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By: Amanda Kelley
09/16/2010 06:17 AM
A large crowed gathered in Cape Vincent Wednesday as the town's Planning Board reviewed an environmental impact study on wind development. Our Amanda Kelley tells us more about why this meeting became the talk of the town.
CAPE VINCENT, N.Y. - -Come one, come all to the Cape Vincent Planning Board Meeting.
The regular meeting was packed thanks to this paid political ad in Wednesday's Watertown Daily Times.
Planning Board member Andrew Binsley said, "I was disappointed in the clowns, and noticed that the elephants didn't show up tonight."
The ad stirred up controversy before the meeting even began. Planning Board Chairman Rich Edsall was called a ringmaster, and board members had shots taken at them as well. Edsall declined to comment, but not everyone took the ad to heart.
Wind Power Ethics Chairman John Byrne said, "It did have a humorous tone to it. But I don't think that the people of the board felt that it was humorous."
Members of the board approved the Final Environmental Impact Statement Wednesday, with one member abstaining from voting.
Binsley said, "I haven't had a chance to look at it, I was at the board of elections from eight o'clock this morning. I have not looked at one page of the proposal, so therefore how can I vote on something I haven't even looked at."
Something that angered many in opposition of wind development in Cape Vincent.
Byrne said, "The seeker process said they were supposed to take a hard look. If they haven't read the document, I think it's fair to say they have not taken a hard look."
The meeting didn't allow for public comment, but plenty of opinions circulated throughout the room.
Byrne said, "It's another step that the planning board has taken, to take us down a road that the community is not choosing to go down."
Binsley said, "I don't feel that any of this has been a circus. From the three years that we've been working with this there has not been one day that I feel that any member of this board has been a clown or ignorant or a monkey or whatever they want to have called us."
Circus or not, wind development continues to move forward.
As for the next step in wind development, developers must now to submit their completed site plan to the town board.
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