To the Editor:
In response to “Respect Opinions Over Proposed Wind Towers” which appeared in the March 15-21 issue of North Country This Week: I'd like to say that the writer would do well to follow his own advice regarding civility.
I am the business woman from Parishville whom he referred to as "acting like a spoiled child" in a recent Hopkinton town meeting. This grave insult was hurled at me because I simply stated the fact that I planned to move my local six-employee business (Adirondack Fragrance Farm) to Saranac Lake if the wind tower project comes to pass. If Portenzano would stop by and have a beer and talk to me as he did with his anti wind neighbor he would find out the good reasons why I would make such a statement.
In a civil tone I would tell Frank that I would prefer to live in a community that has not allowed itself to morph into an industrial wind power zone. No, I do not wish to live or work in a community that does not protects its citizens against such a major intrusion with negative health, economic, and esthetic impacts.
There are many others who will also move. Many will be the leaseholders who can afford to get away and others will move out of necessity and will unjustly stand to loose greatly.
As Frank mentioned, I have a right to this choice and I would add, also the right to speak without being rudely referred to as a spoiled child.
In the interest of civil discourse if indeed Mr. Potenzano is man enough to apologize to me as an old time North Country neighbor would do, I would willingly accept his apology. If not, then his laments about the old ways of the North Country are as hollow an old log as he.
In regards to the grave importance of scientifically proven climate change and our collective need to implement green energy strategies immediately, I am very much in support of extreme conservation measures and the development of solar and wind energy in ways that are fair and just and do not require rural people to live their lives in industrial zones against their will.
Sandy Maine
Potsdam
