No headline

I have no quarrel with people who donate their own $2.2 million to Solar Roadways via Indiegogo, but I must object when the city proposes spending my money on this uneconomical exercise in solar symbolism (“Solar roadway would make city shine,” March 15).

If the city insists on installing solar panels underfoot at Jeff Jones Town Square, they should require a money-back guarantee that the installation will do everything Solar Roadways proclaims in its many press releases. Better yet, let’s mount equivalent traditional panels atop the adjacent bathrooms at far lower cost and compare the resulting performance. The question of what to do with the resulting power from the subterranean cells is easy: use it to do what SR claims it does: provide light, melt ice, and charge nearby electric cars. If the goal is to draw people to Sandpoint as city Planner and Economic Development Director Aaron Qualls says, let’s make sure the contract provides for the panels’ removal if they fail to meet the claims. We don’t need tourists laughing and pointing at our foolishness.

ALAN BARBER

Sandpoint