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Opinion: Residents need to voice opinion on wind farm, says Hopkinton man

Posted 2/7/18

To the Editor: By now you have probably heard that Parishville has been eliminated from the North Ridge Wind Project by their overly restrictive setback and sound law. The town of Hopkinton can have …

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Opinion: Residents need to voice opinion on wind farm, says Hopkinton man

Posted

To the Editor:

By now you have probably heard that Parishville has been eliminated from the North Ridge Wind Project by their overly restrictive setback and sound law.

The town of Hopkinton can have the same thing happen here if the draft law from the wind board stays as it is. Our town board needs to hear from people who support this project. All they hear from is from the same handful of CCRP activists, most of which are not even Hopkinton residents.

The New York State Siting Board is not going to push this project thru if Hopkinton’s law is like Parishville’s law, unreasonably restrictive. New York State Article 10 will not save this project...only you will!

Your lack of support will kill this project that the town needs badly. Sue Wood and the town board need to hear that you support this project. Do this by e-mail, (swood@nnymail.com), by letter to the town office, (7 Church Street, Nicholville, NY, 12965), or in person, (Sue Wood’s hours are Monday & Wednesday, 6-8 p.m.). Contact any or all of your board members: Sue Wood: swood@nnymail.com, 315-328-4187 ext. 5; Steve Parker: sparker@nnymail.com, 315-212-4052; Sue Lyons: slyon@nnymail.com, 315-328-4183; Gilbert Sochia: gsochia@nnymail.com, 315-328-4622; Kelly Pullano: kpullano@nnymail.com, 315-328-5497.

The next town board meeting is on Feb 12 at 6:30 p.m., please show up! Sue Wood feels that the town doesn’t want this project because of the lack of support and she only hears the anti-wind people. Just showing up at a meeting would be helpful. You don’t have to speak, but show up and support those of us who do speak.

If you want this project and the benefits that it will bring to our town then you must make your voices heard! By your silence you are letting Hopkinton lose this project just like Parishville lost out.

This is your town! The “Concerned Citizens” is an organization that has bullied residents in Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties into losing money from green energy projects. This is your town, you pay town taxes, CCRP isn’t going to help you pay them. They don’t want the town to benefit from $38 million and yet they offer noting instead. Zero, nada, zip. They’re following the “pied piper” of big oil in destroying anything that has to do with green energy all the while saying that they’re “protecting us, the Adirondack Park and state land.” That’s garbage. The APA and New York State have agencies to oversee their land and protect it. Which brings up another manure pile that the newly elected council member of the Hopkinton Board wants to wade in, land south of Rt. 72.

The only reason to try to take land south of 72 out of the wind overlay is to stop this project. Period! Our new council member says that Avangrid will clear cut it. Not true. That area has already experienced some timber removal by the owners. If she had driven around the Wind Farm in Belmont, she would have seen turbines in wooded areas, they don’t need clear cutting. It’s just more fear-mongering The land south of 72 is no different than land north of 72. These people pay the same taxes. To say that landowners south of 72 can’t do what they want with their land while land owners north of 72 can is discrimination. Can the town afford to be sued for discrimination as they are begging to be? The town can’t even afford a new lawnmower! Another scare is ground water pollution. Is it because of the concrete bases? That’s a laugh. What about the concrete foundations of the homes in Hopkinton that are also at the depth that Avangrid needs for the bases for the turbines. What about the buried foundations from past houses, barns, sheds, abandoned buried landfills and the garbage pits that families used? What about the concrete foundations and floors for the large dairy operations? Lowville area around the Maple Ridge Project has not had a problem with concrete and neither will Hopkinton. More scare tactics and lies!

The opposition then jumps to “vibrations.” Out at the turbines in Belmont I leaned against a turbine tower and the only vibration that I could barely perceive was that from the transformers humming away like the heating units in countless homes.

These turbines are designed to stop operating when any mechanical balance problem is detected. Vibration is you what you feel standing on a subway platform not standing next to a turbine. How about the vibration of the 40-ton semis coming down 11B past my house? By our new councilpersons opinion my house should have collapsed, my well gone dry and my cat die because of vibration.

The town of Hopkinton deserves better from its councilmembers than what Parishville got from theirs.

Frank Potenzano

Hopkinton