To the Editor:

I attended the Oct. 7 Town of New Scotland Planning Board meeting and listened to all the arguments.

The speakers at the planning board were talking about a battery fire — in California. This new battery storage unit we heard about has sensors and is monitored.

If you are concerned about the safety of these batteries then you have to be worried about the propane tank sitting next to your house. None of these propane tanks have sensors or monitors.

A big house blew up in Berne in June 2021 from a leaking propane tank, killing two people, which was covered in this newspaper. None of these hundreds of propane tanks in the town of New Scotland are monitored.

Someone else is paying to store electricity so that our power doesn’t go out. With this battery, maybe we won’t all need backup generators.

During the planning board meeting someone complained about his crops and land being contaminated by a battery fire. What about all the diesel exhaust we are breathing from those diesel generators every time the power goes out?

I am in favor of a new battery unit, with sensors, paid for by someone else, to keep our electricity on.

Charlie Kruzansky

New Salem