More noise' in Prattsburgh

Posted with the permission of The Naples Record, originally published Wednesday August 5, 2009

To the editor:

On Tuesday evening, July 28 a board meeting was held at the Prattsburgh Town Hall. The purpose was to decide whether or not to hire an independent noise expert to measure wind turbine noise and the effects of that noise on the residents of Prattsburgh.

There seems have been two issues here:
1) The cost of hiring this sound expert;
2) The value of the data this person could provide.

It was brought out by one board member that the town has the money available to hire this expert. However if the town didn't want to finance this effort two individuals said they would pay for this study. That should have dealt with issue number one. In the end the measure was defeated with Harold McConnell, Sharon Quigley and Stacy Botonni voting no. A few minutes later Mr. McConnell was asked how he intended to deal with the noise concern. He said, "I don't know, I need to get more advice before I can answer." Board member Chuck Schick reminded Mr McConnell that he just voted down an excellent source of advice, a independent sound expert. A verbal tug of war then ensued between one board member ad the Prattsburgh conflict of interest town attorney. This meeting showed little progress and less cooperation.

At the risk of sounding repetitious, the mental attitude of several Prattsburgh town board members is "Don't confuse me with the facts."

Tom Sullivan, Cook School Road, Prattsburgh