To the Editor:

This is in response to Mr. Toby Irven’s letter (Oct. 30, 2023 titled Opinion: Canton revised zoning law has been a long, thorough process, says Canton resident) concerning our attendance record at town board meetings and our tardiness on keeping up with current events.

I must respectfully disagree with him and the town board. We elect our officials to represent us. Right or wrong, we count on them to make intelligent decisions and create ways for our community to prosper. To make decisions now, that will help guarantee the future generation’s prosperity or at least create more opportunities than I remember having growing up here, not less.

I never made an exact count, but I believe there are about 20 chairs in the board meeting room for outside people to actually attend and voice their concerns if needed. It was never intended for all several thousand of us to crash in on every monthly meeting and babysit our elected officials.

On the subject of zoning, which was of course the reason for our attendance in last month’s public forum, we were shown by EDF officials that the new zoning proposed laws could severely complicate our solar project before it has even started.

And to back up the new zoning problems, a strange new bogus law surfaces from the subnotes or bylaws of this town stating that we cannot build solar panels on tiled ground. If this isn’t an effort from the corporate farmers to block this project or future solar projects, then I don’t know what it is. But I do know this, if we continue to close doors on our children and grandchildren, we should expect the same zero growth and, or decline, that has happened in the last 50 years in Canton to repeat itself in the next 50 years.

If these are argued as minor points, then the major point is this, a multimillion dollar company has come to Canton to build a “state of the art” facility that will have a 1 to 2 million dollar reward to the town, school, and county every year for the next 40 years. So I would think that it would have been wise to be courteous and have the good sense to be in constant contact throughout the zoning process with EDF.

As of right now, (Nov. 7), after different attempts at reaching out, EDF has received no response from the town board, planning board or the hired zoning personnel in the past month.

This is not why we elected these people. And this is why we must be more careful when we vote in the future.

Barry Whiteford
Canton