Editor:
Mary Lou Shenk is furiously fulfilling her contractual obligation with the Machias Wind Farm, LLC (aka: Horizon) to rally public support for the installation of industrial wind turbines.
Shenk’s recent missive to the Journal asserts the town of Machias would receive $281,600 of combined payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) and host community agreement money. This figure is actually the total amount that would have been paid to both the towns of Machias and Yorkshire.
Thanks to the foresight and enlightened public policy of the Yorkshire Town Board, the 30 megawatt (MW) project (approximately 15 turbines) proposed in Yorkshire has blown away. Nowhere in New York state have turbines been erected prior to the enactment of a local town law. Fortunately, the Yorkshire Board did an extensive cost-benefit analysis and correctly determined the negative impacts of industrial wind turbines in residential areas far exceed the limited economic benefits to the community.
With Yorkshire no longer in play, let’s revisit the projections provided by the lobby group Southern Tier Advocates for Renewable Technologies (START), the source of Shenk’s figures (the magic numbers were distributed at the August 25 START meeting, held in a public municipal building. I was thrown out of the meeting before it even STARTed).
START estimates the town of Machias would receive $175,000 annually, of PILOT and host community agreement money, not the inflated $281,600 cited by Shenk. Further, the 50 MW installation in Machias (approximately 25-30 turbines) would yield $100,000 to Cattaraugus County and $125,000 to the school districts. Unfortunately, the county and schools least impacted by the wind plant would receive $50,000 more than our exploited town.
Shenk then instructs us to “demand” either a tax reduction or an increase in services. At least her greed has not transcended her sense of humor, for truly when is the last time taxpayer “demands” resulted in either a tax savings or an expansion of services?
The estimated $175,000 wind revenue to Machias is roughly 29 percent of the Town’s $600,000 tax levy. Shenk predicts town taxes will increase between five and 10 percent per year. At this rate of escalation, the economic benefit of a potential 29 percent tax reduction will significantly erode each year as taxes increase.
When applied to a $600 town tax property bill (excluding the county and school district taxes), a possible 29 percent tax cut would save the property owner $174 the first year, or 47 cents per day. Turbines, to save forty-seven cents a day? No wonder the Yorkshire town Board prevented a wind storm.
Meanwhile, a generation of Shenk’s neighbors will be devastated by decreased property values, destruction of their view sheds, a deeply polarized town and other repercussions of dwelling amidst a wind plant. The enriched leaseholders’ legacy will be short-term economic gain for the minority, with very real long-term pain for the residential majority.
Instead of questioning my honesty, Shenk would better serve her fellow START members by limiting the discussion to the factual numbers, bleak as they may be.

Bradley L. Parker
Machias