Seasonal residents protect natural resources

In response to the comment by "outgoing" Cape Vincent Supervisor Thomas Rienbeck wherein he refers to seasonal voters as selfish rich folks only interested in their cottages: Mr. Rienbeck no doubt loves seasonal residents when they pay their higher-than-average property taxes and when they financially support local business and community events.

Left in office, he would continue to appreciate all the revenue that seasonals pour into the community just so long as they dare not vote in opposition to polices he promotes, policies that would result in the destruction of many of the area's natural resources and the small-town ambience that attract seasonal residents and vacationers here in the first place.

Seasonal residents are in fact rich, but in most cases not financially rich as his comments imply. They are enriched by their enjoyment of time spent in some of the most relaxing and beautiful locations in the country, the Thousand Islands and the Golden Crescent. Seasonals choose to come to upstate New York (and in many cases retire here) from many distant destinations.

As community residents they should be afforded the same rights of citizenship as longtime residents. They pay their share, they support the community, and they also feel an obligation to protect the natural and wildlife resources of the area, an obligation that Mr. Rienbeck seems all too willing to sell to the highest bidder and deface in the process.

Also in the same edition, Don DiMonda of Sackets Harbor condemns the Times for speaking out against the Galloo Island payment-in-lieu-of-taxes arrangement. While he freely admonishes the Times for speaking out against a project that would seemingly generate millions of dollars of revenue for area towns and school districts, he conveniently forgets to say just where those millions come from. The PILOT payments are in fact only a small portion of the proceeds of millions and millions of dollars in financial incentives and tax adjustments freely given to wind developers and funded by we the people of the already bankrupt state of New York.

Every dollar of tax concessions (PILOTs, sales tax, etc.) extracted from local taxing jurisdictions becomes an instant dollar of profit for the project developer. These people know not and care not that their endeavors destroy the natural beauty, wildlife and recreational attractions of the area; they care not about negative impacts on the area's number two revenue source (travel, tourism and seasonal residents). They care not about decreased property values (and corresponding lower tax assessments).

Charles Wilson

Three Mile Bay