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Property owners look forward to upcoming tower meeting
Editor of the Reformer:
As the owners and caretakers of more than 5,000 acres of timberland in Windham and Grafton, we wanted to take this opportunity to explain the details of our proposal to put three temporary meteorological towers atop our property.
Meadowsend is a family-owned timber and forestry company dedicated to land conservation. The French family has owned Meadowsend and has been a proud neighbor in Grafton and Windham for 16 years.
We have always taken pride in the way we have managed the property, and made it available for the public to use for snowmobiling, hunting, fishing, hiking and more. We manage the property under Vermont's Current Use program, and are determined to continue this practice for years to come.
Like all industries, we now find ourselves doing business in a highly competitive global market. It is becoming very clear to us that managing this property for timber alone is not economically sustainable over the long-term. If we are going to keep this land intact, we must look to maximize its other assets.
One of the possibilities is wind power. As a company dedicated to land conservation and deeply concerned about climate change, wind power has emerged as a possibility for us to continue to thrive while maintaining this land for generations to come.
We are proposing to erect three temporary towers to measure the
We would emphasize that this proposal is highly preliminary. It is natural for everyone to want to know how many wind towers we would plan to build. Such a decision is far in the future. All we want to do today is erect three small towers, two in Grafton and one in Windham, to measure the wind, as well as foster conversation in our community on this idea.
We would use existing logging roads for the work and keep disturbance to a minimum. We will be attending a special meeting of the Windham Selectboard on Wednesday, July 11, at 7 p.m. at the Windham Elementary School to explain our proposal and to answer any questions you might have. We also extend an invitation to any resident who would like to take a tour of the property and see exactly where the three temporary towers would be and how they would be erected.
We are proud of this property and its management. We are doing everything we can to keep it intact and managed according to traditional Vermont values.
As long-time neighbors in Grafton and Windham, it is especially important to us to engage in a dialogue with the people of both towns. We look forward to the July 11 meeting. We have been meeting individually with other folks in the towns and would be glad to host or attend any other community meetings as peoples' schedule permit.
Steve French,
managing partner,
and Jeremy Turner,
managing forester,
Meadowsend Timberlands,
New London, N.H., July 3
Pictures worth 1,000 words
Editor of the Reformer:
I'm just an observer, but still pondering why the Monday, July 2, edition's photos of the July 1 protest at Vermont Yankee didn't reflect the large numbers of people involved, as mentioned in the article. Instead we saw a "handful." However, the photo on Tuesday, July 3, of a strawberry supper pictures a line of 200 people waiting for dinner.
The more than 300 people, some of whom came from a distance and gave up their Sunday to be at Yankee didn't get strawberry shortcake at the end or even their picture in the local paper.
Food for thought?
Lois Diorio,
Brattleboro, July 3
Sending a message?
Editor of the Reformer:
Several weeks ago, a woman wrote a letter published in another publication, and it was brief, maybe some 30 words, but these words cut through to something about the War on Women which is not much noticed in the media. I think the writer was probably of Republican sentiment.
On my deck discussing issues of how women are presented and perceived in mainstream media a very liberal film director raised this very issue. Whether Republicans are waging a war, the film's director said, is no reason for Liberals in media such as Bill Maher to trash in a jokey way as always, republican women. That is quid pro quo, but furthering whom?
This is much as the letter writer suggested.
I have nothing much more to say here than that writer or this directors comments transcend politics as usual, and I am happy that two Vermonters from opposite polities can agree together that in Vermont we prefer to vote our own ticket and find our own sense of value rather than have it told to us by national loudmouths of whatever stripe.
Phil Innes,
Brattleboro, June 22
Food for thought
Editor of the Reformer:
On June 22, 71 years ago, Nazi Germany invaded The Soviet Union. It should be pointed out that Napoleon called England and Russia "The Great Intangibles." Britain because of her relative remoteness, Russia because of her size.
It was another historian, whose name escapes me, who remarked, "Russia doesn't defeat her enemies - she swallows them." That is what happened with Nazi Germany at the cost of 20 million Russian lives.
To conclude, it is my hope, as well as countless others, that such a thing will never happen again.
Lou Waronker,
Brattleboro, June 22
Taking the pledge
Editor of the Reformer:
Here are some thoughts about the gathering at Brooks Memorial Library with author Douglas Wissing about his book, "Funding the Enemy." It was an excellent lecture defining many costly problems and defining the problems in Afghanistan as he has seen it.
I asked a question, "What can be done about it?"
His reply was: "First you have to define the question."
He had just defined the question for an hour. I talked with our librarian and mentioned that I have a plan and she asked what it was. Ask every candidate running for public office to agree with a pledge: If elected to public office neither I nor my staff will have a conflict of interest or a seemingly conflict of interest with any for-profit corporation or their representatives starting when a majority of members of Congress agree with this pledge.
Most voters believe their members of congress are honest and that the others are the dishonest ones. Asking for a member to agree publically with this pledge will weed out those bought and paid for by corporations. Who could be against it?
I have asked Senator Sanders to support it and await his time for a discussion.
George Whitney,
Brattleboro, July 3
