Letter: Local utilities below waterline is a bad idea

The utility relocation is being done right now in front of my house. Curiosity led my husband to ask questions about the progress. Interestingly enough, he found out that the utilities are being relocated two feet below the waterline.

Some may think that this is not a big deal until one or more connections below the waterline are loosened either due to the seismic activity that occurs regularly where we live (the mountain range north of us has a fault line that caused the earthquakes in Carson about 10 years ago - and we've experienced tremors from the quakes in Kings Beach, too), or because the connection was loose to begin with. Then, anyone flushing a toilet, emptying water from a sink, washing dishes, will experience backed-up sewer problems. The water will have nowhere to go.

So anyone remotely connected to the relocated utilities; i.e., everyone along College Parkway, those two beautiful apartment complexes on College Parkway and Roop, Sonic Drive In, EICON, the veterinary hospital, the Sierra View Clinic, Burger King, all of the homes with College Parkway in their backyards, everyone along Northgate and Arrowhead - have a lot to worry about.

All this to reinvent the wheel. The northern portion of the bypass was already built when the extension along Graves Lane was complete. College Parkway to Graves to Highway 50. NDOT officials told my husband in a question/answer meeting on the bypass that the northern portion was complete. You know, College Parkway to Graves to Highway 50. But NDOT has to build it according to the specs dated over 20 years ago or they lose highway funds. Why don't they use the land they bought for a northern bike path?

I have lived here 10 years without any sewer problems. Now the bypass utility relocation will definitely open the door to many sewer problems, and not only for me. How is this "good business," Gov. Guinn? How is a duplication of effort and opening the state and the city up to class action suits saving the state money?

Not only that - I have pictures of gaping holes left unattended for the curious little boy or girl to break their neck in. And my street does not have that many children. But Northgate does.

You know, I saw an aerial view of the bypass planned 20 years ago. There were no homes where mine now sits, and the same government entities that approved the bypass 20 year ago, the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors, approved the permit to build my house 11 years ago.

How is it good business to use a plan that is 20 years old without addressing the changes that have taken place within those 20 years? Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot about NOMADS. The language chosen to write this $135 million fiasco was 20 years old. No one in their right mind puts utilities below the waterline. But that's my problem. I keep trying to make sense. Government and common sense is an oxymoron.

PEGGY KEARNS

Carson City