Lafayette- is that you?

With a 27% turnout (15% had been forecast) the voters of my little hamlet approved the public utilities "fiber to the home" initiative with a whopping 62% yes vote. (For those of you who just stumbled in here, our local public owned utility, LUS, has been seeking the right to initiate a $125 million bond issue and to be a provider of optical fiber to every home or business that signs up. LUS will also provide phone, cable, and internet service in competition with the two local monopolies, Cox and Bell South. LUS is stating that they plan to offer rates 20% lower than what consumers currently pay.)

Over the past few years, elections without any candidates (this was a one issue election) had turnouts ranging from 2 percent for a drainage tax renewal in April 2003 to 18 percent in November 2001 for new taxes for school workers and for mosquito abatement. 27% turnout indicates that the electorate was unusually engaged by this initiative.

I so proud of my little town for their progressive ways I could just about bust. We won't talk of the strong Bush support in the last two elections, for today is a day to look forward.

Lafayette will be one of the very few communities in the nation to offer this service. We are building the better mousetrap.