The people have spoken!

As a former member of the Savoy Planning Board, I wish to express my feelings on the town's recent vote to accept a citizen's version of a Commercial Wind Turbine Bylaw for this town.

First of all, I know that I must accept this new bylaw as a very large portion of the town voted this in last week, and this is a democracy, where the majority rules.

What frustrates me is the fact that the Planning Board has worked long (probably too long, according to many) and hard to develop its version of a bylaw for the town that is not project-specific and does not turn its back on the very real concerns of those residents who will be directly impacted by these turbines.

The Planning Board version of the bylaw is certainly more restrictive, but we based our decisions on feedback from all residents and over three years of research on the pros and cons of wind energy.

It is obvious now that the minority made much more noise than the majority. On many occasions I have pleaded with the town's folks to let their voices be heard, especially if they were in favor of wind turbines in the town. I even emphasized this point in a previous letter to the editor last year.

It is sad that the Savoy Planning Board has been made to look like the bad guys in this case, and it is unfortunate that we have had to endure so many attacks from both sides of this issue, only to have it come to this conclusion.

I can state without any reservation that the current members of the Planning Board are dedicated folks who really tried to develop a bylaw that was best for Savoy. Despite our individual beliefs regarding wind energy, we really worked diligently to maintain neutrality as we developed our version of the bylaw.

At a special meeting last evening, the Planning Board made the decision to withdraw our version of the bylaw. We did not see any benefit to pursue this.

As a result of these developments, I have submitted my letter of resignation to the Selectboard, basically stating that in my opinion serving on this board is a "no-win" situation.

I do wish the town of Savoy the best for the future and only hope that the decision to accept this bylaw was the right one. I also sincerely hope that the wounds inflicted in this battle will be healed and that we can move forward to a brighter future.