To the editor:
In response to your 10/26/2007 article “Wind talks lead to yelling match,” the town officials of Savoy were lucky that only a yelling match took place at their recent town hearing. It would have been more appropriate if the crowd raised their pitchforks and called for the head of their king!
The fact that a resident was not allowed to ask a question at a public hearing should frighten all of Savoy’s citizens because, under Massachusetts state law, it is simply illegal. If this were a public meeting, Selectman (Joseph) Bettis would have had the right to allow or not to allow questions. But this was, in fact, a public hearing, part of an official legal process whose sole purpose was to hear all of the public’s concerns regarding the adoption of a controversial bylaw.
Your article also reports on the Planning Board’s admission that the town lawyer is slow to respond to legal issues. If that is the case, Savoy is in a very weak position to defend its interests against the billion-dollar wind industry. It is a lethal combination for a town to have weak or virtually no legal representation alongside an aggressive wind developer like Mr. (Don) McCauley, who is also an attorney. Any wind project of any size would be dangerous in this situation.
As a property owner in neighboring Hawley, I will not be able to vote on this issue. However, If I were a Savoy resident, I would certainly be questioning why, if wind turbines are such a good thing for the town, are Minuteman Wind and town officials operating in such an arrogant, antagonistic and illegal manner?
Rolf Carle
West Hawley
Oct. 30
31 October 2007
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/10/31/ill-wind-blows-in-savoy/