County is AWOL on wind turbine issue in Yates

Editor:

Orleans County Legislature Chairman Dave Callard’s explanation for his refusal to take a position on 590-foot-high wind turbines in the Town of Yates (the Presbyterian Church steeple in Albion is 175′ high, as I recall) misses some important points.

Chairman Callard explained his unwillingness to take a position on the proposed wind energy project by saying he didn’t want to be doing the same thing to Yates that the County under his leadership has repeatedly said that the State is doing to the County. But the two are hardly the same.

Merely indicating what one thinks (about wind turbines in Orleans County in this case) is not the same as ordering the Town of Yates to do something. (The County Legislature has repeatedly bemoaned State mandates/dictates as being largely responsible for high County tax rates.)

Mr. Callard further pointed out that no survey had been completed to assess the views of Yates residents on the proposed turbine project. To my recollection, the absence of public opinion surveys has rarely, if ever, been a problem for him prior to this controversy.

The more important point, though, is that County leaders merely indicating to the Town of Yates where they stand on the appropriateness of erecting 590′ high wind turbines in Orleans County (something the Niagara County Legislature has done for Somerset) is in no way comparable to the State telling Orleans County what it must do.

Sincerely yours,

Gary Kent
Albion