To the Editor:

I just read the articles in The Altamont Enterprise [March 31, 2016] and the Albany Times Union [April 3, 2016] concerning the proposed communication tower on Edwards Hill Road in the town of Rensselaerville.  Here is my opinion on this issue.

Thank the Lord our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents made progress count in their lifetimes to make it better and safer for all of us today.

My father who was born in 1894 and lived here for 87 years told me that his generation made more progress than any other before or since.  He told me that they went from having no running water in the house, no electricity, and using horses and buggies to having cars, telephones, computers, and to putting a man on the moon.

All of this progress comes with a price such as electric and telephone poles connected with hundreds of miles of wire, and roads going through our farmlands. And, yes, towers that all of us see every day —  all for a good purpose.

Now a handful of people (and I do mean a handful) in our town object to making progress with a communications tower that most people in town won’t even be able to see.  Our fire departments, sheriff’s department, and our ambulance services have to keep up with what is required today due to the changing times.  That is why they need a reliable communication tower that will work for all of the hamlets of the town.

All of these services are here to help us but they can’t help us if they can’t communicate with each other! This tower for communications is called progress, which our comprehensive plan also calls for.

The life or home this tower might save might be yours! It also provides safety for your friends and neighbors that respond to these fire, police, and ambulance services calls. The majority of these services are provided by volunteers who are helping their town.

The hamlets of Medusa, Preston Hollow, Cooksburg, and Potter Hollow also need cell service that the hamlet of Rensselaerville now enjoys. If a provider of cell service went on this proposed tower, it would provide an added layer of protection for people to contact emergency services as well as have a service that most people use today.

Instead of lawsuits against the town you live in and the county that provides protection, the people should be thanking Sheriff Craig Apple and the county for trying to provide a service that will make everyone’s life safer and better.

Whether you have lived here one year or 77 as I have, let’s not stop progress that will affect our safety now or for future generations.

Kenneth Cooke

Medusa

Editor’s note: Kenneth Cooke is married to Rensselaerville’s deputy supervisor, Marion Cooke.