No one is talking about power plant

Shhhh! Don’t tell anyone, but Providence Everett Medical Center’s Colby Campus bed tower expansion plan includes building a power generation plant in a North Everett neighborhood. I’ve been told that the bed tower will be so gigantic that the existing power grid can’t handle the load. While the hospital is keeping everyone up to date on the parking garage construction and how well it is going, they are keeping their plans about the power plant pretty quiet.

There are only a few property owners they feel the need to contact, the ones that border the property where the diesel generators are planned. I am one lot in, so I guess a letter to me is not required. The planned location of the monster is on the north side of the Everett Community College athletic facility and softball field. I admit I’m a bit biased since they plan on parking this power plant less than 100 feet south of my bedroom window. Today, it is a territorial view of North Everett with Mount Rainer in the backdrop. Tomorrow, it may be a 30-foot-wide “greenbelt” in the shade with a cinderblock wall in the backdrop.

In today’s day and age, I find it hard to believe people would find it acceptable to build a fossil fuel burning power plant in, of all places, a quiet neighborhood. I sincerely hope the Everett Planning Commission will reject the requested rezone to allow this beast to be built amongst the city’s residents. If they approve this rezone, the only thing I’ll have left to wonder is whether I’ll be cleaning green stuff off my house from living in the shade or if it’ll be black soot pollution from burning fossil fuel. My suggestion is: dig a ditch to the Grand Coulee Dam for their power lines.

Gary Seagrave

Everett