Dr. F. Jeffrey Goldthwait
10141 Lake Hollow Road
Cohocton, NY 14826
April 26, 2007
Town of Cohocton Planning Board and Town Board
15 South Main Street
Cohocton, NY 14826
Dear Members of the Cohocton Planning Board and Town Board,
An Article 78 proceeding is currently pending before the New York State Supreme Court in Steuben County and has been for the entire series of Planning Board siting meetings up to and including this public hearing. None of these meetings were legally held, because the pleadings in the Article 78 lawsuit contest the legality of the entire local windmill law which contains in part all of the siting criteria for each of the wind turbines you have considered. The Planning Board should declare null and void any siting meetings held to date and await the final outcome of the pending lawsuit. What will you do if the courts final decision is that the current wind mill law is null and void? You would be well advised to adjourn this meeting until a final decision is rendered by the court.
Are you all aware that at the last meeting of the Town Board on April 23, 2007 that Town Board member Wayne Hunt revealed that we are not even negotiating financial agreements directly, but have completely turned our financial fate over to SCIDA and Steuben County, each of whom stand to profit more by giving us less? Cohocton and we the people will individually bear all the risk, all the damage to our environment, property values and the probable future financial stability of our town. We demand that the Town Board take the appropriate legal action to retake the power to negotiate any and all agreements between the Town of Cohocton and UPC.
I submit for the record the attached letter dated April 25, 20007 received from Richard H. Bolton, President of the Environmental Compliance Alliance, the only independent expert retained in this matter.
I hereby incorporate by reference and file as part of the record of this public hearing the following documents:
1. Letter to Town Board and Planning Board of Cohocton, by Dr. F. Jeffrey Goldthwait, dated June 20, 2006, filed with and received by Cohocton Town Clerk on June 20, 2006.
2. Research Study Noise Radiation From Wind Turbines Installed Near Homes: Effects on Health (With appendix on Wind Turbine effects on property values) by B.J. Frey & P.J. Hadden, February 2007 v.1. Hand delivered by Dr. F. Jeffrey Goldthwait to Raymond Schrader, Chairman, Planning Board on April 5, 2007.
3. Notarized covering Affidavit dated November 17, 2006 and: 1. Petition for Moratorium On All Industrial Wind Turbine Projects In The Town Of Cohocton, N.Y. with 215 duly witnessed signatories and 2. Petition for Immediate Review, Revision and Update of The “Comprehensive Master Plan’ For the Town and Village of Cohocton, New York” with 196 duly witnessed signatories filed with and received by Cohocton Town Clerk on November 17, 2006.
You have clearly done your best to negligently expedite applicant UPC’s proposed Industrial Wind Turbine projects for the town of Cohocton. You have consistently acted in a reckless and negligent manner that is well beyond the scope of your employment and appointment. You have without exception and without excuse negligently failed to respond to any of the hundreds of legitimate requests for answers to questions respectfully submitted to you by us the people of Cohocton. Each and every one of you has on multiple occasions violated the oath you individually signed to abide by and support the United States and New York State Constitutions.
You have not fairly and equally considered with due diligence the best property, financial, health, safety and welfare interests of the vast majority of the citizens of Cohocton.
However, you have been thoroughly, recklessly and without conscience in your support, furtherance and defense of the best financial and business interests of the applicant UPC and its progeny LLC’s Cohocton Wind and Dutch Hill Wind.
Both boards were asked repeatedly to retain the services of truly independent legal, environmental, financial and insurance experts that would provide a true, correct and unbiased assessment of the proposed UPC project. You acted negligently, recklessly and beyond the scope of your employment and appointment in blatantly refusing to take that necessary action of due diligence in order to serve and protect the best interests of all the people of Cohocton. The very people you swore to fairly and lawfully represent. Instead, you deplorably, negligently and recklessly chose to accept as fact and without question and exception the consistently self serving and UPC biased advice, facts and conclusions presented to you by UPC’s recommended bought and paid for “hired gun” legal and environmental consultants. When asked about those hired UPC guns, Mr. Schrader, the Planning Board Chairman has been heard by witnesses to have stated “I just do what they tell me to do”. That statement speaks for itself loud and clear.
Our Planning Board and Town Board members are merely puppets and willing victims representing the best interests of UPC. Board members you have almost come to the end of the road or of your rope as the case may be as it pertains to the proposed UPC Industrial Wind Turbine application. There is still time for a last minute reprieve. You could redeem yourselves by refusing to issue a special use permit to UPC until truly independent legal, environmental, financial and insurance experts have provided a true, correct and unbiased assessment of the proposed UPC project are retained by the Town of Cohocton.
We the vast majority of the people of Cohocton would fully support that action. In the final analysis the ultimate question will be “did each board member act with the best interests of the people of Cohocton at heart or the purely selfish financial interests of a foreign based Italian company against which we will have no future legal recourse?
Please let me know if Mr. Bolton or I can be of any further assistance in this most important matter as it has grave probable future health, safety, welfare and financial consequences for all of us who live in Cohocton.
Very truly yours,
Dr. F. Jeffrey Goldthwait
cc: Hon. Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General of the US
Hon. Andrew M. Cuomo, Attorney General, State of NY
State of NY, Department of State, Committee on Open Government
Mr. Patrick McAllister, Esquire, Cohocton Town Attorney
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