Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Okay...that was close enough!
1:20 AM | 
Posted by
Billy Ray |
Any of you who were around the south part of Glasgow on the afternoon of November 5 know that the EPB campus was ravaged by some sort of ferocious down burst wind. It destroyed one of our building and toppled 4 - 75' transmission poles along the Bypass. Luckily, we had taken refuge in our new tornado proof bunker facility and no one on the team was injured. Can't say the same for the stuff we had in the destroyed building. Best part was that all of the technology equipment was safe in the bunker and services were quickly restored to the people of Glasgow. Still, we don't want another test like that any time soon!
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Green Market Cooperatve, the Beginning of Glasgow's Food Utility?
Fifty years ago a group of forward-looking individuals came together to discuss Glasgow’s energy future. That group came to the conclusion that electric power would be a lynchpin in the success of Glasgow over the coming decades and they reckoned that local ownership and control of the electric power grid would be the best way to make sure that Glasgow’s energy resources were properly developed to serve the local citizens instead of the stockholders of some distant power corporation. After a while that discussion crystalized and became the Glasgow Electric Plant Board.
After a really rocky process of gestation, the Glasgow EPB was born and then took over the facilities formerly owned and operated by Kentucky Utilities and began the process of building and operating a power grid with the purpose of assuring abundant and low-cost electric power to serve our population. Now, it seems like a very simple idea that no one would quarrel with, but in the late 50's, it was quite controversial. Still, the idea of operating an electric grid as a tool to spur local economic development and to facilitate a sustainable and durable economic future for Glasgow finally won all the arguments, and most of the local citizenry would now agree that it was a great idea.
Twenty years ago the EPB started discussing the idea that robust broadband networks would likely be another crucial element in the future success of our local economy. Like the discussions fifty years ago which lead to the creation of the EPB, those discussions started small but soon developed into a full-blown vision of a new way to assure the long-term vitality of our local economy. As that vision was adopted by the EPB and recommended, controversy, not unlike that which accompanied the initial birth of the EPB, came rather quickly. A locally owned and operated broadband network meant full-blown competition with incumbent cable television companies and telephone companies. They howled and complained and, filed lawsuits. Still, the EPB built the first municipally-owned broadband network in the US, and it is still building it and refining it today. This network, like the electric network which proceeded it by thirty years, has become an essential element to our local economy and to our daily lives.
However, electric power and broadband telecommunications cannot, by themselves, provide us a safe and happy existence in Glasgow. Other commodities like water, food, and jobs are also necessary. It is certain that the fine folks at the Glasgow Water Company are doing a great job on making sure we have a plentiful supply of water. It is also certain that, if we provide a robust electric power network and broadband network and water/sewer systems, industrial and retail jobs will continue to come take advantage of those systems. But, have you thought about our position relative to assuring our food supply? Well, until recently, I’m not certain any of us were really thinking about that, but the same genetic strain of good will and intelligence that started those folks fifty years ago thinking about Glasgow’s energy future is still alive and flourishing in our community!
There is a group among us, lead by one Kimberly Page, that is worrying about sustaining our food supply in the face of a future fraught with great change and uncertainty. We should all be thankful and supportive of the work they are doing. Just to help illustrate how important this work is, let’s just review a few startling facts about the way we eat today. It is certain that everyone reading this is painfully aware of the spiraling cost of gasoline, diesel fuel, and electric power. However, did you realize how all of this comes together to threaten our food supply? Did you know that average bite of food that we eat has traveled fifteen hundred miles before it reaches your lips? Well, it is true, and therein lies the reason that communities like Glasgow should be looking at establishing local ownership of a food delivery system which is not solely reliant upon super farms in remote areas growing and processing our food to be shipped to us on a truck. Thankfully, this local group, which is now calling itself Green Market Cooperative (www.greenmarketcoop.com), is taking on this problem on our behalf.
A few months ago a friend recommended that I read a book by Bill McKibben, Deep Economy. I recommend you all do the same thing. It is available at the Mary Wood Weldon Memorial Library. But until you take in the whole book, let’s share some information from it just to whet your appetite.
Modern agriculture produces a lot of food, and produces it cheaply, two feats that people have spent all of human history trying to achieve. The engine of this achievement has been, for a century, relentless consolidation and concentration, a process that is by now very nearly complete in the United States and is still accelerating elsewhere. Four companies slaughter 81 percent of American beef. Cargill, Inc., controls 45 percent of the globe’s grain trade, while its competitor Archer Daniels Midland controls another 30 percent . . . Eighty-nine percent of American chickens are produced under contract to big companies, usually in broiler houses up to five hundred feet long holding thirty thousand or more birds. Four multinational companies control over 70 percent of fluid milk sales in the United States, and one Ohio “farm” produces 3 billion eggs per year. Four firms control 85 percent of global coffee roasting, and a small group of multinationals handles 80 percent of the world trade in cocoa, pineapples, tea, and bananas. The merger of Philip Morris and Nabisco in 2000 created a food conglomerate that collects nearly 10 cents of every dollar an American consumer spends on food. Meanwhile, five companies control 75 percent of the global vegetable seed market, and their grip on the market is tightening as the seed companies patent more and more genetically modified varieties and prevent seed saving. As a former Monsanto executive boasted not long ago, “What you are seeing is not just a consolidation of seed companies, it’s really a consolidation of the entire food chain.”
But there’s also another potential cost to our food system, one we’ve just begun to understand in the wake of 9/11: any enterprise so centralized is exquisitely vulnerable to sabotage.
. . .We assume, because it makes a certain kind of intuitive sense, that industrialized farming is the most productive farming. I mean, if I sit on my porch whittling toothpicks with my Swiss Army knife, I can produce a hundred in a day. If I install a toothpick-whittling machine, I can produce a thousand in an hour. By analogy, a vast Midwestern field filled with high-tech equipment ought to produce more food than someone with a hoe in a small garden. As it turns out, however, this simply isn’t true. If all you are worried about is the greatest yield per acre, then smaller farms produce more food. Which, if you think about it some more, makes sense. If you are one guy on a tractor responsible for thousands of acres, you grow your corn and that’s about all you can do: one pass after another with the gargantuan machines across your sea of crop. But if you’re working on ten acres, then you have time to really know the land, and to make it work harder. You can intercrop all kinds of plants: their roots will go to different depths, or they’ll thrive in each other’s shade, or they’ll make use of different nutrients in the soil. You can also walk your fields, over and over, noticing. As one small farmer recently wrote in Farming magazine, spending part of every day in the pasture gives you a “grass eye,” “a keen awareness” of where small seeps of water are muddying the fields, or whether “earthworms and other soil life are properly disposing of cow pies.” Yellow clover leaves signify a sulfur deficiency; an abundance of dandelions means a shortage of calcium. “Every spot or plant in the pasture,” he says, “is trying to tell us something.” Does this sound like hippie nonsense? According to the most recent USDA Census of Agriculture, smaller farms produce far more food per acre, whether you measure in tons, calories, or dollars. They use land, water, and oil much more efficiently; if they have animals, the manure is a gift, not a threat to public health. “In terms of converting inputs into outputs, society would be better off with small-scale farmers, “writes Brian Halweil. “As population continues to grow in many nations, and the amount of farmland and water available to each person continues to shrink, a small farm structure may become central to feeding the planet.”
I quote that much of the book to make a point. Just what is Glasgow surrounded by? We are surrounded by an abundance of fertile and beautiful land which is generally split up into small farms. We have been granted this marvelous natural resource and this new initiative by the Green Market Cooperative folks here in Glasgow may be just what we need to capitalize on this asset. Their initial idea is to create a place where local produce and customers can come together for commerce. But the hope is that this will become the catalyst for a new relationship between local consumers and local producers. Hopefully the place will give way to new decisions by local farmers to change production from corn, tobacco, and other products which are transported great distances and return little of the final product cost to the producer, to the production of fruits, vegetables, dairy, beef, poultry and grains that can be sold locally and directly to the end consumer. That will cut out the WalMarts of the world and preserve most of the money for the producer instead of an endless row of middlemen. Such a system would help us declare independence from the Cargills and Archer Daniels Midlands of the world. Instead we might create a system which would give Glasgow a locally owned and operated food utility which could become just as important to Glasgow's success as the EPB has been for electric power and broadband communications.
So, be thankful for the folks at Green Market Cooperative. Go to their web site at www.greenmarketcoop.com and read more about them. Become a member. Help them become the next great idea that results in a durable future and comfortable lifestyle for our community. While it seems hopeless for us to convince the whole world to think like we do, it is completely possible for us to operate sensibly in our own back yard. These dedicated folks are already out back mowing it and planting flowers. Let’s all pitch in and help!
Read more about this concept at http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/344/index.html
After a really rocky process of gestation, the Glasgow EPB was born and then took over the facilities formerly owned and operated by Kentucky Utilities and began the process of building and operating a power grid with the purpose of assuring abundant and low-cost electric power to serve our population. Now, it seems like a very simple idea that no one would quarrel with, but in the late 50's, it was quite controversial. Still, the idea of operating an electric grid as a tool to spur local economic development and to facilitate a sustainable and durable economic future for Glasgow finally won all the arguments, and most of the local citizenry would now agree that it was a great idea.
Twenty years ago the EPB started discussing the idea that robust broadband networks would likely be another crucial element in the future success of our local economy. Like the discussions fifty years ago which lead to the creation of the EPB, those discussions started small but soon developed into a full-blown vision of a new way to assure the long-term vitality of our local economy. As that vision was adopted by the EPB and recommended, controversy, not unlike that which accompanied the initial birth of the EPB, came rather quickly. A locally owned and operated broadband network meant full-blown competition with incumbent cable television companies and telephone companies. They howled and complained and, filed lawsuits. Still, the EPB built the first municipally-owned broadband network in the US, and it is still building it and refining it today. This network, like the electric network which proceeded it by thirty years, has become an essential element to our local economy and to our daily lives.
However, electric power and broadband telecommunications cannot, by themselves, provide us a safe and happy existence in Glasgow. Other commodities like water, food, and jobs are also necessary. It is certain that the fine folks at the Glasgow Water Company are doing a great job on making sure we have a plentiful supply of water. It is also certain that, if we provide a robust electric power network and broadband network and water/sewer systems, industrial and retail jobs will continue to come take advantage of those systems. But, have you thought about our position relative to assuring our food supply? Well, until recently, I’m not certain any of us were really thinking about that, but the same genetic strain of good will and intelligence that started those folks fifty years ago thinking about Glasgow’s energy future is still alive and flourishing in our community!
There is a group among us, lead by one Kimberly Page, that is worrying about sustaining our food supply in the face of a future fraught with great change and uncertainty. We should all be thankful and supportive of the work they are doing. Just to help illustrate how important this work is, let’s just review a few startling facts about the way we eat today. It is certain that everyone reading this is painfully aware of the spiraling cost of gasoline, diesel fuel, and electric power. However, did you realize how all of this comes together to threaten our food supply? Did you know that average bite of food that we eat has traveled fifteen hundred miles before it reaches your lips? Well, it is true, and therein lies the reason that communities like Glasgow should be looking at establishing local ownership of a food delivery system which is not solely reliant upon super farms in remote areas growing and processing our food to be shipped to us on a truck. Thankfully, this local group, which is now calling itself Green Market Cooperative (www.greenmarketcoop.com), is taking on this problem on our behalf.
A few months ago a friend recommended that I read a book by Bill McKibben, Deep Economy. I recommend you all do the same thing. It is available at the Mary Wood Weldon Memorial Library. But until you take in the whole book, let’s share some information from it just to whet your appetite.
Modern agriculture produces a lot of food, and produces it cheaply, two feats that people have spent all of human history trying to achieve. The engine of this achievement has been, for a century, relentless consolidation and concentration, a process that is by now very nearly complete in the United States and is still accelerating elsewhere. Four companies slaughter 81 percent of American beef. Cargill, Inc., controls 45 percent of the globe’s grain trade, while its competitor Archer Daniels Midland controls another 30 percent . . . Eighty-nine percent of American chickens are produced under contract to big companies, usually in broiler houses up to five hundred feet long holding thirty thousand or more birds. Four multinational companies control over 70 percent of fluid milk sales in the United States, and one Ohio “farm” produces 3 billion eggs per year. Four firms control 85 percent of global coffee roasting, and a small group of multinationals handles 80 percent of the world trade in cocoa, pineapples, tea, and bananas. The merger of Philip Morris and Nabisco in 2000 created a food conglomerate that collects nearly 10 cents of every dollar an American consumer spends on food. Meanwhile, five companies control 75 percent of the global vegetable seed market, and their grip on the market is tightening as the seed companies patent more and more genetically modified varieties and prevent seed saving. As a former Monsanto executive boasted not long ago, “What you are seeing is not just a consolidation of seed companies, it’s really a consolidation of the entire food chain.”
But there’s also another potential cost to our food system, one we’ve just begun to understand in the wake of 9/11: any enterprise so centralized is exquisitely vulnerable to sabotage.
. . .We assume, because it makes a certain kind of intuitive sense, that industrialized farming is the most productive farming. I mean, if I sit on my porch whittling toothpicks with my Swiss Army knife, I can produce a hundred in a day. If I install a toothpick-whittling machine, I can produce a thousand in an hour. By analogy, a vast Midwestern field filled with high-tech equipment ought to produce more food than someone with a hoe in a small garden. As it turns out, however, this simply isn’t true. If all you are worried about is the greatest yield per acre, then smaller farms produce more food. Which, if you think about it some more, makes sense. If you are one guy on a tractor responsible for thousands of acres, you grow your corn and that’s about all you can do: one pass after another with the gargantuan machines across your sea of crop. But if you’re working on ten acres, then you have time to really know the land, and to make it work harder. You can intercrop all kinds of plants: their roots will go to different depths, or they’ll thrive in each other’s shade, or they’ll make use of different nutrients in the soil. You can also walk your fields, over and over, noticing. As one small farmer recently wrote in Farming magazine, spending part of every day in the pasture gives you a “grass eye,” “a keen awareness” of where small seeps of water are muddying the fields, or whether “earthworms and other soil life are properly disposing of cow pies.” Yellow clover leaves signify a sulfur deficiency; an abundance of dandelions means a shortage of calcium. “Every spot or plant in the pasture,” he says, “is trying to tell us something.” Does this sound like hippie nonsense? According to the most recent USDA Census of Agriculture, smaller farms produce far more food per acre, whether you measure in tons, calories, or dollars. They use land, water, and oil much more efficiently; if they have animals, the manure is a gift, not a threat to public health. “In terms of converting inputs into outputs, society would be better off with small-scale farmers, “writes Brian Halweil. “As population continues to grow in many nations, and the amount of farmland and water available to each person continues to shrink, a small farm structure may become central to feeding the planet.”
I quote that much of the book to make a point. Just what is Glasgow surrounded by? We are surrounded by an abundance of fertile and beautiful land which is generally split up into small farms. We have been granted this marvelous natural resource and this new initiative by the Green Market Cooperative folks here in Glasgow may be just what we need to capitalize on this asset. Their initial idea is to create a place where local produce and customers can come together for commerce. But the hope is that this will become the catalyst for a new relationship between local consumers and local producers. Hopefully the place will give way to new decisions by local farmers to change production from corn, tobacco, and other products which are transported great distances and return little of the final product cost to the producer, to the production of fruits, vegetables, dairy, beef, poultry and grains that can be sold locally and directly to the end consumer. That will cut out the WalMarts of the world and preserve most of the money for the producer instead of an endless row of middlemen. Such a system would help us declare independence from the Cargills and Archer Daniels Midlands of the world. Instead we might create a system which would give Glasgow a locally owned and operated food utility which could become just as important to Glasgow's success as the EPB has been for electric power and broadband communications.
So, be thankful for the folks at Green Market Cooperative. Go to their web site at www.greenmarketcoop.com and read more about them. Become a member. Help them become the next great idea that results in a durable future and comfortable lifestyle for our community. While it seems hopeless for us to convince the whole world to think like we do, it is completely possible for us to operate sensibly in our own back yard. These dedicated folks are already out back mowing it and planting flowers. Let’s all pitch in and help!
Read more about this concept at http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/344/index.html
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
We have been saying this for a decade.
Actually a couple of decades, but it sure is nice to hear someone else, someone who is a real journalist at a real newspaper, come to the same conclusion. Broadband and fiber optic circuits are a lot cheaper, smarter, and better for the planet, than more and more new asphalt roads. Click here to read what I mean...
Link
Link
Monday, October 29, 2007
All I can say is WOW
This guy just said a mouth full. Click the link to read one of the best speeches I have read in decades. Link
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Big Blue and Green
Are you a fan of University of Kentucky Men’s Basketball? Do you know, or live with such a person? If so, please read this. Make your similarly afflicted acquaintance read it. Post it on the refrigerator or wrap it around the remote control. Do everything you can to help us get the word out on this, because, well it is that time of year again.
November should be a happy month. There are still a few brightly colored leaves hanging in trees, but most of them are deposited beautifully on the ground. A refreshing coolness has replaced the blast-furnace air of the summer. There is still left over Halloween candy around the house, and plans for visiting with friends and family over Thanksgiving dinner are well underway. So why are we feeling sort of blue here at the EPB? Well, it is time for all UK fans to speak ill of us because of our decision not to pay the ransom that a network call Fox Sports Net South (FSNS) demands to allow us to carry their network and the five UK basketball games they have exclusive rights to. This is not fun for us. Rather it is like going on a vegetarian diet or jogging every day - while it is good for you (and we know this decision is good for the local economy), it is a mortal pain in the posterior.
Of course, this time it was really not we that made this decision. Back a few months ago, we went to a lot of trouble to create a survey of all of our customers. We asked everyone to vote on whether they thought we should add FSNS and/or The Disney Channel if the additions would result in a $1 per month rate increase for everyone for each of the channels added. We ran the survey for two months. We used every known method (short of hiring a sky-writer) to inform everyone in town of our interest in their opinion. Of the 7,500 homes and businesses we serve, about 1,000 votes were ultimately cast. Of those 1,000 votes, about 300 voted to add FSNS. A similar number voted to add The Disney Channel, but more than 400 told us to add no new channels and keep rates as low as possible. To tell the truth, the voting was closer than we anticipated, but since we put it to a vote, we felt compelled to honor the majority’s wish. So, we again told FSNS to go away.
In our hearts, we know this is best for our community’s economy. Both these channels simply charge too much for their products. They deserve to be told no. However, they think that by sprinkling in a few UK basketball games against power house opponents like Liberty and Stony Brook (the fighting Stony Brook Sea Wolves were 9-20 last year!), they can whip you into a frenzy that results in us paying them $100,000 per year for the next seven years so you can watch UK duke it out (sorry about that expression) with five Cupcake U teams. It seems silly and laughable, but, as we all know around the EPB, their plan has worked well for some of our customers. Still, everyone in the community will benefit from the $100,000 per year that will stay in the local economy instead of getting sent off to the greedy folks at FSNS.
So, just to make this newsletter suitable for affixing to the refrigerator, here are the details on the games which will not be widely available to everyone with basic cable.
Wed. Oct. 31 - UK vs. Pikeville College. This is an exhibition game in which UK will take on the fighting Bears from Pikeville College (just a few years ago they called it Pikeville Community College). This will be on FSNS live and it will be on Big Blue Sports Network (BBSN) at 6 p.m. You will be able to watch it on WBKO at 6 p.m.
Sat. Nov. 3 - UK vs. Seattle. This is another exhibition game. Same as above, it will be live on FSNS and BBSN. So, it will be on WBKO-14 (their Fox station which is on our channel 14), and they are saying they will carry it live.
Tue. Nov. 6 - UK vs. Central Arkansas. This game is part of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic. It will be on ESPNU live. Here is the great news. We do carry ESPNU on our digital tier. Get digital before Nov. 6 and you will see this game on EPB cable!
Wed. Nov. 7 - UK vs. Ala. A&M or Gardner Webb. This is another game in the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic. Again, we will carry it on ESPNU and you will see it if you have our digital tier.
Wed. Nov. 21 - UK vs. Liberty. Liberty University is in Lynchburg, VA. Their basketball team is called “The Flames.” This game will be exclusive to FSNS. We will not have it on our system. I have no further comment about The Flames.
Sat. Nov. 24 - UK vs. Texas Southern. The Texas Southern Tigers will come to Rupp Arena on Nov. 24. Their team website lists no coaching staff. It also does not list any basketball schedule. This highly competitive contest will also be on FSNS exclusively so it will not appear on EPB cable. If Coach Gillispie had a wife, she would not even attend this game.
Tue. Nov. 27 - UK vs. Stony Brook. Stony Brook? No, this is not a hip new restaurant. Stony Brook is a university and a town in New York. Their team is “The Seawolves.” This game will appear exclusively on FSNS and thus will not be seen on our system. However, Dancing with the Stars will be on and will likely be more exciting.
Sat. Dec. 22 - UK vs. Tennessee Tech. The Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles are in the OVC. Actually, this might be a decent game and I wish we had it, but, alas, it is exclusive to FSNS and we will not have this game on our system.
Mon. Dec. 31 - UK vs. Florida International. It is the last day of 2007 and this will blissfully be the last UK game this season which will be exclusive to FSNS. You will not be able to see UK take on the Florida International Golden Panthers on our system.
After the first of 2008, there are 17 more UK games that will appear on our system. Then there is the SEC tournament followed by March Madness. Almost all of these games will not only appear on our system, but they will appear in High Definition! So, if you want to see the very best UK basketball games and if you want to see them in HD, then the Glasgow EPB is the only place in town to get your UK basketball fix. However, there will be five games (if you can call them games) that we will not carry due to their unholy alliance with FSNS. During those games you will have the pleasure of knowing that you are a part of contributing an additional $100,000 this year to the economy of Glasgow. I hope that eases your pain just a little.
November should be a happy month. There are still a few brightly colored leaves hanging in trees, but most of them are deposited beautifully on the ground. A refreshing coolness has replaced the blast-furnace air of the summer. There is still left over Halloween candy around the house, and plans for visiting with friends and family over Thanksgiving dinner are well underway. So why are we feeling sort of blue here at the EPB? Well, it is time for all UK fans to speak ill of us because of our decision not to pay the ransom that a network call Fox Sports Net South (FSNS) demands to allow us to carry their network and the five UK basketball games they have exclusive rights to. This is not fun for us. Rather it is like going on a vegetarian diet or jogging every day - while it is good for you (and we know this decision is good for the local economy), it is a mortal pain in the posterior.
Of course, this time it was really not we that made this decision. Back a few months ago, we went to a lot of trouble to create a survey of all of our customers. We asked everyone to vote on whether they thought we should add FSNS and/or The Disney Channel if the additions would result in a $1 per month rate increase for everyone for each of the channels added. We ran the survey for two months. We used every known method (short of hiring a sky-writer) to inform everyone in town of our interest in their opinion. Of the 7,500 homes and businesses we serve, about 1,000 votes were ultimately cast. Of those 1,000 votes, about 300 voted to add FSNS. A similar number voted to add The Disney Channel, but more than 400 told us to add no new channels and keep rates as low as possible. To tell the truth, the voting was closer than we anticipated, but since we put it to a vote, we felt compelled to honor the majority’s wish. So, we again told FSNS to go away.
In our hearts, we know this is best for our community’s economy. Both these channels simply charge too much for their products. They deserve to be told no. However, they think that by sprinkling in a few UK basketball games against power house opponents like Liberty and Stony Brook (the fighting Stony Brook Sea Wolves were 9-20 last year!), they can whip you into a frenzy that results in us paying them $100,000 per year for the next seven years so you can watch UK duke it out (sorry about that expression) with five Cupcake U teams. It seems silly and laughable, but, as we all know around the EPB, their plan has worked well for some of our customers. Still, everyone in the community will benefit from the $100,000 per year that will stay in the local economy instead of getting sent off to the greedy folks at FSNS.
So, just to make this newsletter suitable for affixing to the refrigerator, here are the details on the games which will not be widely available to everyone with basic cable.
Wed. Oct. 31 - UK vs. Pikeville College. This is an exhibition game in which UK will take on the fighting Bears from Pikeville College (just a few years ago they called it Pikeville Community College). This will be on FSNS live and it will be on Big Blue Sports Network (BBSN) at 6 p.m. You will be able to watch it on WBKO at 6 p.m.
Sat. Nov. 3 - UK vs. Seattle. This is another exhibition game. Same as above, it will be live on FSNS and BBSN. So, it will be on WBKO-14 (their Fox station which is on our channel 14), and they are saying they will carry it live.
Tue. Nov. 6 - UK vs. Central Arkansas. This game is part of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic. It will be on ESPNU live. Here is the great news. We do carry ESPNU on our digital tier. Get digital before Nov. 6 and you will see this game on EPB cable!
Wed. Nov. 7 - UK vs. Ala. A&M or Gardner Webb. This is another game in the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic. Again, we will carry it on ESPNU and you will see it if you have our digital tier.
Wed. Nov. 21 - UK vs. Liberty. Liberty University is in Lynchburg, VA. Their basketball team is called “The Flames.” This game will be exclusive to FSNS. We will not have it on our system. I have no further comment about The Flames.
Sat. Nov. 24 - UK vs. Texas Southern. The Texas Southern Tigers will come to Rupp Arena on Nov. 24. Their team website lists no coaching staff. It also does not list any basketball schedule. This highly competitive contest will also be on FSNS exclusively so it will not appear on EPB cable. If Coach Gillispie had a wife, she would not even attend this game.
Tue. Nov. 27 - UK vs. Stony Brook. Stony Brook? No, this is not a hip new restaurant. Stony Brook is a university and a town in New York. Their team is “The Seawolves.” This game will appear exclusively on FSNS and thus will not be seen on our system. However, Dancing with the Stars will be on and will likely be more exciting.
Sat. Dec. 22 - UK vs. Tennessee Tech. The Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles are in the OVC. Actually, this might be a decent game and I wish we had it, but, alas, it is exclusive to FSNS and we will not have this game on our system.
Mon. Dec. 31 - UK vs. Florida International. It is the last day of 2007 and this will blissfully be the last UK game this season which will be exclusive to FSNS. You will not be able to see UK take on the Florida International Golden Panthers on our system.
After the first of 2008, there are 17 more UK games that will appear on our system. Then there is the SEC tournament followed by March Madness. Almost all of these games will not only appear on our system, but they will appear in High Definition! So, if you want to see the very best UK basketball games and if you want to see them in HD, then the Glasgow EPB is the only place in town to get your UK basketball fix. However, there will be five games (if you can call them games) that we will not carry due to their unholy alliance with FSNS. During those games you will have the pleasure of knowing that you are a part of contributing an additional $100,000 this year to the economy of Glasgow. I hope that eases your pain just a little.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Natural Disasters or Avoidable Ones
About 500,000 people have been told to “get out of town” in and around San Diego. The hills are not alive with the sound of music. They are crawling with raging fire. Where are 500,000 people supposed to go? Do you think the roads are constructed to accommodate such a mass exodus? No. Do you think there are enough shelters and facilities and motel rooms available for this migration? Of course not. Do they have enough fire fighters and equipment to stop this firestorm? Nope. Could anyone have seen this coming? Most certainly.
In 2003, many died and thousands of homes were lost to similar fires in the same area. The Fire Chief at the time begged for more firefighters, more fire stations, and more equipment. The city fathers asked the public (they were the ones most in danger) for more money in the form of higher taxes to finance this additional protection. Guess what happened. The citizens voted it down. Those would be the folks now huddled in QualComm Stadium with no place to go.
Admittedly, even thousands more firefighters and a convoy of equipment likely would not have stopped this fire disaster. The truth is, disasters like these are set in motion years earlier when the perfect storm of greedy developers and weak government officials results in allowing dense development in a desert. When someone buys some land and decides to split it up into lots aligned along roads too small to support the development and in an area with insufficient water supply and unstable soils, a really useful local government would step in and put a stop to the whole idea. But, alas, strong local governments are as rare as unspoiled natural beauty is today. There is always someone willing to put everyone in peril just so they can get their own personal fortune made. This is always done to the persistent cadence of that lilting siren song, All Growth is Good - We Need More, More, More.
It is sad to see so many suffering in San Diego as a result of an event that any thoughtful person could see coming years ago. The same is true for the Atlanta area. They are simply out of water. For years local experts have been advising local politicians that the sprawling suburban growth around Atlanta was exceeding the water supply. But, big time developers were more important to the politicians that humble engineers armed with facts. Want an example closer to home? The same thing is about to happen to Bowling Green!
Bowling Green’s sole source of water is the Barren River. The flow to Bowling Green’s portion of the Barren River is totally dependent on how much water is being released from Barren River Dam. So, this year would seem to make it obvious to anyone with half-sense that Bowling Green has reached its maximum capacity. But, no one at the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce believes this! Quite to the contrary, they are still pulling out all of the stops to attract additional business and industry to Bowling Green and Warren County.
And so it goes. All resources are finite. Water, electricity, oil, all of the things that make a community possible have their maximum yields, yet no one is willing to look any of these facts squarely in the face. So, we wind up looking at a neighbor on a cot next to us in the end zone of QualComm Stadium and wondering how such a disaster could happen. I guess that is easier than staring at the truth.
In 2003, many died and thousands of homes were lost to similar fires in the same area. The Fire Chief at the time begged for more firefighters, more fire stations, and more equipment. The city fathers asked the public (they were the ones most in danger) for more money in the form of higher taxes to finance this additional protection. Guess what happened. The citizens voted it down. Those would be the folks now huddled in QualComm Stadium with no place to go.
Admittedly, even thousands more firefighters and a convoy of equipment likely would not have stopped this fire disaster. The truth is, disasters like these are set in motion years earlier when the perfect storm of greedy developers and weak government officials results in allowing dense development in a desert. When someone buys some land and decides to split it up into lots aligned along roads too small to support the development and in an area with insufficient water supply and unstable soils, a really useful local government would step in and put a stop to the whole idea. But, alas, strong local governments are as rare as unspoiled natural beauty is today. There is always someone willing to put everyone in peril just so they can get their own personal fortune made. This is always done to the persistent cadence of that lilting siren song, All Growth is Good - We Need More, More, More.
It is sad to see so many suffering in San Diego as a result of an event that any thoughtful person could see coming years ago. The same is true for the Atlanta area. They are simply out of water. For years local experts have been advising local politicians that the sprawling suburban growth around Atlanta was exceeding the water supply. But, big time developers were more important to the politicians that humble engineers armed with facts. Want an example closer to home? The same thing is about to happen to Bowling Green!
Bowling Green’s sole source of water is the Barren River. The flow to Bowling Green’s portion of the Barren River is totally dependent on how much water is being released from Barren River Dam. So, this year would seem to make it obvious to anyone with half-sense that Bowling Green has reached its maximum capacity. But, no one at the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce believes this! Quite to the contrary, they are still pulling out all of the stops to attract additional business and industry to Bowling Green and Warren County.
And so it goes. All resources are finite. Water, electricity, oil, all of the things that make a community possible have their maximum yields, yet no one is willing to look any of these facts squarely in the face. So, we wind up looking at a neighbor on a cot next to us in the end zone of QualComm Stadium and wondering how such a disaster could happen. I guess that is easier than staring at the truth.
Friday, September 28, 2007
October 07 - Growing Pains for Glasgow
Somewhere around 1974, Glasgow’s electric power supply began to flow through a new substation located discreetly in our southern suburb, Haywood. Since then, like many of us who endured the 70's, that substation has gotten a bit old and gray and in need of a long vacation. So, we are about to embark upon a long and expensive voyage which will end in the construction of a new substation to provide some relief to our old friend in Haywood.
It is not just the age of our Haywood substation that is causing us to worry. We are also concerned with its size, for Glasgow’s use of electric power is spiraling upward at a breathtaking pace. In August we set new all time records for electric power consumption even though SKF, one of our largest customers, has shut down. If they had still been in operation in August that peak demand would have been, well . . . shocking!
Taking the age and capacity of our Haywood substation into account, about a year ago we made up with TVA and asked them to consider building a new transmission line to Glasgow as a symbol of our reconciliation and of our new love for each other. While they denied that request, they did start serious evaluation of our situation and the likely growth of Glasgow’s energy needs over the next several years. After a great deal of hard work and study, they recently agreed that Glasgow does indeed need a second power delivery substation and a new transmission line to feed that substation. So, we thanked them for their work and we have started the process of choosing a location to build Glasgow’s second primary energy delivery point. The new substation we will build will likely cost us about $5 million. The transmission line that TVA will build will likely cost about the same. You can read more about the project from TVA's perspective here.
This is not a move we make lightly. It is not that we want to facilitate the continued unabated growth of energy consumption in Glasgow. If you have been reading my writings here over the last few years, you know that we are desperate to find ways to convince you to use less energy instead of more. We looked for a new energy supplier for three years, hoping to find an energy supplier that would work with us to encourage folks to use energy more efficiently. We failed in that effort. Since giving up on that search and returning to TVA, we have been encouraging them to offer us TOU (time-of-use) rates that would give you a reason to change your usage patterns. They responded with a lukewarm offer that has, so far, been interesting to only a few of you. We consider that a bit of a failure as well.
So, since it seems that trying to convince folks that not all growth is good produces a result which is similar to spitting into the wind, we find ourselves making big plans to build a second primary energy delivery point for Glasgow. This process will become quite active this month. TVA will conduct a public hearing on the need, and planned route, for a new 161,000 volt transmission line through the southeast quadrant of Barren County to feed our new delivery substation. In this hearing all of the property owners who might be impacted by the new transmission line will have a chance to voice their feelings about the new line. So it is likely that you will be hearing about that meeting, and the results thereof, in the local media during October. Obviously we are crossing our fingers that the route will be well accepted and that TVA will have a minimum of controversy to deal with. Since we have decided to do this, we want to do it with all possible haste.
At the same time, we have engaged a local engineering firm to do some preliminary analysis of our chosen site. It is an interesting piece of property. If your age is anywhere north of fifty, and if you were living here in the 60's, you will recall that the City used to collect all of the garbage in town, and take it out to a site affectionately known as “the dump.” At the dump, the garbage was set on fire (I know you younger folks are cringing at this, but we had not even heard of Al Gore at the time). Those of you who were around at the time will recall that the property is out Tompkinsville Road, just before where it goes over the Cumberland Parkway. You will also recall that you could see the column of smoke coming up from the burning trash from just about anywhere in town. Well, the City of Glasgow still owns that piece of property and that is where we are considering building the new substation. We might even call it The Dump Substation. Does that sound appropriate for a $5 million project?
At your home, if you borrow more money to build an addition to your house, you know that your monthly payments will increase. The same is true for the Glasgow EPB. We will be going out on the market to borrow the $5 million to finance this project. Thus, our payments will increase, and that means that we will have to increase the rates you pay for the energy which will pass though the new substation. Luckily, we will pay for the substation over a twenty-year period and the resulting rate increase will be quite small, only about 2%. Over the next several weeks we will be working to design the specifics of how this rate increase will be implemented, but it will likely start appearing on your electric bills shortly after the beginning of 2008.
Once TVA makes a final decision on the route of the new transmission line and if we determine that the old dump site is workable for the construction of the substation, things will quickly
start to happen. We have already ordered one of the massive power transformers which will be at the center of the new substation. Soon, we will be ordering another one of them (this has to be done soon since the delivery time for these units is about one year) and we are also about to have another similar transformer removed from our RR Donnelley Substation (it caught on fire and sort of detonated). So you will be seeing some extremely large and ominous looking pieces of equipment moving through our streets over the next 18 months.
We will also soon begin reconstructing our transmission lines through the middle of town along a path from Gorin Park to L. Rogers Well Blvd. This project is also needed to help us efficiently move the electric power from the new substation site to the rest of Glasgow. This project will commence before the end of November and, it too will likely cause some traffic congestion along the streets where that line is being rebuilt. It will replace a really old transmission line with a much more robust piece of infrastructure, that will benefit everyone.
As you encounter these obstacles to your free movement around town and as you encounter the higher rates for electric power, just remember that we, as a people, have chosen the path of constant and relentless growth in energy consumption (actually consumption of all goods). We, as a people, apparently believe this is the road to happiness and prosperity. Try to enjoy the ride!
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