On Nov. 13, we experienced a combined phone and internet outage from around 8 a.m. through 7 p.m. We noted that the north end of Holmes Point Drive was closed, and thanks to the emergency crews working all day on repairing the damage. No surprise, my consulting work came to a nearly complete halt except a few items I could handle via mobile phone. I pay a higher price for having business coverage; likewise I pay business tax for Kirkland, which was not the case when we were unincorporated King County.

We also noted that the North end of Holmes point Drive is a general point of concern. We had a nearly full day power outage in August also due to power line issues on the north end.

Therefore, I would like to ask you and the copied stakeholders to consider mitigating and minimizing future risk to improve the security of power and Internet lines. At the same time, it would improve the safety of people in cars and on bikes using the north end. I could imagine that putting the lines below the ground would go a long way; in contrast to the north end, the south end with power lines in the ground is not affected at least not during the 10 years I live here. If you just see the erratic flow of the utility lines and poles at the north end, I am not surprised about the high number of issues.

Joachim Veith, Kirkland