Art in the wind

January 29, 2014 · 0 Comments

Dear editor:

I was fascinated by the front page article in the January 16th issue about complaints by a Scott Funston that a DWPI industrial wind turbine (IWT) might have been built too close to his home.

Scott, to make these IWT’s more acceptable (as unacceptable and unwelcome as they are by so many of us in Melancthon), I like to view them as Dalton McGinty’s attempt to introduce and force us to enjoy outdoor art installations. For anyone who has seriously studied their intended purpose (to produce reliable cost effective energy), it is obvious that they really are not up to that task. Furthermore, we don’t need the electricity when they do produce it (28% of the time and usually at night). Obviously, there must be another purpose to their existence – art!

Scott, you obviously do not realize how lucky you are – there are other jurisdictions (Australia, New Zealand, and even other Canadian provinces) that insist that this type of art be set back 1 or even 1.5 kms from your home. How ridiculous! Now mind you, if you had signed up to support the DWPI art program in the first place, you could have had one of these art installations even closer to your home.

Scott, for instance, did you know that there are 14 homes that are closer than 550 meters to the 18 larger pieces of DWPI art. These fortunate people, mainly renters, (the home owners seem not to be keen art lovers) even have the good fortune of being exposed to higher levels of the low frequency noise (LFN) that these larger art installations emit. Mind you, too much LFN might make you ill but so what who cares.

Scott, hard to believe but this compulsive and expensive outdoor art installation program was initiated by our democratically elected provincial government through the Green Energy Act an odious piece of legislation that even a dictator would be proud of. Even though Dalton McGinty is no longer in charge, the current government still substantially subsidizes them. They even have signed 20 year contracts to do so. Incredible! Also, we all are lucky enough to support (and will be for many, many years) this type of art program every time we pay our monthly hydro bill.

Scott, most people are aware that the federal government is concerned about the impact of this art form on our health and are doing a study due to be completed in 2014. In light of that reality, our provincial government and DWPI felt it would be best to move quickly ahead with these art installations!

So, Scott, forget about the previous boring rustic rural country side views; don’t worry about the possible adverse health effects; don’t complain about high electrical energy costs etc., etc… Enjoy the “art”! We have no choice.

William Crysdale,

Melancthon