Rick Pollitt Appoints Debbie Campbell To Run A County Wide Neighborhood Association Group

Oh My! The tides are most definitely changing in Wicomico County.

First we saw a new County Council wake the Mayor and Salisbury City Council up by showing them they will NOT stand for any more games/lies. Now we're seeing the County Executive prove he will NOT play the games of Barrie Tilghman and her Flying Monkey's either.

Rick Pollitt, (in his own way) is telling Barrie Tilghman, you stay at your end of the hall and I'll stay at mine. There's now positive hope for a productive relationship between the County and the City and I couldn't think of a better person to put in charge of such a group and make things start to work. It's a sort of Peace Offering on Rick Pollitt's behalf.

This group will identify issues of importance such as, schools, crime traffic, etc..

What makes it so interesting to me personally is, there was not a peep of anything stated that included Barrie Tilghman. It referenced Debbie Campbell and when the meeting was over, one of the television news groups held a lengthy interview with Barrie, as if this was her show. It just makes me sick that they can't see the writing on the wall. Barrie Tilghman is a nobody any more. The Citizens have taken their City back, The new County Council and County Executive want nothing to do with her any more and there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

What better way to MAKE Barrie Tilghman die and suffer a slow political death than to make her spend the next two years shutting her mouth up and not including her in any more political decisions! The City Council will change in the next few months and perhaps they'll also take the Mayors powers back where they belong and Barrie will have to slope down in her seat even further at parades and smile and wave and that's it!

Congratulations Rick, I knew you were a LEADER and NOT a follower! Great choice too!

A City Sign, In City Colors With The Blessing Of The City?

IF the City of Salisbury is going to allow ONE busines this special but unnecessary sign for their business, it must provide a sign for EVERY business on the Plaza as well.

Top Story Of The Day!

Where's the agenda? Richard Insley, eh? Again, NOTHING will be posted in the Newspaper about this hearing and they have only posted this in the foyer of the GOB. Another FOB trying to get away with what everyone else wouldn't dream of getting away with. Pretty sneaky Barie!

The Daily Times Wants To Misslead You And Here's Proof

I received a e-mail the other day where a reader had pointed out their concerns about the States Attorneys Office letting some very serious gun charges and drunk driving charges go. Their concerns were of merit so I did some digging and found out some very interesting information.

Just when I read the documents myself and was also concerned, I knew there had to be an honorable answer. The Daily Times has once again pulled a fast one on Davis Ruark by printing the Court Briefs without a single ounce of investigating.

For many years, Davis Ruark has been inviting Greg Bassett to come in and discuss some sort of disclaimer about information just like they recently produced in order to clarify what was really going on. Perhaps the following will help everyone to better understand.

Under Project Exile, we always DISMISS or NOLLE PROS the District Court charging document because we file indictments or criminal information in the Circuit Court where we obtain arrest warrants for the defendants and after trial, obtain more severe sentences. After the trial in the District Court, a defendant may request a new trial on appeal to the Circuit Court where we have to produce the witnesses and evidence all over again. If we try the case in the Circuit Court, the only appeal is to the Court of Special Appeals in Annapolis and the appeal is only on the record (transcripts).

Also, if we try the case in the District Court first, the defendant may see and hear all of the evidence we have, and he can then tailor a defense case when he appeals to the Circuit Court for a trial de novo.

Therefore, please assure everyone that we do not dismiss these cases totally -- in fact, we re file them in the Court where the defendant will receive the harshest punishment!!

Davis Ruark went on to say, "the Daily Times has been requested by me to contact our Office about these types of cases, but has never done so."

In some cases The Daily Times had printed information like this to Families where the victim had been killed and again they did NOT disclose the rest of the facts about the case being charged immediately in another higher Court. IMO, this is NOT the kind of information you want to mislead the victims family with and it seriously makes me wonder who is the real MSM around here any more?

The Daily Times has become a sort of diary of information any more and they have completely lost their respect for responsibility in reporting. Even the Mayor uses them frequently for her benefit and most recently went after the States Attorney's Office while not truly knowing and understanding what they're actually doing there. Again, it's a matter of her attempting to know what she's supposed to be doing every day in her job and then going on the attack in an area she's completely clueless about.

Davis Ruark would NOT be in the position he is in and hold more respect from almost everyone I have ever come into contact with and not be doing his job well and or professionally. He ran unopposed and that too speaks volumes. IF the Mayor actually had anything on Davis Ruark, that article would have come out BEFORE the elections and she would have made sure someone would have been running against him.

It's election time again and she's doing whatever it takes to make her team shine in the only way she knows how, lying and misleading the public. The following was what was printed in The Daily Times and now you'll know why it was completely misleading!

Pavel (NMN) Dolghieru, 22, of Arlington, Va., was charged with having a handgun in his vehicle, having a handgun on his person, driver failing to obey property placed traffic control device instructions, driving the wrong way on a one-way street, driving or attempting to drive a motor vehicle while under the influence of an alcohol beverage per se, negligent driving, driving or attempting to drive a motor vehicle while under the influence of an alcoholic beverage and driving or attempting to drive a motor vehicle while impaired by an alcoholic beverage. All of the charges were dropped at the request of the state. Michael Anthony Ingram, 20, of the 7000 block of Barton Avenue, Salisbury, was charged with concealing a deadly weapon, having a handgun in his vehicle, having a handgun on his person, possession of a firearm and/or ammunition by an underage person, possession of a controlled dangerous substance -- marijuana and two counts of possession of controlled dangerous substance paraphernalia. All of the charges were dropped at the request of the state.

Illegal Plaza Parking Is Just Out Of Control!

There's some sort of foot doctor or therapy center or something along that line that has a practice on the Plaza in which their patients regularly park their vehicle right outside their office, most of them at this point handicapped. They block the roadway several times a day and as you can see from the second photo, this guy was lucky to get by without an accident happening.

I want to make something very clear here. Very similar to my walking through the Salisbury Zoo every few days for some 10 minutes a day, violations were ongoing so regularly that you would have thought Albero was just hanging out there. This is not a fact at all. Same goes for the Plaza. I happen to be in the area every so often and when I am there are so many violations it just makes my job really easy.

That being said, the Mayor, the Police and Public Works should get off their a**es and do something about it.

Wind Turbine Troubles By Dr. Jimmy Tragle, Part IIIB

Part III B

As mentioned previously, noise pollution is a big issue and deserves a lot more attention than industry proponents wish to give it. This is perhaps one of the biggest areas of potential harm for onshore turbines and may be an issue for offshore ones. I've yet to see convincing evidence that offshore noise won't be a problem for some species. This is an area I've devoted very little time to. I'll limit my comments to the fact that whales can communicate for distances up to 1500 miles using low frequency sounds. Shipping already hampers this. Low frequency sounds from turbines may have some issue here. I think I mentioned a lack of scientific evidence in a previous section. The importance of that notion is that there is a lack of evidence to claim anything. So, do we charge ahead and make a mistake or use the existing turbine facilities to figure out potential troubles. This is an area of study left best to truly unbiased groups with some distance from the turbine debate. Of note is that most offshore installations are in shallow waters and there is a push to put them in deeper waters. Sound behavior is different for those differing depths and floor topography. That much is known.

I have been very interested in noise pollution from land based turbines. This is an area filled with discrepancy. From my own personal experiences I've every reason to believe that the industry understates this with bold intent. On the farm that I own we can hear spring peeps in a pond that is about 330 feet from an old farm house that is perfectly livable. We can also hear passing cars and their radios from a cemetery on the property. The road we hear them on is a little over 1/2 mile away. It is important to note that this is a very rural community. I've yet to hear a rolling boom box playing rap music. Not that I'm having a dig at that sort of music, but anyone that has heard a car going down the road with a sub woofer kicking out music knows why I'm pointing this out.

The point is we can hear cars with OEM exhaust systems tooling down a road where speeds seldom exceed 30 mph from 1/2 mile away. For comparison a car running down a highway is claimed for reference to be about 55 dB at 100 feet I believe. So if background noise was at 50 dB in the vicinity of where you are standing you absolutely would not hear a car going 30 mph down a country road 1/2 mile away. The company that wants to develop the ridge claims background levels of sound to be 50 dB. Clearly that is not consistent with my own experiences in this rural location. Reality and honesty suggests a background level of noise in the 20 to 30 dB range, probably closer to 20 dB.

To top off this claim the developer contends that the noise from the turbines will rapidly fall below 50 dB. Levels are around 100 + dB at the turbine. This is used to assert that noise is not an issue for neighbors of wind plants. This couldn't be any further from reality.

It is at this point where a discussion of atmospheric conditions and their influence on sound propagation is in order.

Firstly atmospheric conditions are not a constant that a single mathematical formula can be generated about to make predictions for sound propagations. The models used by industry fail to take this into account and it is reflected, once again, by reality at existing wind plant sites.

Understanding the differing conditions is not all that difficult in spite of the fact that understanding concepts and mathematical formulas surrounding sound propagation are beyond the scope of the average human being. That doesn't imply stupidity, this stuff is really complex.

What may be simple to understand is that day and night atmospheres differ vastly. During the daytime the sun heats the earth's surface and causes rising air currents. Buzzards and glider pilots use these thermals to drift effortlessly through the sky. Think of them as wind moving vertically. With their influence winds traveling parallel to the ground are dampened or impeded.

The winds at ground level will vary little from winds at say 300 or 400 feet above the earth's surface. There will also be wind speed differences if you look at various locations on the ground. You may have a wind moving 20 mph in one place and in a place 500 feet away it will only be going 10 mph. This is known as an unstable atmosphere. It is due to the layering of air temperature where the bottom is warmest and the top layers are coolest. Warm air rises and the ability for wind speeds to vary in one layer compared to another are limited. Think of the wind being in layers as in a cake.

Take away the sun as night fall does. Eventually the earth's warm surface cools and you end up with the warmer air at the top and the cooler air at the bottom. As one moves higher above the earth's surface wind speeds can vary significantly. Below 50 or 100 feet you may have absolute calm. Above these heights you may have strong winds. Now consider that the air doesn't necessarily blow in the same direction as one moves up away from the ground. Think of that layer cake as being a stack of pieces of wood with their grains being at slight angles to each other indicating not only differing wind speed but different angles with respect to a line drawn on the ground. This is known as a stable atmosphere. There is a temperature gradient with warm air at the top and cool air at the bottom. No vertical movement occurs so no damping of horizontal movement occurs. Wind speed at given layer is more apt to be a constant. The variations occurring as one moves up to the next layer. This is a stable atmosphere.

The third possibility is a neutral atmosphere and exists in the absence of a temperature gradient.Actually there is a classification system for atmospheric stability that is a numbered gradient form unstable to stable. But the above simplification serves to explain.

The stable atmosphere can also serve to reflect sounds back downward. This creates an interesting phenomenon where one can detect very little sound right up under a turbine, but some distance away it can be quite loud.

The take home message here is that the most noise occurs at night when people are trying to sleep. There is little to no background noise at ground level as there is little to no wind. At hub height the winds are often great enough for maximum output for the turbines. This has some rather adverse consequences. It is also notable that a room such as a bedroom can serve to amplify sounds, especially low frequency sounds. I've witnessed this in my practice. I can hear heartbeats of animals in cages if I stick my head inside the cage. I'm not using a stethoscope and I have normal hearing. Maybe mine is a bit better than the average person as my employees might tell you. My wife might disagree though.

There are several sources for sounds in the turbines. Sources of noise include drive gears between the turbine's hub and the generator, the gears that rotate the nacelle so the turbine is in the wind properly, and the generator produces noise as it spins (these are the equivalent to giant electric motors - if you've handled small electric motors you know they produce noise). These noises may be sheltered by the nacelle shrouding them.

The blades themselves are a source of noise as they slice through the air. The type of turbine has some influence over this. Industry claims the newer turbines are quiet because of blade design and the fact that the turbines are now upwind type. Meaning the blade sees the wind first. On downwind blades there is a thump as the blade goes by the tower. It is due to the air being relatively still behind the tower so there is an abrupt change of conditions surrounding the blade as it goes by the tower. THUMP! There is still a thump generated by an upwind turbine. It isn't as prominent, but it is still present. Some turbines situate the rotational axis so blades are not parallel to the tower but slope away from it. There is still a thump.

Recall that wind speeds at night are steady for each layer in a stable atmosphere. That means the turbines will all be turning at the same speed as opposed to a variety of speeds as one may expect during the day. Blade pitch can be varied to find tune speed according to available wind, but the turbines are likely to turn synchronously at night. That puts the blade sounds in phase with each other. Think of 44 cars traveling at regular intervals with the same rap tune being played through the same model sub woofer all in synch with each other.

The thump as the blade passes the tower produces a pressure pulse between the blade and tower. That pressure pulse creates an earth vibration via the tower and its foundation. If the turbines at a given site are turning at the same speeds these vibrations can be synchronous with each other. If synchronous the vibrations will have coherence.

Coherence means the vibrations will be added together to increase the strength of the vibrations. Simply put, one person cannot push a large truck, but several can because collectively the group is stronger than each individual is alone. Coherence at turbine sites has received no attention from industry at this point. It is receiving attention by other groups currently, but nothing has been published.

Terrain can influence sound traveling over land (or water). Steep slopes can strongly reflect the sounds giving additive effects further down slope. Snow covered ground will also enhance the sound.

It is at this point that I'd like to inform you that the sound predictions made by industry experts prior to construction use models that don't account for stable atmospheres. More importantly is the fact that measurements made by individuals suffering the consequences more neatly match the sound predictions made in consideration of stable atmospheric conditions. In short, reality differs with industry claims made prior to construction during the permitting phase.

When one thinks of sound the concept is usually restricted to things you can hear. Sound can exist in frequencies above and below the range humans can hear. That doesn't mean they are beyond sensation. Low frequency sounds will have a tactile quality. That is to say you can feel them. If you have ever been sitting at a rail crossing and had a diesel locomotive roll by at a low speed you've experienced this type of noise. You feel as well as hear the sound. The sensation resonates through your entire body.

I have to relay my own personal experiences from a recent visit to a wind plant. Keeping in mind the time the sound is at its worst I took a trip to Thomas, West Virginia in Tucker County. This is near the location for a wind plant on the ridge of Backbone Mountain. Route 32 goes through Thomas and intersects Route 219. If you turn south on 219 and go about 4 miles you will come upon Sugarlands Road on the right hand side. Turning right on Sugarlands you will immediately see a gravel parking area on your right. Before you see any of this you will notice the massive turbines if you go during the light of day. I arrived about 5 a.m. under rather harsh conditions. It was very windy yet I could still hear the whoosh of the blades. This was a rhythmic sound occurring in relation to the blade speed, about 18 rpm. About 1 whoosh per second. At some times it was rather astounding, almost sounding like meat searing on a grill. This was quite close to the turbines. I think a bit too close considering the blade and ice throw comments earlier. I'd be surprised if I was more than 1000 feet from the base. I'm of the mind that it was probably much closer.

Alternatively you can head north on 219 from 32 again about 4 miles and you encounter the turbines again further north on the ridge. I did just this and decided to continue north to see if I'd encounter more turbines. I continued for another 4 miles down the ridge away from this point. This was downwind from the turbines. This section of West Virginia has roads that are more rolling rather than switch backs. Four miles by road was quite a substantial distance from the turbines as well.

I noticed something that I hadn't expected after I turned around to go back over the ridge. It was just beginning to become light out at this point. When I was about two miles from the ridge, by road, I noticed a rhythmic vibration that completely enveloped me and it seemed to be following the same beat as the whooshing mentioned at the first encounter. I couldn't so much hear it as feel it throughout my body. I developed a pounding headache followed by nausea. A tingling sensation developed in my hands. I also had an odd sense of disorientation (not quite dizzy, but a similar feeling). The best way I can describe it is to compare it to the feeling you get on a commercial jet on take off when the plane goes into a steep climb, most evident if you fly at night. Your spatial sensations are confused as you only see what is going on in the cabin yet feel the acceleration in your vestibular apparatus. The vibrations seemed to be most intense when I put the engine under mild load on the uphill sections of the road and I could readily call this up by manipulating the throttle. I thought it may have been a character of the engine I'd never picked up on so I made a point of paying attention to the sensation taking in all detail.

I crested the ridge and kept on going on the upwind side of the turbines. Mountain roads tend to undulate up and down hill whether you're going toward the top or the base of a mountain, so I had plenty of uphill grades to load the engine. What I noticed was the vibration was still present but much less intense. I went on through Thomas and continued south on 32 paying attention to the uphill areas. I could no longer get the sensation to occur after putting a few miles between me and the turbines. First the tingling and disorientation disappeared and then the headache. The nausea lingered for an additional hour.

Coincidentally numbness, nausea, headaches, and dizziness are commonly reported by people living in the shadow of wind turbines. Industry likes to write these folks off as complainers. On my own behalf I'm not one to run to the doctor for every little hangnail. I've only been to an ER for two fairly severe dog bites - one severed nerve, artery, and vein and one puncture to the hand that my receptionist had to nag me to get me to go to the ER. About two years ago I ruptured my spleen after losing an argument with the ground - I foolishly didn't seek medical help for over twelve hours. I think my symptoms in Tucker County were real.

I'd like to repeat that the models used by the industry to predict sound do not give the same results as models used by other researchers. Measured sounds taken from properties where people experience problems reflect the stable atmosphere predictions made by non-industry scientists. Industry maintains sounds won't be an issue beyond 1000 feet or so. People 2 miles away suffer the impacts described above. Interestingly enough the web site for a turbine manufacturer in Europe recommends a 2 km setback minimum. I contacted them to find out their reason for this policy and received no reply. It has also been suggested that setbacks for turbines in mountainous regions may need to be greater than those on level lands.

Who Are These People & What Do They Do?

Shouldn't these Boards and Commissions put out an agenda so the Public is aware of just what it is these people do? I'd also like to know why Karen Reddersen is putting out this document and not Pam Oland?

I went to the City's Website and found the following information.

CENTRAL CITY DISTRICT COMMISSION

Description: This commission shall advise the Mayor and Council on Central Business District matters pertaining to parking, bond financing, property acquisition, special tax district rates, and the general betterment of the area.

Meeting Schedule: As needed.

Chairperson: Bill Ahtes

So I'll ask again, what the heck is this meeting about and why didn't they advertise it in the Paper as well? I'd also like to know how and why they hold these meetings during the day when the general public cannot attend?

The Dirty Dozen Story You Never Got To See In The Daily Times

Almost 4 weeks ago I received a call from a reporter with The Daily Times wanting to interview me about how I felt being one of "The Dirty Dozen?"

The questions quickly turned towards the Blogs and the fact that the Times wanted to know if Debbie Campbell was in fact writing for me and participating with information about the City.

I could quickly see that the Mayor had once again instructed The Daily Times to go after these bad people and shut them down.

Well Barrie, the article never made the newspaper because The Daily Times interviewed just about everyone I know and the truth was told by all and the Times figured out very quickly that it was YOU that is the problem.

Between the Mayor, Dunn, Comegys and Cathcart, they were the problem and so everyone knows, Debbie Campbell absolutely 100 % does not participate with my Blog and or write for my Blog!

I stated to the Daily Times Reporter, I WISH! I'd pay Debbie $50,000.00 a year to write for my Blog full time! Now that's an interesting thought Debbie. Perhaps you could run for Mayor and write for my Blog at the same time???????

Now there's a story for you Daily Times!

The Times Are Changing, Daily

There used to be a day when you were told your letter to the editor could take weeks to publish. Today, that's a whole different story. I have been told personally at 3:00 in the afternoon, "well, we're not going to make it into tomorrow's paper." INTERESTING!

People have become so fed up with the Daily Times that they won't even write in any more and leave letters to the editor. If you'll notice over the past few weeks there have been fewer and fewer letters printed and today is yet another prime example.

IMO, the Blogs have taken so much away from the Daily Times credibility that people aren't interested in their kind of news any more. The Blogs produce information MUCH faster than the Daily Times, even the on line version.

The Daily Times has also borrowed an unbelievable amount of stories only produced on the Blogs first. It's an easy format for them to follow. They sit back, read the stories on the Blogs to get an idea for stories of their own with their own twists to it and the next thing you know, (two or three days later) you'll read about it in the Times.

It's a complement in my book. There are VERY FEW local stories you'll read in The Daily Times that wasn't on the Blogs. Heck, I'll be the first to admit that there have been many a times I called my contacts at the Times to get off their a** and come to a story they weren't aware of. However, this has never happened in return since I've owned my own Blog. "Don't ever forget where you came from." I doubt I'll be sharing any more inside information with some of my contacts there any more because they are so desperate and forgetful.

The Daily Times is slipping very quickly and they probably won't last more than another year. I'm glad more people are choosing to express themselves on the Blogs these days verses grapevines and letters to the editor.

The Best Christmas Gifts

All our lives we have asked others, "so, what did you get for Christmas?"

That being said, I'd like to explain my favorite type of gift and why this year was so special. Growing up very poor, we always gave hand made gifts for Christmas. This is one of the reasons I loved wood shop in school as well as a leather class I took back when school also had drivers ed and all the cool stuff school can't afford any more but our taxes keep going up?

Nevertheless, making gifts left you free and clear from spending too much and or not enough on someone because you couldn't put a price tag on it.

For the past two years I had heard about one of my neighbors making the finest Cheesecake on the Eastern Shore and the fact that this is what she gave out to her friends at Christmas time. She'd slave for days on end making literally a hundred or more of these cakes and one day near Christmas I dropped by her farm to get some hay and the smell was overwhelming!

YYYYYUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!! I asked what she was doing/cooking and she said, oh, just making the usual cheesecakes I give out for Christmas. I explained how my ex used to make a mighty fine cheesecake and how if there was anything I ever missed from that woman, that was it.

Folks, this woman is a spectacular human being. She has over 400 acres in which she farms, ALONE! She raises chicken several times a year for one of the local chicken producers and she tends a huge farm as well as bails hay and the whole nine yards. I thought Jennifer put in a tough day at the Zoo when she used to work there but let me tell you, this woman blows that away.

We arrived home the other night to a white box sitting on the front deck and it said, "Merry Christmas from the Hay Lady." I knew immediately what it was and I'm sorry to say, I knew this gift was extra special. I couldn't resist cutting off a small piece of this pie to see if the legendary story was as true as a hundred people had said. OMG! Talk about GOOD! This is by far the best cheesecake I have ever had in my lifetime!

Thanks Susan!

1,043 Stories Have Already Been Told On Salisbury News

I thought I had been keeping tabs on just how many stories have been written here so far but it looks like it got away from me and I went over the 1,000 mark.

This Blog originated on July 25, 2006, (5 months ago). The stories have averaged out to almost 7 stories a day, 7 days a week. Not too shabby for a local Blog.

2007 will be even better. We'll have a new location and a far better format to bring you the news. Newer technology and beter information to come. Thanks for being here and we'll see you tomorrow!

Wind Turbine Troubles By Dr. Jimmy Tragle, Part IIIA

Part III A

Operational events pose some points of concern. These are down to siting turbines on improper locations when it comes to affecting various populations.

Blade strikes are a big issue in at least three locations in the US where turbines are already sited. Perhaps the most famous one is Altamont in California. This is a site placed in an area that has a lot of raptor activity. The bird counts are tremendously high in this region.

Backbone Mountain in West Virginia and Buffalo Mountain in Tennessee have high numbers of bat kills. Buffalo Ridge MN has a high number but also has a high number of turbines compared to the other two. Backbone Mountain boasts the highest bat kill rates per turbine on the planet. Not a good record to have in my humble opinion. You may not think much of bats, but they're an important part of the local ecosystem and play an important factor in insect population control.

Industry stance on bat and bird kills are for me an indication of the absence of real concern for the environment. The bird kills are fobbed off by pointing out that cats, cars, power lines, towers, and high buildings kill a larger number of birds. They don't mention that the birds killed by most of these "problems" aren't the same type dying at Altamont. Not too many cats I know of that can bring down an eagle. And is it really sound to defend your destruction by pointing out the destruction of another source?

I personally witnessed a proponent for wind industry citing from findings of an expert witness that bats wouldn't be an issue on the Jack Mountain site. The claim was based upon the fact that bat feeding range doesn't typically go above tree canopy height. The turbine blades are much higher. Indications are that bat mortalities occur in migration, not feeding. Migration occurs at much greater heights above treetops. Bats also don't use their sonar capabilities when migrating. That may help in part to explain why they cannot miss the blades. In general though I'd think any flighted animal would have a difficult time dodging something that is going 180 MPH and has a pair of twins chasing it (each turbine has three blades).

Jack Mountain hosts a larger population of bats than Backbone Mountain. Logic would imply a potential for higher kill rates I would think. One of the latest maneuvers by the company that wishes to develop Jack Mountain is to ask to be excused from considering potential impacts to wildlife. Hardly the voice of an environmentally responsible organization, again, in my opinion. I do believe this covers the disregard for the cave systems mentioned in Part II. That also should wipe out concerns for the damage to waterways that drain the area many many miles away from the site.

Blade throw and ice throw are possible sources for animal and human injuries and property damage. Blade throw is where pieces of blade break off for a variety of reasons and get tossed by the spinning blade. Ice throw is where ice forms on blades and gets thrown in the same fashion. Siting set backs can serve to mitigate human injury (apart from facility employees and people that don't respect fence lines) as well as property damage. On the other hand I've been to a wind plant and I must say one of the turbines seemed dangerously close to a public road. There are equations that can be used to calculate blade and ice throw. One must also be aware that potential distances can go up for turbines sited on ridge tops. Think about how far you can throw an object up a steep hill vs how far you can throw it down a steep hill. There will be obvious limits on just how far the distance will increase as an object will eventually assume near vertical free fall, but one can expect greater blade throw distances on a steep mountain than on flat land. Then there is the question about what happens once a piece of airfoil strikes the ground on a steep mountain. It stands a good chance of carrying on down hill. Impact speeds can reach 200 mph. Imagine stopping several tons going that fast with your house. I personally find it to be a valid concern in the hills of West Virginia. It is not an issue in the ocean I suppose.

I've seen arguments from proponents that neither is of concern. There is one report of a German wind plant having a failure in a windstorm. The blades on a turbine failed and it spun up too fast for its own good. One of the blades flexed and hit the tower. This ripped off the entire blade and nacelle assembly sending 50+ tons of debris flying. One piece was reported to have gone over 1500 feet.

The argument has been put forward that ice throw isn't an issue as ice only forms on stationary blades. This is not quite the case. At elevations above 3500 feet (don't quote me, I may be wrong on the exact height) there is the increased probability that ice will form on moving blades just as it does on aircraft wings. It has also been suggested that the blades lose their aerodynamics and are therefore not apt to spin fast with ice on them. Somehow planes manage to fly with ice on the wings. Chunks of ice weighing several hundred pounds have been lobbed off blades.

In all honesty the modern blades are heated to help mitigate the ice issue. I have to admit that I don't know if this is done full time during appropriate conditions or if it is only done intermittently. I've seen no detailed commentary. The process does require electricity and is also an area of potential breakdown for the turbine. The heated blades come in as a potential drain to the electricity produced by turbines. That is an issue to be touched upon later.

As mentioned, appropriate siting can minimize these issues. And offshore they may not be a big deal provided curious boaters cannot get too close.

Noise pollution is a big issue and deserves a lot more attention than industry proponents wish to give it. This single topic deserves a lot of attention so I'm going to skip over it for this segment and bring it up in the next part.

Strobe effect describes the flashing that occurs when the sun reflects off the blades as they spin during sunset and sunrise. This is a rather disturbing occurrence for people living near turbines as it happens for a period each day the sun is out and shining. It will happen either at sunset or sunrise for a given household depending upon where the house is in relation to the turbines.

Shadow flicker is the same but opposite so to speak. The blades cast shadows that are particularly long near sunset and sunrise. For a given location this will occur at sunset if strobe occurs at sunrise and so on. Evidently pulling the blinds doesn't abate the problem as the shadows or flashes are still evident through all but the most opaque draperies.

One can surmise that during the winter months when the sun stays fairly low in the sky both of these events could be quite prolonged if the turbines are situated upon a ridge in a line and a house is positioned so the effect is brought upon the house by different turbines as the day rolls on.

Shadow flicker and strobe effect are reported to cause some issues with dizziness, nausea, and seizures in individuals so disposed.

Stray voltage has been reported on one dairy farm. Stray voltage occurs when there are improper grounding done, most often in barns with concrete floors and metal railings. A cow moves against a railing and gets electrocuted. In this particular case the dairy owner spent something akin to $100,000 on upgrades in an attempt to mitigate the problem. In frustration he disconnected some ground cables on the turbines and the problem went away. This was done illegally and to avoid prosecution the man didn't file suit against the power company. The cables were connected again and the problem returned. The power company maintained the problem was all his due to faulty wiring.

Before anyone gets too critical of the above issues as not applying to offshore facilities, I recognize this. I could omit most of the section I suppose. Yet I feel it offers a glimpse at the attitude that seems to be underlying the industry. All concerns are pushed aside as the unreasonable rantings of people that don't want to live in the shadow of turbines. t I'd like to see anyone that accuses others of being the NIMBY type have an extended vacation and take up residence in an abandoned family home in Nova Scotia that I have been made aware of in the last year. When confronted by people with this type of concern industry representatives take the tone that suggests "You don't know what you're talking about and we do. Everything will be just fine."

My apologies if these articles seem lengthy and at times irrelevant to the offshore plants. I’m trying to be general and I have a better understanding about the onshore ones. This comes from a year of trawling through arguments for and against them and some independent findings. Independent findings are very difficult to locate as one can usually detect an agenda at some point in most studies and commentaries. I make no apologies for my own giving a voice to my own agenda as it is a shared one. Parts IIIB, IV, and V are nearly finished, but there will be one or two more parts to follow.

State Of The County Address

Richard M. Pollitt, Jr., Wicomico County’s first elected Executive will deliver a “State of the County” Address on Thursday, December 28th at noon in the Council Chamber of the Government Office Building. The newly revised Wicomico County Charter requires the Executive to deliver this message before the end of the calendar year. This will be the first mandated “State of the County” address in Wicomico County history.

Randy Taylor Asks My Wife To Have The Photos Of His Children Removed From An Earlier Post

After multiple phone calls to our home, Randy asked Jennifer to please relay a message asking if we'd remove the photos of his children on an earlier post today. What puzzles me is this......

First of all, why would he post these photos on their front entrance door if they were so worried about any exposure of their children?

Secondly, we're not talking about Elvis Presley's children here. I could see a major celebrity wanting to keep their children from the public, but a Taylor?

Nevertheless, I decided the post, (of their children) was up long enough and there really is no use in keeping these children posted, but the Taylor's do. The photos of their children are still in their front door?

OK Randy, I removed the photos. Now, will we see some changes/improvements on your properties? Perhaps you can tell me when the mortgage on the building next door was completed and then the date in which you were on the Historical Society Board? Did you recuse yourself on the Historical Society Board when you made decisions on that building, (possibly AFTER you gave them the mortgage)?

I'll be digging into this information and hopefully you're clean on the deal. If not, well, it will make the Blog. Things better be on the up and up around Salisbury or this investigative reporter will get to the bottom of it and the games/scams will come to a close very quickly around here.

No One Is Perfect, BUT, This One's An Idiot!

Perhaps you meant to say, "No fix approved for badly eroded Virginia road"?

Other Deadbeat Stores

No matter where you went the stores were empty other than employees that worked there. Might I add one more thing. Jennifer and I stopped off at the Dunkin Dounuts on Rt. 13 in Delmar and let me tell you, the dounuts SUCKED! I have never had soggy dounuts in my entire life! It's the one located in that gas station where there's a Subway there as well. Anyhow, I'll never waste money there ever again.

Next Came Sam's Club

Now check this out! As I went off on my own and waited for the doors to open at 7:00 a.m. this morning to Sam's, I was one of only two people waiting to get in! (I arrived at 6:55 a.m.) Hence the lack of vehicles in their parking lot.

As we went into the store there wasn't a sole around. Workers could be seen every so often stocking items but there was only one register open and I walked back to the Christmas area and started looking around.

The next thing I knew, Jennifer was calling me on the cell asking what was up at Sam's because she was through with WalMart. I asked her to come over because my cart was already completely full and I needed another cart right away.

Jennifer came in and saw what I had and said, LET'S GET MORE! Items that were $75.00+ were now marked down to $25.00. Some items that were $10.00 were now marked down to $2.00, so we bought some $2,000.00 worth of stuff for less than three hundred bucks! Boy won't the family be excited when we come to visit on Friday!

Sam's was by far the best deal going! Better hurry though, I bought a ton of stuff and it's not going to last very long at these prices.

Let's Go Shopping!

Here it is, the day after Christmas when all of the stores have their best deals, NOT! Jennifer and I got the first parking spot closest to the front doors. After walking around feeling like an Idiot, I strongly suggested she keep shopping in WalMart while I strolled over to Sam's and checked things out there. Ultimately after Jennifer shopped there she came out with only 2 items. More to come...........

I'm Confused, How Many Landlords & Real Estate Agents Can You Have On One Board?

Gangs Practice On How To Rob A Bank

The City of Salisbury have given Gangs the perfect opportunity to practice on the proper ways to rob a bank. Considering there's no policing of the old Salisbury Mall, Gangs can do whatever they like to this old vacant building and practice up for the real thing just around the corner.

Bullet holes can clearly be seen through the windows and who knows, maybe there's a dead manneqin or two inside? Rumor on the streets has it the Salisbury Police Department has a new rule, "Don's Ask, Don't Tell. It's a military thing.