On February 5, 2007, the Bovina Town Board’s consultant, Tom Shepstone,
presented the results of the Town of Bovina Wind Power Survey. The
results show that, as in the Alliance for Bovina’s Poll last year, an
overwhelming majority do NOT want commercial turbines anywhere in
Bovina. Despite survey problems, including poor wording, lack of
definitions, biases favoring industrial turbines and other issues, the
citizens of Bovina found their way to clearly and unambiguously tell the
Bovina Town Board: DO NOT ALLOW INDUSTRIAL TURBINES IN BOVINA.
The survey results were presented at a special joint meeting of the
Bovina Town Board, Bovina Planning Board, Delaware County Planning, and
Shepstone Management Company. About 100 people packed into the
community hall to observe the proceedings, an unusually high turnout.
Tina Mole’, Roberta Burgin and Chuck McIntosh made opening statements
before Tom Shepstone presented his survey results. The meeting ended
with a question and answer period when many people explained their
criticisms of the survey and Mr. Shepstone defended his findings. The
discussions were respectful and everyone had a chance to voice their
opinions
SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE TOWN SURVEY:
“¢ The most remarkable result showed that there is NO
division between full-time residents and part-time residents in their
opinions on large turbines. A similar majority of both groups opposes
large turbines in Bovina. According to Shepstone, statistically, the
opinions of second home owners were identical to those of full-time
residents on most of the issues surveyed.
“¢ 70% of ALL those surveyed did not like the look of
turbines on the mountains and 75% of full-time residents did not like
their look.
“¢ 71% of ALL those surveyed thought turbines were a
major distraction
“¢ 383 respondents thought real estate values would
be a Major Concern compared to only 55 respondents saying it was not a
concern.
“¢ 380 respondents thought that the impact on the
Quality of the Landscape a Major Concern compared to only 65 respondents
saying that it was not a concern.
“¢ 75% of ALL respondents thought that “wind farms”
would be a liability to Bovina
For complete results, Click here
The Alliance for Bovina is very pleased that the survey results show
most Bovina residents oppose commercial wind turbines in our town and
that this issue not just a “second home owner” issue. We welcome
everyone in Bovina to be a supporter of the Alliance in its fight
against commercial turbines in our area and our future efforts on other
important issues which need more community involvement.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT:
As we understand the process ahead, the Planning Board will now give
their recommendations for a wind ordinance to the Town Board, perhaps as
early as the next Planning Board meeting on February 19, 2007. We
expect the planning Board will offer up two or three opinions, with some
members favoring turbines and others opposing them. The members of the
Planning Board are Roberta Bergin, Pat Miele, Anne Bonne’ and Chris
Ingvordsen. We will report to you what each planning board member
recommends on this issue. We hope that any Planning Board member who
has been thinking of allowing turbines in Bovina will change his/her
mind given the results of hundreds of e-mails and letters, the
Alliance’s Poll, the Alliance’s Petition, and the Town survey results.
After the Planning Board issues its recommendations, the Town Board will
take these into consideration as it begins work on a law to regulate
wind development. We expect the Town Board deliberations to begin at
their meeting on March 13, 2007. Tina Mole is quoted as saying that she
has already asked Rosemary Nicols (Town Attorney), and Nicole Francese
(Delaware County Planning), to prepare a law which bans commercial wind
turbines. We hope that this request means the entire Town Board agrees
with this type of ordinance. Town Board members are Tina Mole’, Chuck
McIntosh, Ken Brown and Randy Inman. (Roger Brain recently passed away
after a long struggle with cancer. His seat has not yet been filled.)
We will report to you how each Town Board member votes on this issue.
With elections in November 2007 for several Town Board seats, it is
important for every voting citizen to know how each board member votes.
The mandate from the majority is clear and not open to question: ban
commercial wind turbines in Bovina.
We will keep you up to date as things progress over the next several
weeks. Please feel free to e-mail us any comments at
info@allianceforbovina.org
Hall Willkie
Larry Karam
Tom Craviero
7 February 2007
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/02/09/town-survey-results-show-majority-want-ban-on-commercial-turbines-in-bovina/