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| County Council Overturns Two Hearing Examiners And Ignores Opposition To The KRKO Radio Project |
| January 29, 2003 Citizens Remain Opposed to KRKO Antenna Proposal In the opinion of CPUSRV, the Snohomish County Council chose to ignore the widespread opposition to KRKO's towers, choosing instead to follow what we feel was a mischaracterization by KRKO that this is an issue affecting the views from only a few homes. Record testimony against the towers regarding the impacts to Craven Farm and other area agricultural properties, sportsmen, recreationists, and wildlife, as well as testimony from the Audubon and Trumpeter Swan Societies, Snohomish County Parks, supporters from Olympia to Skagit County, and visitors to Bob Heirman Wildlife Park were thus cast aside. They found fault with the examiner's 13 visits to the area as excessive without consideration that he had to confirm or deny the record testimony by hundreds of persons that KRKO's depictions of minimal view impacts were understated. This included trips during different weather conditions (clear and foggy days) to view a balloon representation of the tower height as well as morning, afternoon and nighttime visits to verify views from homes, Bob Heirman Wildlife Park, and the wildlife activity in the valley. Subsequent to his visits he agreed with our statements with regard to the significant impacts both day and night. In addition the Council seemed to take little note of a second hearing examiner they themselves appointed who confirmed the findings of the first examiner on every point. Two hearing examiners spent weeks reviewing the testimonies and two hearing examiners took still more weeks to summarize their findings. The Council, during their concluding discussion and summary comments, appeared to misquote the record testimony stating the local residents wanted to make the antennas invisible (which was never stated by any opponent to our knowledge); and they referred to a photo in the record of high power transmission lines that are not within the upper Snohomish River Valley to demonstrate a similar compatibility. In the end this was the anticipated outcome from a council that appears to be politically motivated. We will be holding a community meeting in the near future to keep our members and supporters informed of the process ahead as we undertake the many remaining and required steps to insure that the upper Snohomish River Valley remains unspoiled by the proposed tower complex. |
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