Prattsburgh Town Board

To the Editor,

Let's take a few moments to look back at some of the events in Prattsburgh. Over 5 years ago the Prattsburgh Town Board was presented with a petition of over 500 signatures requesting a 6 month moratorium for the purpose of gaining facts regarding proposed wind farms in the community. The Board refused to accept the petition.

When the Cohocton wind project began Prattsburgh residents asked the Board to wait and see if any possible problem might develop. This fell on deaf ears and the Board moved ahead. Anyone living in the community is aware of the many problems the residents of Cohocton have now confronted, ranging from excessive noise to vibrations in people's homes.

As a result of the noise and vibration problems in Cohocton some Town Board members in Prattsburgh suggested the town develop a sound law. To do this initially the Board agreed to let a private citizen hire a sound consultant. The sound consultant felt the setbacks were inadequate and stated that "if you do this correctly it will be fine, if done wrong you will need to live with it." Board members Quigley, Bottoni, and Town Supervisor McConnell disregarded the advice.

At the same time Town counsel, John Leydon recommended that the Board sign off on the Ecogen (now Pattern Wind) project stating it was the best they (the town would get) So the Board signed the pilot agreement. The concern over a potential wind and noise law continued to grow but the Board was told by Mr. Leydon that if they enacted a law they would open themselves up to law suits because they signed the pilot agreement. Remember this was the same agreement he directed the Board to sign.

It should be noted that during much of the town's negotiations with wind developers Mr. Leydon was serving as counsel to both SCIDA and the Town of Prattsburgh. Talk about potential conflict of interests or at least questionable ethics, but that's material for a future letter.

Next we go to the special meeting of the Prattsburgh Town Board/Ecogen question and answer festival. Those of you who attended this "meeting" recall no one was allowed to speak and if you asked any questions deemed out of line you heard the pounding of a gavel and were told to sit down and be quiet. At this meeting Ecogen had their own wind expert who stated that everything was fine and there would be no problems. Come to find out this same expert testified under oath at the Vermont Environment Court and contradicted his statements given at the Ecogen meeting in Prattsburgh. Even after his credibility was diminished McConnell, Quigley, and Bottoni moved on with no real concern about the health and well being of the citizens of Prattsburgh.

After much discussion at regular and special Town Board meetings the Board invited an independent sound expert to discuss wind turbine noise issues. In fact it was Supervisor Mc- Connell who contacted him. He told the Board that the setbacks were inadequate numerous times throughout his presentation and that he would work up a cost estimate to conduct a study. After he left Supervisor Mc- Connell stated the the town had no funds to hire him. One would think that if Ecogen was as altruistic as they portray themselves they would come up with funds which are slightly over eleven thousand dollars. At the most recent Board meeting Councilman Kula asked if the town would be able to secure the funds and was told no. He then stated that two anonymous citizens had agreed to pay for the consultant's study. Even with this offer Councilwomen Bottoni, Quigley, and Supervisor McConnell voted no stating the information provided by SCIDA was fine. Remember this is after two consultants said the setbacks and noise levels would create problems and the other "expert" was discredited by his statements in the Vermont court system. One can only ask why these Board members voted the way they did. If only they had listened and respected the initial petition for a moratorium to get facts we might not be in the situation we are in today.

Carl M. Wahlstrom

Prattsburgh