On the first of June, I received my Seattle City Light Bill and on it there was a charge I didn’t understand.

It said, “1st. Ave. South 1 Underground ” I called City light billing information asking about this charge but the person I talked to had not a clue what I was asking about or what it could be but she said she would research it and call me back the next day.

Well, the lady did call me back with the information I requested. What she told me I couldn’t believe. She told me the Burien City Counsel had requested that City Light install the utility lines along First Avenue South underground and they also committed the city of Burien to pay the extra cost of this installation.

Now here is the problem with their plan. The City of Burien really didn’t have the money to pay City Light for this work, so they devised this plan where by City Light would just add a charge for EACH KWH used to the utility bill of every resident in Burien to cover the costs of burying the utility cables. Then I discovered that these charges could go on for up to 25 years.

I look at my property tax bill and I see where a part of it goes to the city of Burien each year. Well if the Burien City Council thinks we need underground utilities so bad, take it out of the taxes they collect from each resident every year and don’t commit us to pay for something I can’t even see or think is even needed.

I would also like to know just how the Burien City Council has the right to ask City Light to collect from their customers on Burien's behalf for this project when it was just the council who committed to this project in the first place.

I would think that a project of magnitude and costing this much money would have needed a vote of the Burien residents. I also think that Burien’s information paper "BURIEN CITY NEWS" would have had something in it describing this project and what the cost would be and how they planned to pay for it.

It seems like there is a lot of information in this paper about almost every thing going on in Burien, so why wasn’t there any mentioned about this project.

On the other hand why wasn’t there at least something put in with our light bill explaining what this new charge was for? I also wonder just how many people didn’t even notice there was this new charge on their bill from City Light.

I would also really like to know what benefit it is for the residents of Burien who will pay for having these utilities buried along First Avenue South. I would really like to have anyone tell me what we will get in return for all the money being spent for this project.

Well I guess now when driving down First Avenue S. I can say, LOOK NO WIRES and just think we pay about $7 each month just so we wont see the wires along here. Now remember we will be paying for this privilege for the next 20-25 years.

The other question is how long will it be before the city will be digging up First Avenue once again to do some kind of work and we all know this never fails to happen.

Don Nold
Burien