To the editor:
Regarding the May 14 meeting on the Leatherstocking Pipeline at Delhi's Town Hall.
Regardless of the energy cost advantages, real or imagined, that will benefit DA, Clark's, SUNY and possible newer enterprises, it looks like the people most affected by the Leatherstocking pipeline are shut out from any benefit whatsoever. There are no substations delivering gas to the residences along the way until Delhi, where the gas will first go to the big hitters and eventually to the village itself (which will probably have to pay for the installation).
More than half of the population of Delaware County lives outside the towns. No other towns than Delhi are projected to be connected to this pipeline and there seem to be no contingency plans to design a method (f.i. liquified, via tanker trucks) by which anyone living outside the village of Delhi will have any opportunity to enjoy these savings.
The sanitized version of availability is that, if you're out of reach of cell phone service, or Cable TV, you will not be able to get natural gas to your home. However, many homes that do have cell service will still be considered too remote for cost efficient delivery. Including many locations along the route of the Leatherstocking pipeline.
Not even to mention the Town of Davenport, which would be virtually bi-sected along its entire length by the Constitution Pipeline. It is clear that the ready market of Delhi serves mostly as a justification to have the Constitution Pipeline cross through most of Delaware County. Delhi is the County seat, centrally located in an area that is otherwise very inhospitable to underground installations. It looks to me that the driving forces behind the Main pipeline, from PA to Schoharie, consider the Delhi installation a token offering that the Town Board and the Board of Supervisors will accept, thereby opening the way for FERC to approve the installation, since it has a token local component.
'Leatherstocking' is an equally awkward name. How quickly we forget that the corporation that took over Countryside Care Center, did walk away from its responsiblities and the town when its mismanagement ended the Medicare payments, was called Leatherstocking as well. The harm that was done to the county residents that were left to their fate when that outfit closed are but a tiny version of what the present Leatherstocking and its backers are prepared to foist onto Delaware County, a mere 'pimple' on the bright face of the Constitution Pipeline's future*.
Calling that the Constitution Pipeline is a cynical joke, since no one wishes to insult the basic tenets of this nation. It might as well be called the Ten Commandments or the Holy Church pipeline. What is in a name ?
What we saw were the opening moves of an intricate chess game on a board much larger than the village, in which the pawns have no part to play. Or do we ?
Corneel Verlaan
Bovina
