Letters: Wind farm benefits, bad Benton port plan and more | July 8

Wind farm project offers benefits

In response to recent letters to the editor regarding (the) Horse Heaven clean energy project, I’m writing to share my perspective as one of the many members of our community that supports this important economic development opportunity.

I believe strongly that we will all benefit from the clean energy this project will produce, the hundreds of jobs it will generate for our friends and neighbors, and the hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue that will be made available for schools and other critical public needs.

Eastern Washington has a long history successfully developing clean energy projects, and while there are always concerns that arise, we have a strong track record of successfully navigating those issues to find common ground that leads to great outcomes for our communities. I will be following the process currently being conducted by the State of Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC) and encouraging them to move toward a timely review and approval.

.......

Why must we cut to be able to add?

It’s incredibly disappointing to see (the) Benton and Franklin ... commissioners come out in favor of cutting funding toward transit for mental health. Both are essential needs of our community, and acting like we can’t ask the public to take on a 0.1% increase of sales tax is incredible. We’re a rapidly growing area and our needs will only grow over time. If every time a new public need comes along, we must cut into another’s budget instead of considering new revenue sources, we may be left with ever more hollowed-out services when we need to be planning for what this area is building toward.

.......

State GOP flying off to Arizona?

I just saw on the Rachael Maddow show a couple of nights ago that the Washington state Republican legislators were making a trip to Arizona to check out the cyber ninjas and the so-called ballot recount. Seriously! I certainly hope that I wasn’t paying for that wasted trip. It’s way past time that all you dtrumpers give it up. There was no election fraud.

Like it or not, Joe Biden is president of the United States.

We need to let President Biden do the job dtrump couldn’t even begin to do. Look how Biden helped this country with getting COVID-19 under control so the country could start reopening, renewing our alliances with other countries which dtrump tried to destroy and getting a bill passed on fixing our infrastructure and getting voting rights for everyone in spite of the Republicans. I’m very happy to see he’s also working hard to fix our terrible gun laws. So once again, dtrumpers give it up. It’s over!

.......

Benton port plan will kill camping

The Port of Benton will announce this week the closing the Prosser Airport campground on July 9. They will be telling the Prosser community they are killing the soul of the Prosser Airport, and the execution will start with felling of the old shade trees.

This camping area has been a defining feature of the airport for generations and has added to the charm of the airport and the Prosser community. It has drawn visitors eager to fly in and tour the community, has served as a temporary shelter area for pilots working on critical agricultural missions (i.e.; cherry drying), and as an aviation event venue that draws aviators from around the region.

This historic area is the soul of the airport, and the new Director of Airports, Joe Walker, wants to kill it. His claim that it is to make way for additional hangar sites is disingenuous at best. The plan was never to eliminate the camping area, only to relocate it if necessary for taxiway realignment. Mr. Walker has instead decided to kill it without soliciting any input from the airport users, and the Prosser community. And so, the campground will be killed on July 9.

This story was originally published July 8, 2021 at 12:44 PM with the headline "Letters: Wind farm benefits, bad Benton port plan and more | July 8."