Concerned Residents of Hammond Dropping Article 78

The Concerned Residents of Hammond announced today they will petition the St. Lawrence County Supreme Court to discontinue their Article 78 proceeding that was filed last December 8th, 2009 challenging the legality of the the Hammond Town Wind Law Ordinance. This action was originally filed the day after the lame duck board, including the then Town Supervisor and a sitting Councilman who had been soundly defeated in last November's election, chose to enact the law without adhering to proper procedure or good judgment. "This was the only thing we could do at that time to protect the best interests of all of Hammond's citizens." stated Mary Hamilton, President of the Concerned Residents community group. She further said, "The law was critically flawed and without our action, it could have permitted nearly unrestricted construction of fifty-story tall wind turbines in Hammond. Our effort prevented any permits from being issued by the town before the new board took office in January." On January 4th, 2010, Ron Bertram, Supervisor, along with Councilmen Doug Delosh and Dr. Jim Tague, took office and immediately set in motion several initiatives directed at better analyzing and improving the wind law. They instituted a six-month moratorium, clarified the town approval process and created a Citizens Wind Advisory Board. Ten volunteer Hammond citizens were appointed in March and have been meeting regularly over the past few months in publicly scheduled, open meetings where the law has been discussed and educated, professional presentations have been made. Detailed copies of the minutes have been made available to the public and all Hammond citizens have been encouraged to attend the meetings and/or to read the minutes. While a great deal of work is yet to be done by the committee before it makes its final recommendations, it appears that the committee is taking an open, serious look at the many issues involved to reach a conclusion that will be in the best interest of the entire community.

Hamilton concluded by saying, “The Concerned Residents were very disappointed to have been placed in this position by the ill conceived actions of the previous Board requiring the initiation of the Article 78 proceeding. The cost to both the town and the Concerned Residents in time and legal expenses could have been better used in other ways. While the wind issue is far from settled to everyone's satisfaction and the Concerned Residents continue to believe that the law passed in December was not properly formulated, we now believe, that based on the actions of the new board, we can safely step back from the confrontational circumstance we find ourselves in and save the town any additional legal expense. That is in everyone's best interest.”