Tax-credit-driven developers – Governor Pataki blessed and encouraged them – ranged the nation’s sixth most populous state seeking to plant 3,200 wind turbines on verdant fields and ridge lines. It became clear the Empire State was on the verge of a huge mistake, almost irreversible, the equivalent of West Virginia’s shaved mountaintops.

Even though the turbines are said to be only 30 percent efficient, even though they loom, hum, flicker and, occasionally, catch on fire, an alliance of Big Government, Big Capital and Big Environment seemed determine to crush all opposition.

In the face of such Goliaths, Cherry Valley’s Davids kept sling-shotting pebbles at the behemoths.

But while the Andy Minnigs, Lynn Marshes, Greg Noonans, Conrad Finks and so many others kept up the drumbeat, could they have carried the day if not for Garretson?

A freshman town supervisor, he firmly and courteously follow the logic of facts in the face of resistance from his family, his political mentor, and longtime friends and associates.

It was a year of transformation for Garretson, and – in backing the most stringent wind regulations in New York State – he made it a year of transformation for Cherry Valley.

With anti-wind advocates taking a look at the law – you can find it on the town web site – it could be the start of a healthful shift in the debate statewide.

As Emerson had it, “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius.”

What better qualification than that.