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Friday, November 16, 2007November 16 2007It’s All About Money, Crowd Told by NY-Focused Investor  In the Town of Italy, Ontario County, for instance, a deep-pocketed developer threatened to sue the poor municipality if the town board refused to simply rubber-stamp wind-farm plans. The profits from the $100 million projects – they can run as high as 27 percent on investment annually – are ending up in Italy, Spain and Ireland; no New York Power Authority here. In some counties – Madison, for instance – early wind projects were so welcome they are paying no county taxes at all.Such projects often benefit, not communities, “but three farmers with 1,000 acres each.” But Pitman, president of Tom Golisano’s Empire State Wind Energy, came to the Cherry Valley Community Center Tuesday, Nov. 13 – at the invitation of Supervisor Tom Garretson and the town’s Committee on Renewable and Alternative Energy – not to bury wind power, but to praise it. And his humor-laced enthusiasm kept the crowd of 100 in the old gym engaged for more than two hours as he detailed his company’s goal of collaborating with communities that see benefits in wind-farm development. “If I make a killing,” he said, “you make half a killing.” The model – Golisano, the company’s founder, is billionaire founder of Paychex and three time candidate for governor – is in stark contrast with Cherry Valley’s experience: First, Global Winds Harvest sought to put a wind farm on Cape Wycoff, across from the Cherry Valley-Springfield Central School; then, Reunion Power sought approval of 25 turbines in the East Hills section. A years-long battle ensued, pitting landowners who stood to benefit financially from newcomers drawn to Cherry Valley by its rural character. Global Winds and Reunion dealt first with property owners, then with the municipality. Empire State’s approach is the opposite. It deals with the “taxing authority” first to determine if a community wants wind power, how much it wants, where it wants the turbines, and so on. Only when an agreement with the town has been reached does the developer canvas property owners. So far, Empire State has contracts with four towns around Lake Ontario – Butler, Huron, Rose and Wolcott – and Benton in the Finger Lakes. “We didn’t have any legal fights,” said Pitman, former manager of the Massena Electric Department. “We had conversations.” Whereas secrecy characterizes most wind developers, Empire Wind tries to be transparent in discussing investment, construction and returns. If landowners want confidentially, the company will respect that, Pitman said; if the landowner doesn’t care, the company will make those details public as well. It was unclear by the meeting’s end how good a fit Empire Wind and Cherry Valley might be. Pitman started talking about 24 turbines. Asked about smaller ones, he said Steel Winds, at the old Bethlehem Steel plant in Lackawanna, is successful with eight. Sodus public schools, near Rochester, are using state Education Department’s EXCEL funding to install mini-turbines on school roofs. At the outset, Garretson’s concept was perhaps two turbines – one to supply power locally, the other to generate revenues to cover town operations. But, at several points, Pitman was clear: The smaller the project, the less revenues to spread around. At some point, Cherry Valley might not be worth Empire State’s efforts. When Andy Minnig of Advocates for Cherry Valley, began a slightly tough line of questioning, Pitman replied, “I’m not even suggesting we’re interested in coming to Cherry Valley at all.” At evening’s end, the reaction was mixed. “In the end,” said Erik Miller, Otsego County Conservation Association executive director, “we’re still going to have to look at the impact of industrial development in rural setting.” But Garretson said, “I think we’re on the right track.” “I don’t know,” said Cornwell. “Information – that was the good of tonight.” He said his committee will take up the issue when it meets next, Tuesday, Dec. 11. New Barn Built in Old Fashion  In 1883, Ingalls men climbed the hill to the east of today’s Route 28. They felled hemlocks, milled them and dragged them down the hill. The result of their labors – that big barn northeast of the Seminary Road intersection, now on Cooperstown Dreams Park property – is commandingly evident even today, 124 years later. In the summer of 2006, new generations of Ingalls men, David and the third of his four sons, Peter, 24, climbed that same hill and cut similar hemlocks, straight, stable, disease-resistant. Over the winter, father and son smoothed out the 26-foot beams with a motorized – some things do change – handmill. And for the past few weeks a team of skilled carpenters – it includes second son Ben, Peter and John Edgington, a veteran of barn renovations at The Farmers’ Museum – have been building a very similar barn about a quarter-mile from the original. (Neighbor Dwaine Sharratt, who runs Beaver Valley Campground up the road, and Ron Conger and John Craig of Cooperstown, round out the team.) Father Dave (his other sons are Nate, 32, and Micah, 22) is proud there isn’t a single nail in the structure, just like the original – it’s all heavy timbers and wooden pegs. This winter, he plans to hand-split black locust shingles to complete the roof next year. The shingles may very well be from the same stand of black locusts the 19th-century Ingallses used. It was a beehive of activity the other afternoon on the summit above the Ingalls’ blueberry farm on Seminary Road. The frame was up – six “bents,” Ben, 29, explained, a bent being the H-shaped configuration. Set side by side, they make up the wall. The model was a type of four-bent threshing mill that’s common around here. “Six,” said Ben, “so we can put in a whole second floor.” While timber-framing never disappeared, it did fall into little use, before experiencing a revival in the 1980s, Edgington explained. Today, there’s a national Timber Framers Guild and other organizations dedicated to keeping the method alive. “I like the ax work myself,” said John. “It’s not like cutting a whole bunch of 2x4s and same length and nailing them into a wall.” In a few days, the roof will be on. In the summer, Dave, a school counselor in Oneonta, and wife Darlene rent their home to Dreams Park families, so they’ll be moving into the barn and they’ll continue to move things forward. Dave has few illusions, however. “It won’t be done for 10 years.” Paid-Parking Foes Rally Citizens gathered at anti-paid-parking advocate Neil Weiller’s house Tuesday evening, Nov. 13, and the next morning “No Paid Parking” signs – red letters on a white background – popped up all over the village. Rod Torrence, the other businessman who with Weiller has been leading an 11th-hour effort to derail village trustees plans to charge for parking during the summer months, said the three dozen people at the meeting “opened their checkbooks.” In addition to the signs and other placards, a flier is going out to all village voters, urging them to “make ourselves heard” at the monthly village board meeting, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 22. Because of the size of the crowd expected, the session has been moved from 22 Main to Cooperstown Middle/High School’s Sterling Auditorium. The main objection, Torrence said, is not to paid parking in the Doubleday Field parking lot, but along Main and Pioneer streets. Things have advanced to such a point, however, that the opponents believe the trustees should simply reject the proposal, restudy it and come up with a more appropriate proposal, he said. “It’s not against paid parking,” added Weiller. “It’s about this proposal. Yes/no. Back to the drawing board.” The Police Committee – Deputy Mayor Paul Kuhn and Trustees Lynne Mebust and Grace Kull – plus Trustee Jeff Katz, have favored the proposal as is. Trustees Eric Hage and Milo V. Stewart Jr. have gone against it. If one of the proponents were to switch sides, the trustees would be split 3-3, and Mayor Carol B. Waller would then cast the tie-breaking vote. It couldn’t be determined at mid-week if any of the advocates were having second thoughts. As of Wednesday, Nov. 14, Waller still had questions about who is parking in the Doubleday Field lot, whether the Chestnut Street lot – to be set aside for downtown employees – has enough spaces, and whether enough revenue would be generated to cover the estimated $100,000 cost of the pay-and-display machines. “Are we dealing with perception or facts?” she asked. She suggested forming a Commission on Parking that would include residents and merchants, as well as trustees, to advise the board on a final product. The village is in financial straits – parking revenues would be used to pay for new sewerage, water lines and sidewalks on the south side and Irish Hill – but not to the degree that trustees need to act immediately. “We’re struggling, but we’re not at the brink yet,” she said. For his part, Kuhn stressed the point that, whatever is done, “we’re talking about a three-month period.” The parking regulations would only apply from June 1 to Labor Day, the high-tourist months. Because of the anticipated revenues – between $200,000 and $600,000 or more, depending on parameters – he said of the prospective $100,000 outlay for machines, “I don’t think there’s any risk here whatsoever.” Mebust and Village Treasurer Mary Ann Henderson have been working on various financial scenarios – depending on the number of spaces, rates and time limits – and Henderson said the spread sheet will be presented at Monday’s hearing. That evening, said Waller, she will continue the public hearing on the proposed paid-parking law, and allow all to have their say. She said there is no necessity to vote on the proposal, although the trustees may choose to do so. Some of the hearings to date have become somewhat heated, to the point that – at one meeting – Police Chief Diana Nicols summoned a patrolman off the beat to stand in the hall outside trustees’ chambers, just in case. Because the middle/high school is outside village limits, Nicols said, village police have no jurisdiction. However, she said she will be in contact with county Sheriff Rich Devlin to ensure a deputy will be on site or available in case it’s needed. Bassett Initiative Saves Farmers' Lives  In Sweden, farm deaths per 1,000 dropped from 18 to eight after roll bars were installed on tractors. In the laissez-faire U.S., getting it done is a little more of a challenge. But it’s a challenge Bassett Healthcare’s NYCAMH was willing to take on. NYCAMH – it stands for the New York State Center for Agricultural Medicine & Health – was the brainchild of Dr. John May, now scientific director of Bassett’s Research Institute. Keynoter at the Friends of Bassett President’s Forum Breakfast Wednesday, Nov. 14, at The tesaga, May – after a quick review of the “smorgasbord” of Bassett research now underway, from diabetes research to preparing for the 2009 Health Census – plunged into a subject close to his heart. When people think of Bassett research, Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, who pioneered bone-marrow transplantation (and later won a Nobel Prize) comes to mind. Or Dr. Ted Peters’ internationally renown expertise in albumin. May’s focus may be more down to the good earth. Bassett President Bill Streck remembered how May, as a young doctor studying the damage silage was causing farmers’ lungs, would return to a neighboring office in jeans and manure-covered boots to change and begin his rounds. The NYCAMH initiative is in the same mold, applying social-science processes in seeking to allay an everyday, but often-fatal, mishap. May’s researchers discovered three “barriers,” which he described as: • Too experienced. So a promotional program – “social marketing,” Mays called it – was devised featuring a farmer and his children: Dad dies, the children suffer. • Too costly. A roll bar costs between $750 and $1,200, so NYCAMH came up with grant money to cover 70 percent of the cost up to $600. It’s called the New York Rollover Protective Structure (ROPS) Retrofit Rebate Program • Too complicated. It can take six to eight calls to pick a roll bar and arrange to have it attached, so NYCAMH devised a “ROPS Hotline” where receptionists will handle all those details for the caller. This “community based process,” measuring, innovating, measuring, is playing out in other ways as well under the Research Institute’s auspices. When a short-handled blueberry rake used in Maine was causing wrist, back, neck and knee injuries, a longer-handled rake was devised and injuries declined. A new apple-picking basket is being developed to ease orchard workers back injuries in Upstate New York and Maine. Plants are being adjusted to shade tobacco workers in the Connecticut River Valley. Hops Shortage Hits Ommegang Brewery Hail storms in Slovenia wiped out 60 percent of a “noble hop,” Styrian Golding, and Brewery Ommegang is feeling the impact. “From a production viewpoint, it’s very serious,” according to a briefing Marketing Director Larry Bennett released the other day. “In the bigger picture, many brewers are scrambling to find NOT just a suitable hop variety substitute but to find enough hops at all.” Ommegang is not alone. Down Route 33 in the Village of Milford, Cooperstown Brewing Co. owner Stan Hall said he saw the shortage coming and was able to stockpile sufficient hops to carry him for a while; plus, the brewery grows its own finishing hops on site.We’re in good shape,” said Hall, who said the brewery uses its own finishing hops in its Backyard India Pale Ale in particular, a hops-heavy brew. But generally, as NPR reported the other day, “A triple whammy of bad weather in Europe, an increase in the price of barley and a decrease in hops production in the U.S. has led to a price increase of 20 percent for the most widely grown varieties, to 80 percent for specialty hops. The major brewers – Anheuser Busch, Miller and Coors – have extensive futures contracts and thus can control their supply. Plus, they use less hops than the micros. “The question is: How much increased costs can small breweries absorb before having to pass them on?” asks the Ommegang briefing paper. Happily, it continues, “the fact that we tend to make higher-priced products (with higher margins) does give us a little wiggle room, both in absorbing costs and in having the consumer accept higher prices.” Labels: Archives
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