To the Editor:
Your editorial “Vineyard needs a unified voice on offshore wind” (Dec. 19) covers a myriad of unrelated subjects. It starts with lumping Vineyard Wind (that is a reality as a result of Island support started about 15 years ago) with a proposed windfarm (Revolution Wind) to serve Rhode Island. Other than the fact that Revolution Wind will be in the same area as Vineyard Wind, it has nothing to do with Vineyard Wind. With Vineyard Wind, our community needs to recognize it is a reality that will likely provide enormous benefits to the Island in the future. If there is opposition to Revolution Wind, which is essentially just beginning the licensing procedure, so be it.
Yes, a turbine blade fell off a tower of Vineyard Wind earlier this summer, and the outcry from Vineyarders was not as loud as the outcry from Nantucketers. Maybe it should not have been. Things happen, and things go wrong. Doesn’t mean that you throw out the baby with the bath water.
And perceived conflicts of interest in Tisbury do not distract from the merits of Vineyard Wind, and have nothing to do with Vineyard Wind. The fact that the Tisbury select board gave permission to its outgoing town administrator in a “nonpublic hearing” to pursue employment upon termination of his administrator job at the end of this year with an engineering firm that does work for Vineyard Wind has nothing to do with the merits of Vineyard Wind. And the fact that it was a “nonpublic hearing” is neither sinister nor unusual. Personnel matters (which this was) are often dealt with in executive sessions.
Similarly, the fact that one of the Tisbury select board members works for the developer of Vineyard Wind is not a conflict, as your editorial suggests. A conflict would only arise only if she sat on a matter involving Vineyard Wind. Best as I know (and your editorial does not suggest otherwise), she has never done that. If a potential conflict arises in the future, she will no doubt do what public officials have been doing from time immemorial, namely recuse herself from considering the matter.
Your message for Vineyarders not to mute their voices is a good one. Only problem is that they were encouraged to do so on many inappropriate subjects.
Howard Miller
Tisbury
