June 12, 2006 Cohocton Town Board Public Hearing Statement by Robert C. Strasburg II

I am opposed to the local law #2 because:

In my judgment, it opens the Town to allow the installation of an Industry and its industrial machines that we as a Town are not ready to receive. The rush to try to seize this “supposed opportunity” is causing our leadership to take risky and unnecessary gambles exposing us to otherwise avoidable loss if the pace was slowed and a more careful approach was taken. The false sense of urgency surrounding this issue is just that … false. There are other wind companies and there will be other government subsidies available to us at a later date after we have prepared properly for this change in Cohocton.

Because our Town is currently not mature in its ability to manage such a large scale program, has an industrial company strategised how to take advantage of our immaturity and exploit that weakness to its gain?

You are all aware of the movie clips where a bank robber comes into a town, robs the bank and comes out to find that he has been spotted by the police and a chase ensues. The crafty robber reaches in his bag of stolen money and throws a few dollars out the window sending the locals into a frenzied money grab and it creates such a confusion that the police are hindered and the robber gets away.

Might that scene be paralleled with our current situation? Has a company come into our Town, robbed our resources and thrown some money around to insure their getaway? Can we be considered as foolish as the residents of the aforementioned town?

If a robber has 25 million dollars in his bag and chooses to throw out $160,000 to insure a clean get-a-way, what would you call that? I call it pretty darn clever on the part of the robber.

Now, if a few locals from this aforementioned town see all this unfolding and run to the judge to get an injunction to stop the locals from making such fools of themselves and contributing to the success of this robbery, what do you call that? I call it smart.

There have been complaints that the big bad Cohocton Wind Watch is going to the judge and is suing to try to stop a local frenzied money grab. What do you call that lawsuit? I call it profoundly wise.

There have been calls for patriotism to support what is perpetrated to be green energy. What do you call that? I respond with the following statement; Ignorance is never as offensive as when it is willful. Do your homework folks, this entire wind industry scam as it is being proposed is just that … a scam. A scam from the top to the bottom. See me after the meeting and I will point you too easy to find unbiased reports that reveal the depth of this corporate fostered high jacking of taxpayer dollars and community resources.

Thank you very much.
Robert C. Strasburg II