Brad Jones, who is running for Italy Town Supervisor on the Republican ticket, indicated the following count of speakers at the Italy Town Board hearing on the Application for Ecogen's windfarm project. Of 121 speakers at the hearing:
• 21 people spoke for the project
• 91 people were opposed to the project, representing 81% of the speakers
Pattern Energy and Ecogen should be commended for an extraordinary turn-out of 20 speakers in favor of their dangerously-flawed Project Application. They "pulled out the stops". Their free chicken dinner, free breakfast, and an aggressive campaign to bring supporters to the meeting resulted in far more than the 3 to 6 people who typically speak in support of their project (versus 60 or more typically speaking against).
Now we'll have to see if the Italy Town Board listens to the citizens, or listens to Ecogen's threats to sue the town yet again if Italy doesn't "comply". After all, Ecogen's sued the town twice already. And even though Ecogen lost both lawsuits, threats and intimidation are what they know best. We'll see how this all shakes out, and whether democracy is still alive and well in the Town of Italy and Yates County.
This evening's Prattsburgh Town Board meeting should be very interesting. My guess is that Stacey Bottoni's arrest last Tuesday at Wegman's in Hornell (for I assume, shoplifting) will be "fixed" at the court hearing this morning – this is, after all, Steuben County – and at the Town Board meeting she will indignantly deny any wrong-doing. Which brings us to an interesting point. When she was busy perpetrating, then being hauled away by the officers, she was still "on the clock" for her school bus job, leaving the children in the lurch, then lying about her absence. Will the School District be billed for her time spent perpetrating and in police custody? Or can this too be "fixed"? Will she – as would be typical for the rest of us if caught in a similar compromised situation – be disciplined by her employer, the school bus company? (Probably not. Her family runs this bus service.)
By the way, as part of his election campaign, Prattsburgh Supervisor Harold McConnell is sending his resume to prospective voters, mentioning his proud years of service a while back at the local branch of Central Trust Company. Conspicuously absent is any mention of his felony prosecution for misappropriation of funds while he worked at the bank. (The transcript of the trial is very interesting.) I'd never mentioned this to you (or for that matter, to anyone who didn't already know) before, as I felt Harold McConnell had "paid his debt to society", we should forgive him, and move on. Still, it takes a lot of brass to put his "service" to the bank on his resume (absent this more than minor "detail"). If, during privilege of the floor, I request that the Town Board investigate Stacey Bottoni for ethics violations, I wonder what Harold's response will be. After all, Stacey is key to holding together their tenuous majority in favor of the Ecogen dangerously-flawed wind project. Like they say, you just can't make this stuff up.
Hope to see you at the Prattsburgh Town Board meeting this evening. As you may recall, Stacey is a bit "anger management challenged", so we should have some fine works tonight.
Best regards,
John Servo
Advocates for Prattsburgh
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