Wallkill Valley Times Apr. 11 2018 | Page 3

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Wallkill Valley Times, Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Shawangunk police welcome new additions
WE ATTRACT
NEW BUSINESSES
THAT CREATE JOBS SO YOU
CAN WORK CLOSE TO HOME
Ted Remsnyder
During last week’s board meeting, the Town of Shawangunk welcomed a trio of new part-time
police officers, as new hires Kevin Gillis, Nicole Morrissey and Anthony Galeno were intro-
duced by Shawangunk Sgt. Gerald Marlatt and sworn in by Town Clerk Jane Rascoe.
Shawangunk adopts solar law
By TED REMSNYDER
With rising numbers of homeowners
outfitting their properties with solar
panels and energy companies endeavoring
to build solar farms on large swaths of
local land, the Town of Shawangunk was
deliberate in crafting a solar law to deal
with the increasingly relevant issue. At
its meeting on Thursday, the Town Board
unanimously passed Local Law No. 1 of
2018 - Solar Energy Systems to regulate
both residential and commercial solar
setups.
The law limits large-scale solar farms
in the municipality to a maximum of 20
acres, and a solar development can only
take up a max of 50 percent of a parcel
of land. For smaller-scale residential
uses, ground-mounted solar units in
homeowners’ backyards are required to
have a minimum setback of 35 feet from
neighboring properties.
The town believes the law will allow
residents to take advantage of solar
technology while attracting developers
to Shawangunk. “There are property
owners that can get some extra revenue
from their property,” Town Supervisor
John Valk said. “I had a couple of calls
this week (from developers). Some of the
proposed sites would be fantastic use of
the property because they’re basically
isolated land that’s not used for farming
anymore or it’s not good for building
houses on. It would be a perfect use of
the property. It’s not wetlands. So I think
there are sites in our town where it would
be very beneficial to the property owner.
They’d get some extra revenue and the
town would get some extra revenue.
But it’s not up to the town to locate
the sites. It’s up to those companies to
locate them.” In addition, the law also
has environmental benefits. “It’s green
technology as well,” Valk said. “The
Governor (Andrew Cuomo) wants to be
less dependent on foreign oil, so this is a
step.”
The 20-acre solar farm limit in the
bill would rule out the proposed 94-acre
Geronimo Energy development located on
the Borden Home Farm property. At the
board’s previous meeting, passions ran
high regarding the project, but Geronimo
Energy New York State Area Manager
Eric Will showed up by himself to the
April 5 session to bring the temperature
down on the conversation regarding the
project. “I’m here alone, no lawyers, no
landowners, none of that. It’s just me,”
Will told the board. “I’m a guy from
Syracuse representing this company out
of Minnesota, and I think what we’re
doing is right. But we’ve clearly gotten
off the rails here lately. I was upset over
how that last meeting went. That’s not the
way we like things to happen. We consider
ourselves very small-town friendly and I
went away saying that there were several
Continued on page 5
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