To the Editor:

At the special Pierrepont Town Board meeting on June 7, called to hear Duane Curtis' attorney Charles Nash explain to the Board why they need to change Waterman Hill zoning to AR for the benefit of his client--no public comment was allowed.

Also, Pierrepont's Town Attorney was not in attendance, because he was, according to Nash, "on a well-deserved vacation."

Get this -- Nash calls down Ag and Markets against Pierrepont to help Duane, then sympathizes with Pierrepont about their dilemma and suggests that they bow down "to the state" and change their zoning right away.

The worst Ag and Markets could possibly do to Pierrepont is to let Duane have his industry -- so why should Pierrepont scramble to change anything?

Mrs. Powers seemed resentful over having to spend thousands of dollars of Pierrepont taxpayers' money to make these changes Mr. Nash wants for his client. Good for her And who could blame her for feeling this way?

Yet, no one seems to recognize that there is an alternative--leave the zoning alone.

At present, without any expensive changes to the code, in an RR district, anyone can use a wood processor to make firewood for themselves or for sale from logs from that specific property. Anyone can use a chainsaw to do the same. Anyone can import logs on trucks to their yard to cut up into firewood for their own use.

Mr. Nash wants to make the permitting of wood processors the focus, and he tries, and tries, and tries to keep everyone's eyes on the wood processor. He wants you, if you are a Pierrepont resident, to believe that the Supreme Court hates wood processors, and, oh, my, isn't that an outdated concept in these modern times of ours? Keep your eyes on the wood processor, gosh darn it!

The Supreme Court's decision was that volume of wood was the issue; that if an industry like this imports logs to a property to be cut up and put up for sale, there is no natural time for this activity to come to an end, and at that point, the industry becomes a noisy, fumy, unending nuisance and so should not be allowed in an RR zone.

Nash's end run around the decision will be to get Pierrepont to change the zoning of the whole district just for Duane, costing Pierrepont taxpayers thousands.

Stay tuned.

Pat Biggs

Pierrepont