October 30, 2017
New York

Residents: turbine project blowing in wrong direction

WNYNewsNow Contributors: Roy & Karen Harvey | October 29, 2017 | wnynewsnow.com

SINCLAIRVILLE – A multi-million dollar wind turbine project for Northern Chautauqua County remains contentious with local residents raising objections.

Concerned citizens continue to protest the ongoing project at several locations in northern Chautauqua County.

The Cassadaga Wind Farm is slated to put up 58 500-foot turbines. Arkwright Summit Wind is slated to build and install 35 turbines and Ball Hill Wind Energy Project projects 29 turbines. They will be constructed on 40,000 acres of farm and recreation land in the towns of Cherry Creek, Charlotte, Arkwright, Stockton, Villanova and Hanover.

Arkwright resident Bruce Roll, one of the protestors in Sinclairville Friday afternoon, said “You can’t turn Lackawanna or Love Canal into a beautiful place like Chautauqua County, but they are turning Arkwright – Cassadaga into an industrial site.”

Many area residents said they received no information about the projects until they were underway.

“There is a total disregard for the environment, the wildlife, bird and bat habitat, the watershed, and the people who live here,” Roll said.

At a ‘Meet the Candidates Night’ presentation in Dunkirk Thursday, County legislator George Borrello, Chautauqua County Executive candidate criticized the plan.

“The only thing green about these things is the money – because Wall Street LLCs have been created for the sole purpose of sucking up taxpayer dollars and spitting them out to the crony capitalists… This is not what we need in Chautauqua County. We don’t need our natural vistas destroyed by this,” he said. “We don’t need the adverse health effects that have been associated with windmills. I don’t want to see a perpetual subsidy to create those jobs. It’s not right. It’s not right to burden the taxpayers with those things. I just don’t want to see a perpetual tax subsidy that creates that.”

Area residents will continue to stage informational protests in an attempt to alert the public to the “ongoing disaster.” Roll said.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2017/10/30/residents-turbine-project-blowing-in-wrong-direction/