[pct-l] Phones coming to Stehekin?

[griffin at u.washington.edu (Tom Griffin)]

Here's a slightly off-topic article from the Seattle Times that those of 
us who've been to Stehekin might enjoy:
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Stehekin residents say hold the phone ? forever

By Ralph Thomas
Seattle Times Olympia bureau

STEHEKIN, Chelan County ? Ana Maria Spagna has to think hard about how 
long it's been since she talked on a telephone. Two months, she figures, 
maybe longer.

It's not that Spagna is anti-social or suffering from some weird phone 
phobia. It's just that she, like nearly everyone else here in this 
remote mountain village, doesn't have a phone.

And she'd like to keep it that way.

More than a century after telephones came to towns like Seattle, a small 
company called WeavTel is pushing to connect Stehekin (pronounced 
sta-HEE-kin) to the outside world. But instead of embracing the idea, 
many of the town's 100 or so year-round residents are fighting hard to 
keep WeavTel and the telephones out.

"Why can't we have one place in this world where there aren't any 
phones?" said Spagna.

Spagna and many of her neighbors have numerous arguments against 
bringing phones to Stehekin. They say it will damage the town's rustic 
but neighborly nature and ruin its reputation as a place where tourists 
can truly escape their hectic city lives.

Some lifelong residents, descendants of Stehekin's first white settlers, 
fear the phone system would further diminish the town's already eroding 
spirit of self-reliance. They fume over a federally mandated subsidy 
program that would enable WeavTel to make money even if many of the 
residents never hook up.

"We're not just backwards people here," said Cliff Courtney, a 
third-generation Stehekin resident who runs a lodge and tourism business 
on the family ranch. He has been one of the phone system's most 
outspoken critics, just as his father spoke against bringing in 
electricity four decades ago.

"It really has to do with a form of government and a degree of integrity 
that comes with trying to live independently," said Courtney, scrunching 
his well-worn cowboy hat more firmly onto his head.

The phone opponents won a big battle last week when the National Park 
Service, citing, in part, local opposition to WeavTel's plan, announced 
it would not allow the company to construct its phone system on public 
land. The Park Service owns much of the property in and around Stehekin.

But WeavTel is not giving up. The company this week plans to ask the 
Park Service to reconsider its ruling against laying lines and erecting 
towers on public land.

Those who want phone service say it will make it easier to get help 
during medical emergencies. There is no cellphone coverage here.

They say Stehekin's status as a pioneer town vanished long ago, pointing 
out that many residents already have satellite dishes in order to get 
television and Internet service. They say phones will help local 
businesses and they scoff at the notion that tourists will be put off by 
phones in Stehekin.

"I really don't think tourists are going to care if I have a phone," 
said Randall Dinwiddie, who owns a tourist resort and has been a 
resident for 30 years. "Where could you go in the United States to find 
people who wouldn't welcome telephone service? It's very puzzling to me."

Fourteen-year-old Danita Grasser said she hasn't gotten used to life 
without telephones, TV or the Internet since moving here with her family 
three years ago.

"It felt like I had been taken out of life and dropped in this little 
box," she said. "When I want to see if someone wants to play or go 
[horseback] riding, I have to go all the way to their house to find out. 
Sometimes that's two or three miles."

Cabins and bikes
There are no roads to Stehekin. To get here, most people take one of 
three small ferries that make daily runs in the summer up Lake Chelan. 
The lake, nearly 1,500 feet deep in places, snakes 50 miles through a 
deep gorge that serves as a gateway to North Cascades National Park.

Not really a town, Stehekin is a mix of rustic log cabins and a few 
modern summer homes scattered nine miles along the Stehekin River 
valley. Most residents work for the park or for one of the local tourism 
businesses. There are as many bikes as cars, which must be barged in.

People seldom lock their homes or cars. Kids ride without bike helmets; 
grownups often don't bother with seat belts. Waving to passers-by is the 
custom, even if it's someone you saw minutes earlier.

For years, locals bought their gas on the honor system ? just write down 
how much you pumped and pay later. That's still the way things are 
bought at the local bakery.

There's no ATM and the only shopping in town is at a tiny convenience 
store that caters mostly to tourists. For groceries and supplies, locals 
send orders ? along with signed blank checks ? "downlake" to Chelan.

The local school district ? actually, just a K-8 school that will have 
16 students this fall ? is one of only two in the state with no Internet 
service.

Most locals use two-way radios to communicate within the valley, so you 
can't say anything that you don't want your neighbors to hear.

But the modern world is encroaching.

When the Park Service installed a satellite phone system 11 years ago 
for its offices, it hooked up a public pay phone near the boat landing. 
But to use it, locals often must stand in line with tourists and even 
with the best connection there is a two-second delay.

A few people have purchased expensive global satellite phones, and some 
have experimented with Internet-based phone service.

When the Park Service recently sought public input on WeavTel's phone 
plan, many Stehekin residents sent their comments via e-mail. Not 
everyone here is comfortable with all the change.

"I never wanted more and more improvements," said Phil Garfoot, who 
moved to the valley 35 years ago. Now 67, Garfoot is muscular and 
leathery from decades of working on trail-maintenance crews for the Park 
Service and as the local horseshoer. "I'd like to see Stehekin stay the 
way it was when we came here."

Spagna said she sometimes feels a little embarrassed by the whole phone 
fracas, especially since she has become such a frequent Internet user.

"So phones are too much progress, but e-mail isn't?" Spagna said. "I 
recognize the absurdity. I just choose absurdity."

Opponents write in
Bill Paleck, superintendent of the North Cascades National Park, said of 
the nearly 60 letters the Park Service received, fewer than five were 
from people in favor of the phones.

"What really surprised me was that people who have always been on the 
opposite sides on every other issue were on the same side on this one," 
said Paleck.

Though WeavTel estimates it would get an initial request for as many as 
60 phone lines, Richard Weaver, the company's general manager, said he 
is baffled by the intensity of the opposition. He said the opposite is 
true 35 miles away in White River, an even tinier community where 
WeavTel is trying to install phone service.

"Over there, I'm getting beat up for not moving fast enough."

If telephones ever come to Stehekin, a lot of tourist brochures will 
need editing.

"It's great advertising for the Stehekin valley that people can really 
be out of touch," said Courtney. "I hear over and over again that the 
nicest thing about this place is that 'My cellphone doesn't work up here.' "

That's certainly a big draw for Melissa Singler, who last week retreated 
to Stehekin for a weeklong vacation ? her fourth trip in as many years. 
Singler said she gets more than her fill of telephones as a receptionist 
for a retirement home in Seattle.

"I really look forward to the quiet and solace," said Singler, gazing 
over the stern of the Lady Express ferry as Chelan disappeared in the 
distance. "No phones ringing, no TV. You go from total hecticness to 
peace and quiet."

For Spagna and other locals, phones pose more than just a threat to tourism.

Spagna, who first came to Stehekin as a seasonal trail-maintenance 
worker and now is trying to make a living as a writer, lives in a cabin 
that she built with her partner, Laurie Thompson.

"One thing I love about living here is there's such an ethic of 
tolerance," said Spagna. "And a big part of that comes from having to 
talk to each other face to face."

But the phone feud has strained Stehekin's let's-get-along attitude.

One local couple, Vince and Norma Ward, have had to bear much of the 
brunt of the anti-WeavTel sentiment. The Wards, who both worked in 
telecommunications before moving to Stehekin five years ago to build 
their dream home, invested in WeavTel and now work for the company.

"It's extremely hard for me, because I work for the company and I 
believe in the company," said Norma Ward.

Ward said she realizes some of her neighbors feel strongly about keeping 
the phones out, but adds bluntly, "If you don't want a phone, don't get 
a phone."

She and other WeavTel supporters view phone service as a public right 
and say it shouldn't be restricted to those who can afford satellite 
phones. Dinwiddie said he shelled out about $3,000 for his satellite 
phone and has to pay 25 cents a minute to use it.

Mostly, though, they see efforts to block telephone service as futile.

"Without a doubt, phones are coming," said Norma Ward. "That's the sad 
thing about all of this ? all of these hard feelings ? because sooner or 
later phones will be here."

***

Wiring Stehekin


The company: WeavTel, a small company based near Chelan, has proposed 
building a $2 million system to provide telephone and high-speed 
Internet service.

The cost: To pay for the system, WeavTel hopes to tap so-called 
"universal service" subsidies. Under a provision of the federal 
Telecommunications Act of 1996, everyone who pays a phone bill is 
assessed a monthly "universal service" fee. A portion of that money is 
used to subsidize phone service to rural areas nationwide where there 
aren't enough customers to cover the costs. In rural Washington, for 
instance, more than 400,000 homes and businesses receive about $68 
million a year worth of subsidized phone service.


Copyright 2005 Seattle Times

---------------
Tom Griffin
Seattle
PCT Pages: http://staff.washington.edu/griffin/pct.html