March 12, 2013
Massachusetts

Casna draws fire for lack of follow through on BOH’s flicker mitigation motion

By Bradford Randall | March 12, 2013 | kingstonjournal.com

Bill Watson, a 19-year veteran of the Board of Health (BOH), was less than discrete in voicing his displeasure last night with BOH Chairman Joe Casna after discovering that Casna had not made good on his plans to author a letter recommending the selectmen authorize town counsel to begin direct negotiations with the co-managers of the KWI Turbine in hopes of mitigating shadow flicker.

“I don’t think that you had the right to change that on your own,” Watson said. “You should have presented [the opinion] on behalf of the board that voted on it.”

Casna cited a change of heart from Sean Reilly, a Leland Road resident who lives within the Kingston Wind Independence (KWI) Turbine’s shadow-flicker zone, as the reason he held off on communications with the selectmen regarding the motion.

Two weeks ago, the BOH voted 3-2 in favor to recommend the Kingston Board of Selectmen (BOS) to authorize town counsel to enter into what Casna called “meaningful negotiations” with the stated purpose of mitigating shadow flicker from the KWI Turbine.

“I received pushback at open forum,” Casna said in a reference to Sean Reilly. “The individual who brought that forward did not want that action to be taken on their behalf, accordingly- no action has been taken.”

Only 24 hours after the BOH had approved Casna’s motion, Sean Reilly spoke to the selectmen in open forum and encouraged the board not to support the authorization of town counsel.

“Our health and our well being should never be negotiable,” Reilly defiantly told the BOS on February 26.

Later that week, Casna told KingstonJournal.com that while he still believed his proposal to be “a good idea,” he would “immediately make a motion to reconsider” at last night’s BOH meeting.

Last night’s meeting did not start with reconsideration and the motion was not brought up until Watson started making inquiries nearly 30 minutes after the meeting had been called to order.

Daniel Sapir referenced the Journal’s March 1 report. “So that wasn’t correct then? When you said you would make the rescinding of that your first order of business?” Sapir asked Casna.

“I changed my mind,” Casna responded.

Casna asked both Watson and William Kavol if they wanted to reconsider the vote; neither one took the chairman up on the offer.

Only board members from the prevailing side of a vote may put forth a motion to reconsider.

Casna did not motion to reconsider and maintained his support for the motion last night. “At a later time I want to be able to say that I encouraged that we looked in every direction,” Casna said.

Casna (also the BOS Chairman) pledged to present the selectmen with a letter at tonight’s BOS meeting to recommend authorizing town counsel’s participation in negotiations to mitigate shadow flicker from the KWI Turbine.

Only the BOS have the authority to allocate the financing that is required to sustain town counsel’s participation in shadow flicker negotiations.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/03/12/casna-draws-fire-for-lack-of-follow-through-on-bohs-flicker-mitigation-motion/