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  • Valorie Gibbs, of Traverse City, and a member of Michigan Citizens for Energy, the Economy and the Environment, waits Thursday outside of the Dennos Museum for people to sign a petition allowing the proposed biomass plant to be voted on by the citizens of Traverse City. Record-Eagle/Keith King

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June 18, 2010

Dodd: Biomass signatures pass halfway point

Ex-mayor wants voters to decide on L&P plans

BY ART BUKOWSKI abukowski@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Organizers of an effort to give city residents the right to vote on plans for a wood-burning power plant said they've collected more than half the signatures needed to reserve ballot space.

Former Traverse City Mayor Margaret Dodd recently began circulating a petition in hopes of getting a city charter amendment on the November general election ballot. The amendment would give city residents the right to vote on Traverse City Light & Power's plans for a biomass plant.

A separate petition by Dodd seeks to give voters the right to amend the charter and bring Light & Power operations back under the city commission's control. Light & Power is run by its own seven-member board, though it once was a fully-contained city department.

Dodd needs 566 signatures for each proposal to place them on the ballot, a figure that amounts to 5 percent of registered city voters. She said Thursday she's not entirely sure how many she has because organizers are actively circulating petitions.

"We know for sure that we have in hand way more than half," she said.

Dodd and her group — Michigan Citizens for Energy, the Economy and the Environment — have until June 25 to get the signatures to the city clerk's office.

"We have no fears that we cannot meet the number" by deadline, Dodd said.

Light & Power Executive Director Ed Rice didn't have much reaction to the petitions.

"It is what it is, and we'll just have to live with it," he said. "I'd be a little concerned turning major power generation into a popular vote."

Voters tend to oppose concepts they don't understand, Rice said. He believes power generation choices should be removed from politics and determined by industry professionals.

Traverse City resident John Burgess, 78, signed the petition regarding Light & Power's autonomy, and now he's helping circulate it. He followed the biomass issue, and doesn't believe Light & Power handled it well.

Burgess has camped out at the Traverse Area District Library on Woodmere and gathered dozens of signatures.

"With no exaggeration, I would say the trend would be at least 25 to 1 in favor of the petition," he said.

Rice said he isn't sure if the petitions should be construed as a public indictment of Light & Power's handling of the biomass issue.

"I hope not," he said. "It's hard to determine what exactly is on people's minds."

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