To the Editor:
If you connect the dots in your Jan. 25 article “New Law Allows Old Solar Plan” a disturbing picture emerges. The Berne GOP was dead set on replacing a carefully crafted law that was consistent with the comprehensive plan. That plan was recently reviewed, and no changes were recommended.

The setbacks and maximum facility area limits were designed to encourage the siting of solar facilities in situations where plants could help obscure the view of the panels without shading them. The maximum size was chosen so it would be more likely that these industrial facilities could be tucked away and less obtrusive. That clearly benefits industry and residents.

The fee structure was carefully considered so that the town would benefit financially each year and any legal costs and office work would not be borne entirely by the taxpayers. 

The Berne GOP said the facility size limit was inadequate. What is the size of the proposed facility? Is it less than the 2019 10-acre limit? The Enterprise reports less than 5 acres of panels are proposed. 

Back then, the GOP created a very misleading document indicating that the 2019 area limit made it physically impossible to site a solar facility in Berne. This theory, presented with graphics and intimidating calculations, apparently produced by a new board member, an electrical engineer.  

This misleading document was designed to convince residents that the intention of the 2019 law was to stop any solar development by including siting criteria that was physically impossible to satisfy.  

The area evaluation is posted with this letter. It starts with a 10-acre lot size and then explains that a 300-foot setback results in only 0.08 acres in the center, on which to build a solar facility. Nonsense.

This misleading nonsense compares to the critical thinking that went into the budget process back then. The 2019 law did not limit the lot size; it limited the facility size. This was a blatant GOP deception.

The 2019 law allowed a 10-acre facility on any sized lot that could accommodate the setbacks. It’s simple: The setbacks were sized to provide breathing room around the facility to address impacts to neighboring properties and allow room for plants to shield the panels from view without shading them. 

The Berne GOP’s budgeting prowess was also exercised in the process of writing this unnecessary law. They gutted the revenue from the 2019 law! And raised the tax rate 824-percent a couple years later.

They severely reduced the 2019 setbacks and left the town handicapped in negotiating offsets. Offset negotiation can be critical in variances. Now we start the negotiation process with an already inadequate offset. Beautiful.

The larger GOP maximum facility size is widely considered inconsistent with the comprehensive plan and leaves the town unable to control the size of facilities with the variance process. In the case of a remote area with little impact to other properties, a larger facility was possible with the 2019 law.  

It appears we are now in a situation where 30-acre facilities can be shoehorned in anywhere in Berne.

Should adjacent landowners now be responsible to plant trees on their own property to obscure the panels from view because the town allows inadequate offsets? Are we going to set a precedent where 16-foot setbacks are acceptable as approved by the guy with the shady background who was, according to last week’s article, illegally appointed as planning board chairman, removed, and is now in a position to approve a mere 16-foot offset?

Looking back at 2021 and 22, ask yourself why the Berne GOP was so focused on solar development and focused on trashing and replacing a very new solar law. Someone was clearly behind this unexplainable priority. I commented at the time that it appeared to me these changes were designed to benefit someone (transcript posted online with letter).

It’s curious that the TJA president is quoted as saying they were “not directly in communication with the town” while the 2019 law was trashed by GOP town board members. It’s also curious that one of those town board members, an electrical engineer, left the board once the 2019 restrictions were changed. Mission accomplished?

Last week’s article started with a point in time after the Berne GOP had already started to work on their quest to grease the skids for developers to slide into town and build whatever they wanted, contrary to the now re-approved comprehensive plan. 

They started early by attempting to illegally change the membership of the Berne Planning Board.  They used, and continue to use, the well documented strategies that come naturally to them: defamation, weaponization of code enforcement, public humiliation, false declaration of guilt, illegal firings, and illegal appointments.

I urge you to read this Enterprise article: “Vincent targeted again by highway super and building inspector” (The Altamont Enterprise, Dec. 31, 2021).  

Berne GOP town board members Dennis Palow and Sean Lyons conspired with the GOP Chairman/ Superintendent of Highways Randy Bashwinger in a choreographed, public attack staged at a town board meeting to intimidate planning board members.   

Mr. Palow publicly declared that a Democrat-appointed board member was in violation of Berne’s codes before any citation process. That is simply defamation. 

They falsely accused her of running a bed-and-breakfast inn and also stated she was in violation of the building code. 

They talked of nepotism, implying a familial or sexual relationship between her and a young intern on her farm that should disqualify them and referred to them as “roommates.”  

The intern was a Democrat-appointed alternate planning board member being considered for an appointment as a sitting member. She, of course, changed her plans and fled town. 

The farmer was later illegally removed from the board as a voting member! She was reinstated by court order. 

Her harassment by the GOP continues. Her still unresolved citation is for installing a “new driveway.” They demand she pay to install a culvert. Google Earth history proves that the driveway existed years before she bought the property! This meets the definitions of extortion and malfeasance.  

This constant intimidation keeps people’s mouths shut and violates the First Amendment.

Joel Willsey

East Berne

Former Supervisor Sean Lyons, who left office at the end of 2021, denied to The Enterprise that either he or current supervisor, Dennis Palow, who was deputy supervisor under Lyons, had deliberately misrepresented the 2019 solar law. Palow did not respond to The Enterprise’s offer to comment on that claim.

“[Local Law] #3 of 2019 Town of Berne Industrial-scale Solar Energy System Moratorium Law was crafted and adopted under a Democratic majority, the 2 GOP board members had little to no input on anything and were over ruled by that democratic majority on almost everything without regard to the towns well being …,” Lyons wrote in an email. “I am against government dictating what people can and cannot do on their own land.”