June 3, 2017
Letters, New York

Facts show wind towers not ideal for region

Opinion: Facts show wind towers not ideal for region, says Parishville couple | North Country Now | June 2, 2017 | northcountrynow.com

My wife and I reside in Parishville, where we have enjoyed our home and the surrounding area for over 20 years, since retiring after many years of work in northern New York and in the Capital District of NY.

We are both now over 80 and hope to live out our remaining years in this pristine rural setting, with one of the finest views of the Adirondacks and Canada to our east and north.

I have lived in NNY for over 60 years (Watertown, Massena, Potsdam and Parishville); living in other places to further my education and work for NYS. I retired in 199, as an assistant counsel for the NYS Police. I pride myself with being a NNY native, where my forefathers moved in the 1800s.

Ellen and I are charter and founding members of the “Concerned Citizens for Rural Preservation,” which is made up of ordinary folks, who live, work and study in our town. Most of us landowners and property tax payers. Our group was formed to objectively look into the possibility of a wind farm being set up in our area, and any impact it may have on all residents.

The extensive research done by our dedicated members found that the proposals submitted by Iberdrola, a Spanish corporation, and Avangrid, a non-resident Oregon corporation (both will stand to profit) were not something we wanted or needed in out area. Others disagree, but they seem to be thinking only of themselves and the monetary benefits they will be getting, without considering the many facts that argue against a wind farm development.

Recently in North Country This Week there were two opinion pieces rendered in favor of the development, one based on tax reduction and benefits and the other stating all of the possible health possibilities were “quackery.”

In all of my years in NNY I have never seen school or municipal taxes go down. This is especially true now when those entities are required to pay more into retirement funds for employees. Unless I had an MD at the end of my signature, I would hesitate to term all that is said in “Wind Turbine Syndrome” as the work of a “quack.”

That opinion writer also lives in the town, which has the paragon of green energy in this area, with the hydro dam on the St. Lawrence River.

For more factual and objective information, please get online at nnywind.com or Facebook page “Citizens For Rural Preservation.”