Power lines could also bring other benefits

Two utility companies’ vast plans to cross Idaho with more power lines could actually benefit travelers, by symbiotically bringing improvements to the dangerous dusty Minidoka – Arco jeep road. Ultimately, if planned right, in conjunction with farsighted transportation department leaders, an improved road through that remote area would save motorists who travel between Magic Valley and the Challis / Salmon area, a few hours each trip.

A workable plan like this, reminds me of another unique power-line solution proposed by an idealistic friend, which I would like to elaborate on in the MagicValley.com reader discussion forum, if the Times-News print this letter.

A third item, not many people are blogging about, is another important costly infrastructure aspect, which we will likely be saddled with, inside of 10 years. It’s easy to predict that older power lines across the country will begin deteriorating en masse, due to the reaching of the end of the line of their expected lifespans. As will ancientfied bridges, water, sewerage, gas & oil pipelines.

However, it’s not fashionable for politicians to blow a bunch of hot steam complaining about imminently needed infrastructure improvements, when so few of their constituents are listening to the tedious subject. And why should our elected officials waste their precious time writing the words to a sermon no one wants to hear, until after the collapse? Who wouldn’t agree that liberating expensive ski hills from fires and bringing in truckloads of sand to fill washed out resort beaches are more apt issues of the day for the leaders’ fickle constituents?

In the meantime, notch a friendly reminder onto the beginning of your next Mayan Calendar, to be prepared for frequent brownouts and worse, throughout our country within the decade, due to our infectious infrastructure-deficit-disorder.