Saturday, October 31, 2009
Planning Board
The PB has announced it is considering a "fence" bylaw. Let them know how you feel about that. My preliminary reaction: Why do we need one? If it ain't broke . . .
Friday, October 02, 2009
Massive Capital Expenditures
Keep your ears to the ground on the two proposed Egremont edifices: The library committee continues on their merry way planning Egremont's taj mahal; and the selectboard seems increasingly hell bent on a new police building. Do you think either of these projects will be analyzed and/or presented in an objective fashion? Yeah, right. Why not have the analyses and presentations done by disinterested Egremonters?
This reminds me of the vote at the May town meeting on employee salaries. You may remember that the selectboard recommended raises but the finance committee was opposed. The vote was pretty close, but the raises were approved. But if you didn't count the votes of the employees and their families, the result would have been the opposite. Is there a lesson in here somewhere?
11/4/09: I hear the estimates are in for new police quarters, and they're in the stratosphere. Since crime rates in nearby towns that have no police are not higher than ours, why do we need to spend so much on police?
This reminds me of the vote at the May town meeting on employee salaries. You may remember that the selectboard recommended raises but the finance committee was opposed. The vote was pretty close, but the raises were approved. But if you didn't count the votes of the employees and their families, the result would have been the opposite. Is there a lesson in here somewhere?
11/4/09: I hear the estimates are in for new police quarters, and they're in the stratosphere. Since crime rates in nearby towns that have no police are not higher than ours, why do we need to spend so much on police?
Doggie Day
If you have a dog, go to French Park next Saturday (October 10) for Doggie Day. I guarantee you'll have a good time. And you'll be helping raise money for replacing the outdated playground equipment at the park with stuff kids will love and will be a bit safer.
Wind Power
The selectmen are trying to contribute to wind in Massachusetts, although not to wind power. Here's their recent letter to our governor, our assemblyman and our senator on the pending wind power siting legislation before the state legislature. My comments are interspersed.
"The Selectboard of Egremont is writing to state its position regarding the developing legislation for the siting of wind turbines in Massachusetts. First, we want to be clear that we are in support of finding alternative energy sources for a secure and safe future of our great state and country. This is NOT a debate regarding wind power. We believe that there are many solutions that can be employed to gain our energy independence - wind, solar and hydro being just a few, and we support all well thought-out solutions." Whenever you see an introduction like this (especially in a politician's letter), you know what's going to follow. They don't really support it at all. This reminds me of what a very wise person told me years ago: Whenever someone stating a position uses the word "but" in a sentence, you can ignore everything in the sentence that precedes that word. Not surprisingly, here's what follows:
"The Selectboard of Egremont believes its local Planning Board has been duly elected by our citizens to act in their behalf and to review projects that fall under their jurisdiction. We believe that they have the greatest knowledge of our community and are in the appropriate position to recommend what is in the best interests of our community." Give me a break. Anyone who has spoken with our selectmen knows how they feel about the planning board. But I give them credit for their political astuteness. Whenever you don't want to take a position because it's going to cost you votes whichever way you go, figure out a way to duck.
"We disagree with any attempt to remove either Egremont’s Planning Board from the review and approval process regarding wind turbine siting locally or the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission from the review and approval process regionally. To be clear, this is not about wind power as an alternative energy source, but rather a matter of exercising local control of our community and having more say in its development than allowed by the recent legislative draft." Translated, we want the power to keep wind power installations out of our community. As the selectmen well know, the legislation doesn't just allow wind power anywhere the industry wants it. It sets out pretty thorough statewide standards that must be met for wind power installations. Local control will only put on additional limits (i.e., prohibitions); it certainly won't result in easing the statewide standards. If you lined up every expert in the world on this subject, with viewpoints across every spectrum imaginable, and they all agreed on the applicable standards, the NIMBYs in Egremont would still want to be able to veto an installation. So this IS about wind power, because it inevitably restricts it. So it's hypocritical for the selectboard to say, as they did, that they're in favor of wind power. What they should have said is that they're in favor of wind power only if it's somewhere else.
"Our citizens have placed their trust in our actions to protect their interests. While you are currently reviewing the wind turbine legislation we strongly request that you consider these comments as you move forward in preparing a fair, balanced and inclusive proposal." The legislation is already fair and balanced. And when it comes to something like wind power installations, I'd much rather put my trust in the experts, not people whose only interest is to keep it out regardless of its social value.
"The Selectboard of Egremont is writing to state its position regarding the developing legislation for the siting of wind turbines in Massachusetts. First, we want to be clear that we are in support of finding alternative energy sources for a secure and safe future of our great state and country. This is NOT a debate regarding wind power. We believe that there are many solutions that can be employed to gain our energy independence - wind, solar and hydro being just a few, and we support all well thought-out solutions." Whenever you see an introduction like this (especially in a politician's letter), you know what's going to follow. They don't really support it at all. This reminds me of what a very wise person told me years ago: Whenever someone stating a position uses the word "but" in a sentence, you can ignore everything in the sentence that precedes that word. Not surprisingly, here's what follows:
"The Selectboard of Egremont believes its local Planning Board has been duly elected by our citizens to act in their behalf and to review projects that fall under their jurisdiction. We believe that they have the greatest knowledge of our community and are in the appropriate position to recommend what is in the best interests of our community." Give me a break. Anyone who has spoken with our selectmen knows how they feel about the planning board. But I give them credit for their political astuteness. Whenever you don't want to take a position because it's going to cost you votes whichever way you go, figure out a way to duck.
"We disagree with any attempt to remove either Egremont’s Planning Board from the review and approval process regarding wind turbine siting locally or the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission from the review and approval process regionally. To be clear, this is not about wind power as an alternative energy source, but rather a matter of exercising local control of our community and having more say in its development than allowed by the recent legislative draft." Translated, we want the power to keep wind power installations out of our community. As the selectmen well know, the legislation doesn't just allow wind power anywhere the industry wants it. It sets out pretty thorough statewide standards that must be met for wind power installations. Local control will only put on additional limits (i.e., prohibitions); it certainly won't result in easing the statewide standards. If you lined up every expert in the world on this subject, with viewpoints across every spectrum imaginable, and they all agreed on the applicable standards, the NIMBYs in Egremont would still want to be able to veto an installation. So this IS about wind power, because it inevitably restricts it. So it's hypocritical for the selectboard to say, as they did, that they're in favor of wind power. What they should have said is that they're in favor of wind power only if it's somewhere else.
"Our citizens have placed their trust in our actions to protect their interests. While you are currently reviewing the wind turbine legislation we strongly request that you consider these comments as you move forward in preparing a fair, balanced and inclusive proposal." The legislation is already fair and balanced. And when it comes to something like wind power installations, I'd much rather put my trust in the experts, not people whose only interest is to keep it out regardless of its social value.
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