So you want to add solar to your home!

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I found this 2016 post in my drafts folder for my blog. Even though some of the info is dated I thought I would publish it with the hope that some may find it useful.

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It seems like once a week or so a solar sales rep knocks on our door or calls to let us know that special programs relative to solar exist and they’d like to educate us about them. All we need to do is give them our power usage information and they will arrange to have someone come to our home and let us know how we can take advantage of these programs and eliminate our power bill.

I was doing research for a friend who wanted to add solar to his business. As part of my research I met with 12 vendors (I found 54 in Utah) a number of times between 2015 and 2016.  Here’s what I learned that may help if you are interested  in solar.

Christmas Thoughts

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. This year while writing Christmas cards I was moved as I remembered all the acts of kindness and selfless service performed by my friends for myself and others. Some of these acts will likely not be recognized directly in this life. They are the quiet gifts given to others by generous souls. They can however be life altering, both to giver and the knowing or unknowing recipient.

Why I Now Support A 0.25% County Sales Tax Increase

In 2015 the county voted down Prop 1,a 0.25% county sales tax  increase ($0.01 per $4.00 purchase) that would have split the revenue between the cities, Utah County, and UTA (40%, 20%, 40%) by a 59 to 41 percent margin. In Highland the margin was 68% to 32% (click here to see the official results). I was a vocal opponent to the increase largely because of UTA allocation. I described my opposition in a post “Is Utah County Prop 1 Good or Bad for Highland?”

Darth Vader Dark Side GIF from Darthvader GIFs

So why the switch in attitude Mr. Mayor? Have you gone to the dark side? Good question!

Notes from the Mayor: Open Space Disposal

I’ve been following some of the Facebook discussions relative the sale of Open Space as well as reading the emails sent to elected officials regarding this issue. One of the arguments raised for doing it now is that the “city” has had a chance to fix it and hasn’t, so time is up.

While I agree that there are issues with Open Space maintenance, I disagree with the conclusion that time is up. There are a number of issues the city has worked over the years that required a lot of time and effort to close. If we arbitrarily decided that enough time had been spent and quit then our roads wouldn’t be getting fixed and the East-West connector design would not be underway.