Alley Heist writes:

Mr. Strasburg, I get the impression that you do not have faith in the local Fire Departments. These men and women donate their time to assist us when in need. They risk their lives to help us out and you question their ability to fight fires? As for turbine fires causing a major wildfire. A tree could just as easily get struck by lightening and spark a fire just like what is happening near Pioneertown in CA this week. Last I heard several thousand acres were burned. I think that you are super sizing this issue for some reason. Fires start every day from hundreds of reasons. (Car accidents, Freight Train derailments, Gas leaks, playing with matches, throwing out a cigarette butt etc.) Fire Departments not only train for a multitude of events, but they have what is called mutual aide. This means that if something were to occur on the Hill, on 390, in your neighborhood, or in one of the many plants, businesses around here, the FD can have access to whatever resources needed. Cohocton is never alone in any emergency. I think you should put some faith in our FD as someday you may need them. I guarantee they will be there for you and your family. I support them 100% and am confident they can handle any problem that could arise from the wind turbines.Alley Heist

Robert C. Strasburg II responds:

Alley Heist:

Ms. Heist, I would like to introduce myself to you. I do not believe we have ever met. I appreciate your opinion as to what message I am trying to get across. I live on the corner of Maple and Erie Street in the Village and I invite you to stop and visit with my wife and me. Our door is open to all in this Town. Please remember, we are discussing issues and I remember that those that hold different opinions than I do, are people who would stop and help me along side the road if my car was broken down and I would do the same for you.

Respectfully Ms. Heist, I have already been accused of not respecting the Fire Department. Spinning my concern for properly equipping our Fire Department into lack of faith in them is quite a stretch. In my 18 years of living in Cohocton, members of the Ambulance and Fire department are directly responsible for saving my daughters life when she was less than 3 years old, my father’s life when he had a very serious life threatening sugar spell while driving, and my wife’s life after she died on our couch… they brought her back to me. I am talking about very serious emergencies that the Ambulance/Fire emergency crews responded to and I owe them a debt I will never be able to repay. My heart is humble before these people. I not only need them now, I have needed them in the past and they have performed wonderfully. The reason they could is … they had the HEARTS, TRAINING and THEY HAD THE TOOLS! Their good hearts without their good training and tools would mean three members of my family would be dead. Do not accuse me of not having faith in these people, these people walked with me to deaths door and returned with my loved ones. I will not accept this accusation from you Ms. Heist.

Now, I hope you will take the time to understand my position before you wrongfully criticize me again. My position is:

Our Fire Department needs tools to be able to respond to the new challenges that the Town Board is placing in front of them. I am in the timber industry and I understand it well. On the sides of these mountains that we call home is growing millions of dollars worth of timber that does not belong to the Town or UPC. This timber is privately owned. I wish I could tell you how many times I have been called to come evaluate timber in New York State that people have been saving for years as an asset to help them send a child to college or contribute to their retirement only to find that fire has damaged these trees years ago before they owned it and I have the task of reporting to them that their timber value has been greatly reduced or destroyed by these old fires.

A fire passing through a woodlot on a hill has the tendency to catch the forest debris on the high side of the tree on fire and burn deep into the Cambium layer of the tree, ruining it for timber production later. Because many of these trees are on a steep hill, over the years debris slides down these hills and gets lodged behind the tree at its base and accumulates in piles on the high side. A fire on a steep hill is much different than on level ground. In a level ground woods, the debris does not generally concentrate around a tree in such a manner and therefore if a ground fire passes through, many of the trees sustain no serious damage.

Now, what does this mean? This means that those that are consumed with their drive to get the financial crumbs that UPC is seducing our Town with, are not taking the time to think about their neighbor’s asset. If they were, rather than try to discount my point, they would share in this concern that the industrialization of Cohocton by the installation of these turbines brings new challenges. How about some positive dialog of how we are going to pay for the tools that will allow early detection of fire and save precious minutes to help our good men and women get up on these hills quickly to prevent these fires from entering into these neighbors woods? Is this a bad idea or a good idea? Training? Planning? Tools? Are these strange concepts to a responsible government? $160,000 will not go very far in helping.

Let me ask a logical question. Can you tell me how any of our firefighters are going to get close enough to a burning turbine hub 265 ft. in the air to effect putting out a fire when it is spewing flaming hydraulic oil and molten metal parts with the tools they have now? Does anyone have a real answer they can give me yet rather than accuse me of disrespect? I think I am showing much more respect for our firefighter’s lives than those throwing the bogus empty responses I am getting trying to bury this issue and not deal with it. Please … deal with the issue. How are you going to pay for the training and tools to empower these people to do their job? Are you just going to let the turbines burn and hope that someone will see it in time to alert the fire department in time enough to stop the fire before it gets to the neighbors property THAT IS ONLY 500 FT. AWAY?

I have spent hours disseminating information that would lead reasonable people to understand the crafty deception played on them by fortune seeking corporations suggesting that these turbines in our area are going to contribute in any significant way to our energy need. We need energy during the day and in the summer. Out west the wind blows strong during the day and in the summer. That makes a lot of sense to put them out there, especially when there are tracks of land that are tens of thousands of acres large and they are not being placed 500 ft. from neighbors property. Around here we have minimal wind and it blows best at night and during the winter.

If the wind companies had not lobbied in Washington and Albany as they have to secure laws that control our tax dollars to pay for this wind generated electricity, (even if it comes on the grid at the wrong time … they still get paid and it is your and my money paying for electricity when we do not need it) this program would go bust.

It is sad to say, same goes for a good share of “pro-wind” people. If they or their family were not in line to receive some of the financial crumbs from the wind company, do you think they would support this industrialization of Cohocton? I think not. How many of these pro-wind people have you ever seen prior to being offered money from the wind company doing anything in a sacrificial way to contribute to some save-the-earth program?

This is not about electricity; this is about a huge money grab. All I am asking is that while you are grabbing for the money … please help your firefighters protect themselves and be effective in protecting your neighbors and their property. We need tools for our fire people… expensive tools. Who is going to pay for them? Do you think the wind company is going to? As best as I have been able to discern, the wind company is in line to receive $25,000,000.00 per year in revenue off the first two phases of this program. Are they going to fund this need? The Town does not have the money … maybe that is why the entire subject is being ignored?

What do you think some attorney will do with this after the fact of a fire from these turbines? It won’t be me suing the Town, but someone suffering loss will take this to an attorney to try to recover damages and when it gets in the hands of an attorney … you know what will happen then. I smell negligence all over this. Can the Town defend themselves against negligence if they fail to even deal with this prior to the installation of these turbines. I think not. Do not continue to try to sweep this issue under the rug … deal with it! I have only talked about trees so far. There are also people … men, women and children living up where these turbines are going? Negligence?

I do mean what I say when I say that my door is open to anyone in this Town who would like to come visit my wife and I and talk respectfully about any of these issues.

Sincerely,

Robert C. Strasburg II