An apple a day, or is it an orange? Fruit is fruit, right?

Okay, what a difference a day makes, right?

Board of Health gets around to signing and mailing a cease and desist order. Board of Health action gets response from developer stating damages will be sought to the tune of $15,000.00 per day.  Board of Health election invalidated.  

Not sure the Town can handle such a healthy regiment on a daily basis.

If you are looking for profound insight or brilliant dissertation today, forget about it.  My thought process is still trying to figure out what each of those differing jigsaw puzzles from yesterday will look like.  Taking the scattered brain approach, let's just roll that die and see what happens.

The order - haven't seen it, probably will at some point, not sure there is a whole lot of need.  If correctly issued, no worries.  If incorrectly issued, than if developers are right, it is  a very expensive piece of paper, at least according to the developers, to the tune of $15,000.00 per day if the article in the S-T today is correct.

If the loss for shutting down the turbines for half the day is $15,000.00 per day, then I absolutely have changed my mind about this contract.  The Town truly sold out cheap.

NOTE: After publication, it seems the $15,000 is actually $1,500.00, as now appearing on the S-T webpage. For purposes of this post, premise remains the same, outside of the sold out cheap stuff.

Whatever the figure, from a purely figures point of view, everyone better hope your Board of Health managed to pull the best rabbit in the world out of a hat with the order issued.

Nothing will work more effectively to keep a town from uniting, or to quickly widen the chasm that divides, than when you tell people they will have to dig into their pockets to pay for something.

At least we now know the potential down side. At $15,000.00 per day, that's a hare, excuse me I mean hair under $5.5 million dollars a year.  Based on the revenue figures I have seen, not really sure there isn't a certain amount of puffing in that amount, but even based on my guesses, trust me when I tell you rabbit feed is a heck of a lot more money than chicken feed.

Let's face some facts here.  The order is based on DEP findings of noise violations on some tests, in some areas, during some time periods, when the wind was blowing in in some directions. At a meeting posted for June 10th, that did not notice a nuisance hearing, that provided nothing remotely resembling the procedure and protocol for an administrative hearing, a motion was made after the reading of a statement that, at least from the perspective of this person, was about as coherent as the white noise from outer space. 

A nuisance was declared to essentially exist from the period of 7:00 P.M. to 7:00 A.M. every single day.  The newspaper reports the order was based on the DEP findings, so someone tell me where in the DEP findings does it note the basis for a 7:00 P.M. to 7:00 A.M. shutdown?

You don't need a crystal ball to see the potholes in the road this issue is going to travel down.

Before someone gets tempted to jump up and down and shout "but it is a nuisance", the discussion here is what went on at a governmental hearing.  You might be as right as the day is long on the nuisance issue, but when you function as a governmental entity, the failure to follow procedure and protocol does have consequences, as was noted in the other healthy exercise the Town was part of yesterday.

Speaking of which ...

A new election will occur, I think. The other thing I think is that as strange as that exercise routine has been, the program is far from over.  The what, where, when and who still now has to occur, and now the fact that the decisions on all of that have to be made by the Board of Selectmen, I think, and ... well you get the picture.

I have read the Court's decision, a bit hastily, mind you, but read it nonetheless.  I imagine some enterprising editor somewhere will see fit to post it on a website.  The editor that runs this blog however basically doesn't feel the return vs. the effort is worth it. There was also a press release distributed by Peter DeTerra.  I imagine that one is going to pop up somewhere.  At some point maybe there will be more on both.

As to the decision and what it means well ... who knows until the other decisions that have to be made are made.  The Standard Times article is worth a read.

The most significant point in that whole piece is

According to the Secretary of State's spokesman Brian McNiff, an election do-over means new candidates can enter the race.

I have all ready heard suggestions of how the new election can be held.  As far as I am concerned, there is only one way it should be held.  See above quote.  

That being said, the when is probably at least a month away.  That assumes the law about opening the registration period for new voters applies.

The who, well who in their right mind wants to step into the middle of this muck.  Notwithstanding that, it should be open to any person willing to run.  Feel free to disagree with that all you want.  For me though, if it ends up with the two original candidates, don't be surprised to see a bunch of "none of the above" votes.

SNAFU, Ladies and Gentlemen.  That is what we had before the election, since the election and where we are right now.

Before I finish up today, I have to mention I went to the selectmen's meeting last night.  Stuck around for most of it, didn't pay a whole lot of attention to much of it, but I stayed because an item on the agenda had caught my eye.

    

Added to the agenda was the ongoing "Solar Challenge". The notation was "canvassing".  I had heard some rumblings about the canvassing, so when this matter was observed, I figured I would stick around.

When the video appears on line, you need to watch it.  You really need to.

Interesting study in dynamics of the board.  Great example of backpedaling.  Prime example of why a Selectboard should not agree to "partner up" period, never mind the way this one came about.

Listen very carefully to the proposed remedies to the problems.  

There is a reason people have called the selectmen's office to complain about their experiences.  There is a reason it is safe to assume the complaints are being directed to the selectmen's office because of what has transpired.  

If you have seen any of the meetings concerning this solar challenge, including but not limited to the one during which the board decided to go with the present group just some two weeks or so after signing up with another group, it is hard to believe, by any stretch of the imagination just how hard the sell probably is.

Despite all the things one could isolate from the discussion, the comparison of this program to the Farmer's Market defies logic. Seriously?  

If the two things are that similar, what was said means not only should serious consideration be given to stopping the town's endorsement of the "challenge", we should be looking to shut down the market.

Just another example of trying to compare apples and oranges.

It is one thing to provide an educational source to the residents of town on clean energy, alternatives, recommendations.  It is an entirely different matter to give an endorsement to an group that has a "partner" (the group's phrase not mine) essentially selling a service.  

There is an old concept in the school of common sense that when you seek out a consultant, you should think very seriously about hiring one that is in the business of consulting and not in the business of providing you with the end result.

Enough bouncing off walls.  I am running out of time and I still need to check my lottery ticket.  I figure what the heck.  I figure the odds of winning that are better than my chances at figuring out what the heck is going on anymore.

Be safe.