June 19, 2006
Cohocton Town Board
Cohocton, NY 14826
Dear Town Board Members:
After communication with Wayne Hunt and his declaration to me by letter that “This parade is not to be denied; not to be stopped. It is just not going to go away!”, referring to this current proposed wind farm program, I must ask the question, is this the consensus of the entire Town Board?
Wayne has charged me with “throwing baloney”. This false accusation has done nothing to persuade me that this program, as proposed, is good for Cohocton. I want to inform the Town Board that although I may not have enough money to totally fund a lawsuit to stop you from continuing on this path of allowing the financial enrichment of UPC at the expense of us residents, there are those that do and I have made my personal commitment to them to spearhead a campaign to raise funds to contribute to this action to stop this wind farm in the Courts.
My personal belief is that this wind farm program as proposed is a liability to the Town and is not going to be a positive contribution. I, and others, have spent countless hours working to raise public awareness (quite effectively I might add J) of the negatives of this program as proposed. I will now include in that continued effort, my personal effort to raising funds to support the legal battle facing us. You have my word that I will not stop until I have done all in my power to defeat this program as proposed.
The entire program is irresponsible because of the following:
1. Disrespect of neighboring property owner’s rights
2. You have the cart before the horse given the fact that you have already exposed the Town to costs associated with this high jacking of our Town and its recourses and have not previously prepared your laws concerning application fees to cover these costs.
3. You have led the Town into employee and volunteer overload by allowing this issue to stress our Town Clerk, Planning Board volunteers to a point where vital Town and Village business is being ignored.
4. Insufficient setbacks from adjacent property owner’s boundaries.
5. Corporate enrichment at the expense of residents.
6. Lack of sufficient Bonding, what are you going to do in the event of bankruptcy of the wind company? A letter of credit is too abrasive to be used for good toilet paper.
7. Insufficient height restriction.
8. Lack of scrutinized financial solvency of UPC.
9. Secrecy and lack of transparency on the part of the Town Board.
10. Lack of sufficient efforts on the part of the Town Board to seek independent review of the program by qualified experts measuring all facets of impact including, but not limited to, impact on roads, property value, health, liability to the Town, etc. A lack of cause and effective research is obvious.
11. Zoning Law # 2 does not deal with low frequency noise and define the proper scale in which it should be measured, nor does it establish the proper noise measurement intervals and time periods.
12. The DEIS study says concerning the lighting on the turbines “However, it was felt that night lighting could be distracting and have an adverse impact on rural residents that currently experience dark nighttime skies.”
13. There has been no professional evaluation measuring the Town’s expenses associated with implementing and maintaining this industrialization of our Town against the P.I.L.O.T. income. If you start with the supposed $160,000.00, what will be the debits directly charged against that income for expenses to the Town relative to the installation and presence of these turbines?
Cohocton is currently in the financial shape that it is in directly due to the lack of credible planning of past administrations governing Cohocton. Our Comprehensive Plan was last updated in 1970. If you want to know why Cohocton is not ready for 2006 financially, I propose you look at that reason.
You, the current governing administration are pressed for answers to our current financial stress and UPC has invited you into their money store and has seduced you with their “canned money”. Success comes from hard work and planning, what can you show me as an example where you or the past three administrations have focused on working to find a solution to our financial stress by revisiting our Comprehensive Plan first.
Your comprehensive plan should be the guide you use to point you to your goal. You do not have a current plan, therefore it is no wonder you have wandered into the foolish trap so deceitfully set for you. How can the industrialization of Cohocton, which is in direct conflict with our Comprehensive Plan, be the answer? You are in a crisis simply because of poor management which can be said this way … You, and previous administrations have mismanaged this Town.
Are any of you successful business men? Have you consulted with any? There is a big difference between going to a job and collecting a paycheck from people who have done all the thinking for you on how to keep a business afloat and keeping a business afloat yourselves. A Town does not stay financially solvent without those responsible for its solvency doing the proper analysis and planning in the proper way. Shortcuts to success always have pitfalls. This Town needs to sit down and do what has been neglected for over 30 years … go to the drawing board and draft a plan for Cohocton’s financial solvency that is based on facts and proven principles of success rather than this irresponsible gamble you are proposing.
If you as members of the Town Board were to run your personal family finances with the same negligent principles you are employing to run this Town, your family would suffer the consequences. It is the same with our Town, you are gambling with our future … irresponsibly. We need our leadership to properly lead. This shortcut that UPC is offering you is an insult to intelligent thinking people.
Wayne Hunt is calling our facts baloney while he offers no facts, just contrived data from altered “models” from school children and other unqualified representatives in which the majority of relevance has been removed. I challenged Wayne to a public debate and to date have gotten no response from him, I extend the same to you. If you can prove in public debate that this program as it is proposed is good for Cohocton, I will quit my resistance to you and join your effort to see these turbines on our hills. If you really believe that this is a good idea, come out and defend your position in public in front of your constituents. Are you afraid you will lose?
I know where Jack and Wayne are positioned on this issue. How about the rest of you? What is your position? Wayne has claimed he is leading this parade. Are you going to follow a man who will not come out into public and give sound defended reasons why he feels this is good for Cohocton?
Sincerely,
Robert C. Strasburg II
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