Last Tuesday’s Prattsburgh Town Board meeting closely resembled the scene from the original 1930’s Frankenstein movie in which the mob of angry villagers armed with scythes and rakes confront ‘Herr Doktor’. A retired New York State Trooper and now Methodist minister opened the public comment portion of the meeting by offering to pray with Harold McConnell, the Town Supervisor, in response to rampant rumors of alleged malfeasance on the part of Town Board members profiting personally. The next speaker asked the Town Attorney whether it was ethical for him to represent both the Town and SCIDA in matters relative to the project to cover the town’s picturesque hills with 400’ industrial wind turbines while accepting a small PILOT rather than tax infrastructure with a lifetime value of billions.
The issue at hand is whether the Board should “assist” UPC, the wind developer, by using eminent domain to force holdout non-participating landowners to grant easements for the necessary transmission line to connect the huge wind towers. Those who favor the project in its present form – and signed wind turbine leases - have said repeatedly that landowners should be able to do what they want with their property. What’s good for the goose is apparently not equally good for the gander.
When the UPC representative saw the angry standing-room-only and overflowing-into-the-parking-lot-crowd, some of whom non-resident landowners who had driven for hours to hear his presentation, the fellow elected that he was “inadequately prepared” and would not be speaking. Disregarding its own 10-day public notice requirement, the Town Board rescheduled the UPC “request for assistance” presentation for a Special Session of the Prattsburgh Town Board at 7 PM on Monday, April 21.
If any event in Steuben County ever deserved the scrutiny of TV coverage, next Monday’s Prattsburgh Town Board meeting is it . . . the natives are restless.
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