Dig a few holes in the forest and see how little top soil has been composted without biomass in thousands of years. As man continues to build on our green spaces, fields and forests it seems it may be as necessary to compost our forests as creating community agriculture, as our smaller forests will be in demand to produce.
The larger buildings we want to heat have large green spaces. Start with ground heat pumps or solar hot water as we see it at the Rec Park and North House. There are many ways to offset heating bills. Put biomass money into wind power and have a sellable product from day one. Start a 21st century power company and freeze electric prices as we’ve seen other communities do.
I can’t support biomass or the price tag of about $8 million year one. Just the distribution lines cost almost $3.5 million. This could easily outfit how many buildings with independent systems.
Get real! Use some common sense and start with one building and prove yourselves before you try to save the community. Try actually asking the community rather than shoving another white elephant down our throats.
The community is having cows over the YMCA sports facility with a price tag of $9.5 million. Anyone ready to spend $8 million more on biomass? My guess is not! Presently our commissioner race, except for Commissioner Sobanja, focuses on less spending!
Tod Sylvester
Grand Marais
Leave a Reply