Just a math mistake? by Robert C. Strasburg II

Wayne Hunt said in the Valley News of July 18, 2006 “I have done a little math using the 1500 feet as a base line. A circle 3000 feet across contains 715.909 square feet. An acre is 43,560 square feet so each tower will stand IN ITS OWN (caps added) “green” island that is 16.4 acres big. There will be 41 towers on Lent Hill that will create 672.4 acres of “green” land that will NOT CONTAIN A HOUSE (caps added)”.

Actually a circle that is 3000 feet across has 7,065,000 feet in it when using “Pi” rounded to 3.14. This means each turbine would control 162.19 acres, not 16.4. This then means that these 41 turbines will control 6,649.79 acres, not 672.4 as you say. Now the purpose of this article is not to point out your mathematical error Wayne, we all make mistakes.

The purpose of this article is to point out two much more very serious problems:

1. The first is an ethical problem. When you say a turbine will stand “in its own” island, you are very wrong. Because you have worked very hard at discounting the importance of the neighbors to these projects, it may be possible that you are beginning to believe your own story and there is left no trace of any consideration of them in your mind. They obviously no longer come to mind to you when you are considering this project. If you allow these turbines to be placed *500 feet from a neighbors property line, the 1500 foot setback you mention in your article extends 1000 feet into the neighbors property. Therefore, your “green” island is sitting partially on the neighbor’s property. So, it is not sitting on “its own” “green island”, it is sitting partially on the land of the neighbor you obviously are not considering anymore. If you look carefully at the deed to the neighbor’s property, it does not name “turbine” as owner.

2. The second is evidence of a conceptual problem. Wayne, when your math revealed only 672 acres, didn’t this trigger anything. If you really have worked hard at understanding all the facets of this program, being four years into the study of this, didn’t 672 sound just a little out of place to you? Is this the first time you are learning that this is controlling over 6,600 acres on Lent Hill and not 672?

Wayne, you have declared yourself the “leader” of this parade. I humbly ask you to consider passing the baton.

Respectfully,
Robert C. Strasburg II

*500 feet – actually since this 500 foot measurement is to the center of the turbine, when you consider the 280 foot diameter of the blades, this means each blade will reach to within 360 feet of the neighbor’s property.