Cape Vincent ~Turban TurbulanceWhy Alan Wood, Rich Edsall,& Roger Alexander Are on the Lone Ranger's Shit-List

I posted this story a few months back , recently I have had more than a few inquires about this issue . This is just a one example of the convoluted idiocy that is part of Cape Vincents Culture of Corruption.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you are riding along NYS Rte 12E from Cape Vincent toward Clayton you will undoubtedly see an odd looking white contraption hovering over a nearby home, seemingly ready to unleash some ungodly alien attack. But, it isn't an attack of the Ninjas, rather, it's Roger Alexander and Alan Wood's idea of a joke – a private wind generator, that rarely spins, placed entirely too close to the home of Mary and Bob Grogan.






How close is too close? Alexander's pseudo-spinning machine is 90 ft high, 108 ft from the Grogan property line and 132 ft from their home.


The supplier of Alexander's machine admitted it's noisy and said it should be further away from a home than 100 ft.


GE has a simple formula for determining safe setbacks from wind generators to avoid ice-throw problems and that formula says Alexander's spinner is too close. NYSDEC noise policy indicates the noise and wind generator is too close. But more importantly, the Cape Vincent Planning Board policy says Alexander's spinning whirligig is way, way too close. If all this is true, then how could this overhanging, pseudo-spinning thing have ever been allowed to be that close to Mary and Bob Grogan's home? Why? Because Alan Wood isn't that smart, Rich Edsall is a hypocrit and because Roger Alexander is a Big Fat Idiot! What, Alan Wood isn't that smart? I thought he was the brain behind the Wood Farms, LLC.
Wood issued the first permit for Alexander's wind generator in 2006 and renewed it in May 2009. The permits had a few errors. Wrong height of the generator. Wrong intended use. Wrong parcel. Yes, I said wrong parcel. Imagine that a zoning officer who has no idea where he was. I shouldn't be too hard on him, at least he knew he was in the Town of Cape Vincent. Wait, Silver has not yet reached the summit of Mount Idiocy.


The permit did not only contain a few “minor errors,” but it was also illegal. After Grogan complained to the town's complaint department, the Zoning Board of Appeals, they agreed with her and determined that the permit Wood had approved was illegal. ZEO Wood missed Section 585 in the law, which states nothing can be higher than 30 ft on a lot without a house.


Alexander's spinarama was on an independent lot without a house. This was a clear violation of the law that Wood was paid to understand, administer and enforce. Wood's excuse was I checked with the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals before I issued the permit.


Alexander didn't like the idea his permit was ruled illegal by the ZBA, so he took the town to court; only to lose. Then he had a brilliant idea – put a house on the lot so that it conforms with Section 305 of the Zoning Law, which states that a supplemental structure (e.g., wind generator) can be taller than 30 ft as long as there is a house on the lot and it has an additional setback from the property line.


Alexander garners the Big Fat Idiot title when he spends $132,500 to purchase a home adjacent to his independent lot with his whirlygig and then consolidates both lots making his whirlygig in compliance with Cape Vincent zoning law.
Rather than admit he was wrong, rather than removing the wind generator as required by the ZBA's ruling and rather than doing the right thing for his neighbor, the Big Fat Idiot shows he has more money than brains by spending $132,500 rather than dismantle a non-operative, junk generator.


And now for the part of this sad story that really pisses-off the Lone Ranger.


In early 2009 Verizon Cellular applied for a permit to put a cell tower on property that adjoins land owned by ZEO Wood. At a February 11, 2009 meeting of the Planning Board, its Chairman Richie Edsall is flummoxed when he learns Verizon intends to put a 195 ft tower only 213 ft from ZEO Wood's property line. “I'm not going to vote for a tower that's closer to a property line than 1.5 times the tower height unless you get the neighbor to sign some sort of legal document,” Edsall stated. Edsall then asks the Verizon representative, “Who's the neighbor?” After a pause, ZEO Wood says, “Oh, that's me that neighbor you're talking about.” At the April 8, 2009 public hearing for the Verizon cell tower application, Wood asks Edsall, “You took care of the issue of it being too close to the line? Edsall says yes and Wood states finally, “It should be good then.”


Wow! Okay then for Alan Wood to have a tower setback 1.5 times its height from his property line, but screw the Grogans. I've found that the local natives of Cape Vincent have a common epithet they like to spit out at people of a different color or persuasion - it's scumbag. Well, that's the only term you can apply to people who took delight in allowing the Big Fat Idiot's 92 ft wind turbine to be placed 108 ft from Mary Grogan's property line. Yup, that's closer than Edsall said he'd allow, yet that scumbag happily agreed to Alexander's lot line shift that shafted the Grogans. Damn, I don't think anything is more a burr under my saddle than hypocrisy!


As most of you know, the Ranger never stays in one place very long. I like to move along and help people where they are in need, but there is so much injustice in this town that I think I better stick around a spell. Adios, see you in a bit.

The Lone Ranger...