Shelby residents urged to sign petition banning commercial wind projects, industrial mining

Editor:

Town of Shelby residents, please read and sign our petition if you are tired of having revisit the fight to protect the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge year after year.

The petition reads as follows: We, the undersigned residents of the Town of Shelby, NY, are asking that the Town of Shelby formally pass a law banning any commercial industrial wind projects and commercial industrial mining in the town. The town’s residents have overwhelmingly rejected these proposals for over 15 years. We should not have to keep revisiting this fight.”

The Town of Shelby only has a 5-member board. Over the years several board members have secretly been approached by both industrial mining companies and industrial wind turbine companies and asked to sign lucrative contracts for the use of their land.

Board members have been pitted against town residents because they stand to gain financially for their positions on the board. In a recent case it involved access to town legal counsel who worked for a firm representing the wind company. The conflicts of interest are undeniable.

It is time to put these issues to rest once and for all. The Town of Shelby is in the middle of the second largest migratory bird flyway in the country. These industrial applications, while they may be appropriate elsewhere, are a danger to the wildlife that frequent the refuge as well as the way of life for the town residents. They affect everyone in the town, not just a single property owner.

Town residents should not have to revisit and refight these issues every time a board member gets offered money for allowing industrial mining or industrial wind turbines on their property. Please create a local law that bans these applications within the Town of Shelby.  Please just click here for a link to sign the petition.  Thank you.

Sincerely,

Wendi Pencille

Town of Shelby