Eminent Domain In Prattsburgh
Laura Hutchinson

June 24, 2008

PRATTSBURGH-- The Prattsburgh Town meeting drew in a big crowd Tuesday evening that waited hours to hear results of a board vote. It was standing room only in Prattsburgh, and those who didn't fit inside were rallying outside. Students from Prattsburgh High School were among the crowd in the street rallying for support for the wind farms; they said this is what their community needs. “We know we have to do something different. Wind power may not be the whole answer but it's a piece of the puzzle and we're happy to support it,” said Charlene Wilson of Prattsburgh. “It's better than polluting the air to get energy. It’s going to help us in the long run. We need to figure out how to fix global warming and all those issues somehow, and this is going to help it,” said Kayla Clemons, senior at Prattsburgh High School. Advocates of Prattsburgh also came out to make their voice heard. One person says, he wants the wind turbines, he just wants to make sure they're location is regulated. “The issue here is not whether it should be in my backyard, but they're not a backyard product, like many industrial products they belong in an industrial park,” said John Servo, of the Advocates of Prattsburgh. The eminent domain is what the wind company needed to build transmission lines under town roads that connect to the wind farm. The vice president of the First Wind Development Company said it'll only require them to dig about 4 or 5 feet into the ground, and then they'll restore the ground back to normal. He also said they are in the pre-construction engineering and planning phase right now, and it’s too soon to tell when the wind farms will be up.