Nils’ Response to Candidate Questionnaire – Sawtooth Board of Realtors

During this campaign I have been asked to fill out 3 different questionnaires. One by the Sawtooth Board of Realtors, one by the Idaho Mountain Express and one by the Editorial Department of the Twin Falls Times-News.

Each organization asked some excellent, probing questions and I was more than happy to let them know where I stand. Since you may not get a chance to see my responses to them elsewhere, I want to share them with you here. 

I’ll start off today with the questionnaire from the Sawtooth Board of Realtors:

SAWTOOTH BOARD OF REALTORS 

ELECTION SCORECARD QUESTIONS 

Response of Nils Ribi 

Please respond by email to Bob Crosby, Government Affairs Director, Sawtooth Board of Realtors, by 5:00 PM on Tuesday, October 13, 2009.  

I.                  Platform Overview:

Please provide a concise overview of the goals that you would strive to accomplish during your term, if you are elected. 

As a Councilman for the citizens of Sun Valley, I will continue to focus on three priority issues if re-elected:  

• Keep the City of Sun Valley the best resort community in America in which to live, by providing and maintaining the appropriate infrastructure and level of essential city services to support what citizens and visitors expect;
• Keep the City of Sun Valley independent and fiscally sound through careful financial management and support of a strong resort economy; and
• Keep an absolute commitment to open and transparent government, where government is responsive and accountable to its citizens. 

II.       Replacement Airport / Transportation:

How would you ensure that your city plays an ongoing role with the Blaine County Commissioners, the Blaine County Airport Advisory Committee, and the Freidman Memorial Airport Authority in planning for the proposed replacement airport? 

I support the effort currently underway by the Blaine County Commissioners to create a separate “Blaine County Airport Advisory Authority” whose purpose is to focus exclusively on building and operating the new airport. This new Authority will have representation from the Sun Valley/Ketchum area. 

As an elected official, would you support city funding of minimum revenue guarantees or other subsidies to airlines, if required, to ensure continuing air service to Freidman Memorial Airport and / or to the proposed replacement airport? 

I voted to include MRG funding in the current FY10 City budget at the request of the Fly Sun Valley Alliance in cooperation with the Sun Valley Resort. I did this because it will also assist our residents and second homeowners who rely heavily on consistent air service to the area. The legal authority to use public funds for this purpose still must be determined before any expenditure can be made. 

Would you support state legislative changes that would allow local government funding of public transportation and the underwriting of air service, if required? 

I have worked on these issues, particularly in regard to alternative funding for public transit, for the past three years as our City representative on the Legislative Committee of the Association of Idaho Cities. I intend to continue to pursue this option on behalf of the area and City if re-elected. 

III. Diversified Economy:

How would you ensure a balance between pursuing economic diversity as promoted by GoBlaine! and others, and the need to recognize and promote our existing tourist based assets? 

I have seen the success of GoBlaine! first hand as a member of its Board of Directors. Its success so far has been based on a solid public/private partnership that must continue into the implementation phase. The key written into the strategy is a valley wide economic development effort which diversifies the economy. In turn, this diversity will provide stability and growth to the tourism economy of Sun Valley. 

Do you support establishing a regional economic development entity that would be financially supported by all Blaine County governments, or do you believe that each municipality should be in charge of its own economic development?  If the latter, should there also be a regional entity, and how should economic development responsibilities and funding be divided between County municipalities and a regional entity? 

The entity to implement GoBlaine! must be valley-wide and have the representation and participation of all governments and the business community to be successful. See my response above. 

Provided you think it is necessary, what would you do to attract and retain younger visitors and younger permanent residents to the area? 

A government itself cannot attract and retain younger visitors and permanent residents, but it can encourage and support a strong resort economy and jobs through the focus of its funding of economic development and tourism marketing in general. 

What are your capital improvement priorities for your city and over what time frame? 

My capital improvement priorities focus on our needed core infrastructure: roads and paths, emergency services, and intra-city public transit. They will be implemented and financed according to a well thought out Capital Improvement Plan and Program. 

IV.     Regional versus Local Government:

How important do you deem regional issues to be (ex. transportation including air access, environmental issues, affordable and workforce housing, regional marketing) relative to issues specific to your city? 

There are several regional issues that are important to our City. Those which have a direct impact on our City’s ability to properly function and provide services to our citizens are the most important. 

In your opinion, what are the most pressing regional issues affecting Blaine County? 

Water, Economy, Transit, Airport, Redundant Power, Wildfire Mitigation. 

What role do you envision your city playing in regional issues? 

• Water – I have made sure the City of Sun Valley has participated in the USGS Wood River Valley ground water resources study for the past three years. We should continue with this cooperative study until it is completed in the next two years.
• Economy – See my GoBlaine! response above about participating to help our tourism economy.
• Transit – Sun Valley has participated in the Joint Powers Agreement with the rest of the Wood River Valley to make sure Mountain Rides is a successful transit agency for our City bus service for residents and tourists, as well as for transporting the workforce.
• Airport – See my response above about participating in the new airport authority.
• Redundant Power – At present, Sun Valley is serviced by a single power transmission line. We need to work with Ketchum and the County to obtain a second, redundant line to assure that in the event of a lengthy outage, our citizens are not put in danger and our economy is not crippled.
• Wildfire Mitigation – Sun Valley is in the process of working with FEMA and the Bureau of Homeland Security to develop plans to lessen the impact of the urban/wildland fire interface. We will also work with the USFS, BLM and the other fire agencies in the valley through cooperative mutual aid agreements to seek a higher level of protection to our valuable residential and tourist properties.

Would you support a regional council of governments where representatives of all Blaine County municipalities meet on a regular basis to discuss regional issues and potential efficiencies in government? 

A formal Council of Governments to work together on issues would serve many purposes, including finding efficiencies in how we operate, joint advocacy, and the sharing of timely information. It would also help build cooperative working relationships between the various governmental units. At the present time the Mayors meet on an occasional basis. A formal arrangement would be preferable. 

V.        Affordable Housing:

Would you support state legislative changes that would allow local government funding of affordable community housing? 

This is another area where I have worked as a member of the Legislative Committee of the Association of Idaho Cities to seek various tools to allow cities to create workforce housing without creating a burden on taxpayers or developers. The most practical workforce housing for the City of Sun Valley will be that which is built in partnership with others to provide housing for critical emergency services workers who should be located in the City. 

In your opinion, must workforce housing be located in the same municipality as the project being asked to develop the housing? 

This is not an issue for the City of Sun Valley, as we do not have such ordinances and currently have no plans for such ordinances. In those cities which do, housing should be built where it is most feasible, cost effective and close to transportation. 

Given the economic and social community benefits of housing working families in the Wood River Valley, should developers be required to pay the entire cost of affordable community or employee housing, or should the cost be balanced between the community and the developer?  If you support a balanced approach, how would you suggest that housing responsibilities be shared between developers and municipalities? 

As mentioned above, Sun Valley does not have, or currently plan to have, such ordinances. If any ordinances were ever considered, they would have to be based on incentives to the developer to be successful. 

If you believe that creation of affordable community housing should be a priority, what would you do to ensure that more units are either constructed or converted from market rate to deed restricted/equity sharing housing in the near term? 

The priority in the City of Sun Valley will be to establish a level of housing for some, not all, of our critical emergency services workers – those who are essential to live in the City, so we can provide a level of service our citizens and resort require. This housing should be built in partnership with private parties, federal agencies and financed through existing state and federal grant and loan programs. 

VI.     The Environment:

What environmental issues are priorities for your city? 

Our City can and is reducing its energy consumption by operating smarter. The benefit of this is financial savings to the taxpayers. It is important that we look at implementing environmental initiatives that actually save us money. A prime example is in the way we are rebuilding our streets and paths with the CRABS (Concrete Reinforced Asphalt Base System) where the existing asphalt is ground up in place, concrete is added and a strong base is created. The old asphalt does not have to be trucked away, and the new surface lasts much longer. The process is also less expensive than conventional repaving of streets. Our other environmental priorities should focus on making sure we have an adequate supply of clean water and the protection of our steep hillsides and open spaces. 

What, if anything, should your city do to develop alternative energy sources? 

We are looking into grants to see if we can establish a solar demonstration project at City Hall. 

Does maintaining the scenic corridor (property visible from Highway 75 north of Glendale Road) as it is now take precedence over the construction of alternative energy sources (wind turbines, solar panels, etc.) within it? 

Although this is a County issue and not a City of Sun Valley issue, it should be noted that the corridor you mention already has several tall power lines in it. Certainly solar panels would not be taller than the power lines along Highway 75. Given the small amount of reliable wind to power a wind turbine in this narrow valley corridor, I suspect they would mostly be a moot point. 

What leadership role should cities take in the environmental arena; should such a role be regional in cooperation with other municipalities or local, pertaining only to your city?  If you believe that there should be both regional and local roles, how would you balance those activities to ensure the most effective use of funding and effort? 

We should show leadership by example. Our City has taken numerous small steps which have not cost much money, but which have actually saved the taxpayers much. Those are the examples we can show all in the region. I gave a presentation to the Idaho Green Expo in Boise this summer on the numerous positive steps the City of Sun Valley has taken in the environmental leadership area, and in particular where it has saved us money. That is an excellent way to share ideas and efforts. 

Would you support your city switching to a four day work week?  If so, would a material saving first need to be proven in terms of a reduction of both the direct and indirect carbon footprint and in lower operating costs for city buildings?  How would you balance the potential environmental savings versus the loss of service to your constituency? 

Our City has already evaluated switching to a four day work week and it was determined there would be little or no savings. As important, service to our citizens, many of whom arrive on Fridays to spend the weekend, would be diminished. As a resort town, the City of Sun Valley needs to meet the demands of a larger population base which grows on weekends and holidays. Shortening the work week around the weekend makes little sense for a resort town. 

VII.     Sun Valley Specific Questions:

Would you encourage / support construction of the community connector (ex. gondola, fixed rail streetcar/trolley, enhanced bus service including alternative-energy powered busses) that would connect both downtown Ketchum and Sun Valley to Bald Mountain? 

A direct connection between the City of Sun Valley and Bald Mountain through Ketchum should be encouraged and supported. How it is done is another question altogether. A gondola or fixed rail system would be extremely expensive to build and very expensive to maintain and operate. On the surface it sounds exciting, but the cost issues must be fully explored and a funding formula determined and agreed to by all the partners long before any plans are set in stone. In the meantime, a simpler and more affordable “community connector” should be sought and in place before the new River Run development is finished. We must be careful that a gondola or fixed rail system does not come at the expense of eliminating our around town transit programs. 

Would you support utilizing Sun Valley funds for regional purposes such as air service initiatives, regional marketing, etc? 

Yes, see my responses above.

Planning for Future Power Needs in the Sun Valley Area – Final Report

The Community Advisory Committee which has worked with Idaho Power to develop a “Wood River Electrical Plan” over the past year has finished its final report and will present it to the public this coming Wednesday evening in Hailey. The meeting will start at 6:00 p.m. in the Community Campus auditorium with a presentation on the recommendation and will follow with an open house.

As I have stated in my previous reports on this process, the purpose of the project is to create a clear and documented electrical energy plan to serve the load needs of the Wood River Valley from now through build out of the valley. Our goal was to make sure the report is clear and concise – something that will make sense to the public in terms of need, reliability, redundancy, cost, and protection of view corridors. You can read our Final Report by clicking here, and get the Appendices by clicking here.

The challenge of course, and of particular interest for the people I represent, is getting reliable sources of power into the upper Wood River Valley where it is heavily used to support the tourism and second home industry. With only one 138 kV transmission line serving this end of the valley from Hailey, reliability is a major concern, especially during the peak winter season. As the use of electrical power continues to increase with housing and hotel growth, expanded snowmaking, chairlifts and gondolas, so does the need for an additional transmission line. Because we value the beauty of our area, there are visual considerations which we must take into account as well. All of these factors went into the Committee’s recommendation which is to follow Highway 75 along the existing right-of-way to Ketchum.

It was felt that the visual impacts of a new 138 kV transmission line from Hailey to Ketchum can be minimized to the largest extent in this highway corridor as opposed to running it along steep hillsides and ridgelines. This route provides many options for underground or above ground lines or combinations of both. It is also good to know that such a line does not have to be like the massive structures of the existing Hailey to Ketchum transmission line.  Here are a couple photo renderings of what some above ground options might look like along Highway 75 near East Fork Road, with a picture of the existing distribution line for comparison (note that “distribution” circuits are those which bring power to your neighborhoods and homes and “transmission” circuits are the ones which move power from city to city):

The meeting this Wednesday, March 12, 2008, in Hailey is just the beginning of a public process which will give all of us the opportunity to weigh in on how and when this plan may eventually be implemented.

My seven previous reports on the WREP are available here (#7), here (#6), here (#5), here (#4), here (#3), here (#2), and here (#1).

As always, I will continue to report on the progress of this plan and you can also follow it at the Wood River Electrical Plan website provided by Idaho Power. The website has a great deal of information, including copies of all the presentations and minutes of our meetings.

Technology and the Environment

To kick off the New Year, I was thinking today about how we could do some positive things in the City of Sun Valley to improve our environmental image in the resort world. Right or wrong in the grading, the poor ranking the Sun Valley Resort has received the past two years from the Ski Area Citizens’ Coalition has probably not helped the tourism business for the valley from the growing number of environmentally conscious travelers which we so heavily depend on in this highly competitive business.

The Sun Valley City Council began 2007 by passing a Resolution adopting the U.S. Conference of Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement. That was a big step for our City, but the remainder of the year showed little follow through. Our neighbor Hailey was very successful in preparing and implementing a climate protection plan as this story by Gary Stivers at SunValleyOnline shows. I am hoping Hailey’s leadership will rub off on us and others.

Our local economy is significantly tied to the climate – both in the winter and summer. The warmer it gets, the shorter the ski seasons are becoming, and the larger the forest fires are becoming, the harder they are to fight and the longer they last. Both have already had impacts on our tourist visits. Our major competitors are taking significant strides to do something about protecting the climate (see Vail, Aspen, Park City, Jackson Hole). Even the little ski area in Montana where I learned to ski as a kid, Lost Trail Powder Mountain, runs its operations on biodiesel. Our neighbor to the south, Nevada and in particular the tourist mecca of Las Vegas has been finding out that clean energy and sustainable development pays off as well, especially in down real estate markets, as this story tells. It’s time for action in Sun Valley, not more studies, talk, finger crossing, wishful thinking or denial.

Being involved in various technology businesses, I thought about the marriage of tech and the environment. In my research I came across a website/blog called “EcoGeek.” They have a great site with ideas, insight and links to a resource of practical information. As they say, “EcoGeek devotes its pages to exploring the symbiosis between nature and technology.”

A story EcoGeek did the other day titled “7 Technologies that will Save the Earth in 2008” caught my attention. It has some very practical ideas and thoughts that can help improve our lives while also making sure that we don’t mess up the Earth at the same time. Give it a look.

Hopefully, the City of Sun Valley has the political will necessary to do the right things to make certain our local economy is strong long into the future by ensuring that our environment is also strong.

Planning for Future Power Needs in the Sun Valley Area – Part VII

The Community Advisory Committee, working with Idaho Power to develop a “Wood River Electrical Plan,” held its seventh and potentially final meeting last week. My six previous reports are available here (#6), here (#5), here (#4), here (#3), here (#2), and here (#1).

The purpose of the project is to create a clear and documented electrical energy plan to serve the load needs of the Wood River Valley from now through build out of the valley. The opportunities for tapping into alternative sources of energy are very good as they become available. The challenge of course, is getting the power into the upper valley where it is heavily used to support the tourism and second home industry. As the use increases, so does the need for transmission lines, so there are visual trade-offs which must be considered.

The purpose of the seventh meeting was to review the draft plan and discuss next steps for its introduction to the community. The Committee determined that the draft could use some revisions in its presentation to be more easily understood by the public and that the text could be expanded to better address conservation and alternative energy issues discussed by the Committee.

We had a considerable discussion re-checking and verifying the recommendations and assumptions made in earlier meetings regarding the alternatives being proposed. Our goal is to make sure the report is clear and concise – something that will make sense to the public in terms of need, reliability, redundancy, cost, protection of view corridors, etc. before Idaho Power begins public hearings.

Idaho Power staff will revise the draft, we will then give it another review and the hope is to present it sometime after the Christmas holidays during a public open house meeting(s).

As always, I will continue to report on our progress and you can also follow it at the Wood River Electrical Plan website provided by Idaho Power. The website has a great deal of information, including copies of all the presentations and minutes of our meetings.

Sidebar – Solar Possibilities:

The world’s third-largest solar power plant is located south of here in Boulder City, Nevada. The plant, owned by a Spanish company, produces around 64 MW (Mega Watts) of electricity which is enough to power 40,000 homes. It is located on 350 acres. (As a footnote – the Wood River Valley currently uses just under 120 MW at peak load in the winter.)

Here is a link to an Editorial in the Las Vegas Sun about the plant from this past Sunday.

Here is a link to “The Energy Blog” which has a story about the Boulder City solar plant.

Sidebar – Wind Possibilities:

Speaking of the Las Vegas area – on a trip this past spring, I came across this wind turbine in the backyard of a home in southwest Vegas near Blue Diamond Road. Thinking it was a novel way of using alternative energy I had to snap the picture.

 

In case you didn’t see my first report on the Wood River Electrical Plan meeting, it contains links to three videos taken at the Fossil Gulch Wind Park near Hagerman. The southern part of Idaho seems to be an excellent location for “wind farms” given the topography and sustained wind flows. Click here to see the videos.

Planning for Future Power Needs in the Sun Valley Area – Part VI

The Community Advisory Committee, working with Idaho Power to develop a “Wood River Electrical Plan,” held its sixth meeting during the last week of June. My five previous reports are available here (#5), here (#4), here (#3), here (#2), and here (#1).

The purpose of the project is to create a clear and documented electrical energy plan to serve the load needs of the Wood River Valley from now through build out.

During the sixth meeting the Committee worked on screening the alternative scenarios we previously developed to determine a consensus recommendation for the most feasible alternative for each section of the planning area and for the overall plan. Using criteria and goals discussed in my previous reports, we narrowed the recommendations for three areas: 1) the southern transmission stations of Midpoint (near Shoshone) and King (near Hagerman) up to the Bellevue triangle area, 2) the Bellevue triangle area to the Wood River Transmission station (just north of Hailey), and 3) from Wood River Transmission station to the Ketchum/Sun Valley Substation (next to the Sun Valley Red Barn).

 138 kV Transmission Line          Twin 138 kV Underground Lines

We spent a great deal of time discussing the costs of each alternative, the costs of undergrounding versus above ground lines, the costs of easements, the environmental impacts, the visual impacts, and probably the most important factor, the need for additional lines in relationship to growth, demand, reliability and redundancy. Idaho Power and its engineers will now take our work and hammer out these issues in relationship to the alternatives we formulated. We will meet again in a couple of months to review their findings and see if a draft report will be in an acceptable condition to present to the public this fall. This will then lead to a whole round of public meetings and full public discussion and input on the recommendation.

The recent “Red Bridge Fire” near Shoshone took out a portion of the Midpoint Transmission station and then the transmission line to Hailey. Here is a good article from the Associated Press on the fire and what it did to Midpoint (it appeared in the Idaho Press-Tribune). It points to the vulnerability we face here in the Wood River Valley. For several days during and after the fire we were being supplied by the King transmission line only, a line built in 1962 and not capable of handling our entire load in peak conditions. In the north end of the valley, we only have the one line from Hailey to the Ketchum/Sun Valley Substation. There is no redundancy or backup for that line. Our peak load up here is in the winter. One can only imagine what an extended outage would do to the health and safety of our north valley in the cold of the winter, not to mention the economy.

As always, I will continue to report on our progress and you can also follow it at the Wood River Electrical Plan website provided by Idaho Power. The website has a great deal of information, including copies of all the presentations and minutes of our meetings.

* * * Added Bonus * * * 

The Sun Valley Fire Department assisted in fighting the “Red Bridge Fire” and two of our men, Ray Franco and Joe Richardson made the cover of the Twin Falls Times-News in an excellent photo with one of our engines.

Green is the Color of Money

There are those special occasions in one’s life when you run across someone or something that really inspires you. This past January, during the Frank Church Conference in Boise which focused on global warming, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to run into two such people on the same day. The first was Vice President Al Gore. I wrote about that excellent experience in a previous blog which you can read by clicking here.

The other individual I had the great pleasure to meet that day was Gary Christensen. Gary is the highly successful owner of Christensen Corp., a commercial real estate development firm based in Boise. He built the new Banner Bank building in downtown Boise. I met Gary at a reception for Al Gore held in the Banner Bank building. Earlier that day Gary gave an excellent lecture entitled “Green is the Color of Money – Saving the Planet for Fun and Profit” at the Frank Church Conference.

The Banner Bank building was awarded the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum Certified status by the U.S. Green Building Council, the first in Idaho. Gary Christensen is a businessman who has figured out that developing “green” buildings is a money making proposition, in addition to something that is good for the environment. The Banner Bank building is making a 32% return on investment, uses 65% less electricity and 80% less water than comparable new commercial buildings. I was impressed with my tour of the building, especially the quality of the air circulation and ease of changing out tenants. Click here for an excellent profile on the Banner Bank project.

After understanding how building “green” can mean larger profits to the bottom line, I suspect we will be seeing these types of projects here in the Wood River Valley in the near future. There have been some excellent LEED residential projects completed in the valley and with the signing of the Climate Protection Agreement, I hope we see many more. It is nice to see developers not only making money, but making it in ways that benefit society as well.

Planning for Future Power Needs in the Sun Valley Area – Part V

Last week the Community Advisory Committee developing a “Wood River Electrical Plan” held its fifth meeting. My four previous reports are available here, here, here, and here.

At the fifth meeting of the Citizens Advisory Committee I observed an amazing amount of sincere diligence among all the members in evaluating the potential alternatives in front of us. I am impressed by how everyone is concerned for what is best for our greater community in the long-term. There is a great deal of thought and concern going into how to supply reliable power to the Wood River Valley, how to make it cost-effective, how to protect our environment to the greatest extent possible while doing so, and at the same time evaluating alternative sources of energy and conservation to reduce the demand and possible need for new transmission lines. At the end of the day, even though we have been at this for five months, we all decided we needed more time to consider the alternatives in order to make better recommendations.

We are still on track for a planned public release of a preliminary plan in mid- to late summer this year. This will lead to full public discussion and input on the proposal.

As always, I will continue to report on our progress and you can also follow it at the Wood River Electrical Plan website provided by Idaho Power. The website has a great deal of information, including copies of all the presentations and minutes of our meetings.

Planning for Future Power Needs in the Sun Valley Area – Part IV

The fourth meeting of the Community Advisory Committee developing a “Wood River Electrical Plan” was held this week. This is my fourth progress report on that effort. The previous reports are available here, here, and here.

It has become apparent that in order to meet the future demands for electrical power and have a reliable source during peak demand times in the Wood River Valley and especially in the Sun Valley/Ketchum area, it will be necessary to add transmission lines. This is going to be a challenge as our area is limited by terrain constraints and we need to consider the value of our important viewsheds. Having a reliable source of power to support our key tourist and second home economy, especially during the winter, is vital. There is currently no redundancy for the north end of the Wood River Valley.

At this month’s meeting we finally got our feet wet and took a close look at the maps in an effort to try to identify potential areas where new power transmission lines could be located given the important siting criteria and goals we have established in previous meetings. We came up with several possible scenarios that will be evaluated by Idaho Power based on GIS (Geographic Information Systems) information for further refinement and consideration at our next meeting.

As mentioned in my previous reports, this process is on track for a planned public release of a preliminary plan in mid to late summer this year. This will lead to full public discussion and input on the proposal.

As always, I will continue to report on our progress and you can also follow it at the Wood River Electrical Plan website provided by Idaho Power. The website has a great deal of information, including copies of all the presentations and minutes of our meetings.

Planning for Future Power Needs in the Sun Valley Area – Part III

The Community Advisory Committee held its third meeting in the process of working toward developing a “Wood River Electric Plan” this past week. This is a follow-up to my reports on the first two meetings, discussed in my January 20, 2007 blog post and my February 18, 2007 blog post.

The Committee continued its efforts to learn more about the electrical system, this time focusing closer to home – on the Wood River Valley substations and transmission lines. We spent considerable time discussing current peak demand and looking at future peak loads based on Valley build out estimates.

We also worked on drafting criteria that will be used in evaluating the eventual options for the Electric Plan. The criteria will be lead by the goals which came out of our sharing of initial issues and concerns from the second meeting. The draft principal goals include:

•   Reliable Power
•   New Infrastructure Design
•   Energy Conservation
•   Environment
•   Political Support
•   Cost Effectiveness

Our monthly meetings will continue through June with a planned public release of the preliminary plan scheduled for mid to late summer. I will continue to report on our progress and you can also follow it at the Wood River Electrical Plan website provided by Idaho Power.

Going Solar in Sun Valley

It’s a very small step, but a step in the right direction. This week we went solar in our home by starting to charge our cell phones, iPod’s, cameras, and PDA’s completely with energy from the sun.

 

We no longer have to plug any of these mobile devices into the electrical outlet in the wall. This little solar collector from Solio will charge the device in the same time it would take if plugged into the wall.

 

 

Combined with the compact florescent bulbs we have been converting to over the past couple of years, the lower thermostat setting, fewer lights on in the evenings, and fewer trips in the car, we are starting to do our part. As I said, these are all small steps, but if everyone takes a couple of them, we can’t help but leave this place a little better for the next generation.

 

Here is a link to some simple things we can all do to help slow down global warming:

 

            StopGlobalWarming.org – Action Items

 

And a link to some great gift ideas which can save energy:

 

            Gift Ideas to Save Energy

 

Next time: “Big Steps Going Solar in Sun Valley”