the facts behind the rates. Anyone who thinks they can lower costs, or that we can produce our own power at a reduced rate, simply doesn’t know the history, research, planning and design that initiated, then went into building MEA’s new independent power generation plant.

Our energy independence and future was planned and executed under the guidance of the current board of directors, including Peter Burchell, Kit Jones and Janet Kincaid. As a longtime resident and MEA member, I’ve known Peter, Kit and Janet for more years than they have been on the MEA board of directors. Working as a team, they were instrumental in taking the MEA board and administration from a political wreck to a smoothly functioning operation. They also had the foresight to plan and work toward our present situation where we generate our own power and don’t have to depend on Chugach Electric to keep our lights on.

Working as a well-organized team, they know what it really took to get MEA to where we are — self-sufficient and in control of our electrical future. To help keep us on track as an independent, economical, smoothly functioning utility, I’m voting for Peter Burchell, Kit Jones and Janet Kincaid for MEA Board. I know they’ve got what it takes to keep our lights on.

Dan Tucker

Wasilla