Evidence

On February 28, 2011, the neighbors of the town's wind turbines sat in the selectmen's meeting room for hours. They waited patiently while one agenda item after another was discussed. When the board finished its business, they asked to be heard.

The board's meetings are televised live, and the home audience watched as one neighbor, Neil Anderson, approached the selectmen's table at the front of the room. Coming so soon on the heels of the December, 2010 Panama City school board shooting, many expected the worst.

What the home audience couldn't see was that Mr. Anderson was not violent. Throughout that evening, Mr. Anderson sat quietly in the back of the room - sleeping. Every time I looked in his direction, his eyes were closed, or he was nodding off, clearly struggling to keep them open.

This man was exhausted.

Following this week's decision by the Board of Selectmen to operate the turbines only 16 hours per day, a resident emailed me. He said, "Emotion again trumps Evidence."

With all due respect to the scientists and doctors who claim that there is no evidence, I've seen it for myself.

Until the Board voted to curtail the turbines' operation, several town boards and employees had been receiving volumes of emails and phone calls every day the wind blew.

Afterwards, the complaints dropped off dramatically.

Some folks have questioned why the Board of Health (BoH) hasn't done anything. Unofficially, I'm told that this why. The BoH had nothing concrete to work with other than sleep deprivation, and when the selectmen turned off the turbines at night, that issue went away.

In essence, the problem was solved.

Likewise, many have asked why - if the turbines are such a problem - the state hasn't stepped in to do something. Again, the turbines' operation only exceeded state noise standards during the dead of night. If the turbines aren't operating at that hour, there is no exceedence and there is no problem, so the state doesn't need to act.

The science behind "wind turbine syndrome" isn't settled yet, and it may be years or decades before it is. Whether or not infrasound - or some other mechanism - is the problem, is as yet unknown. On Monday, many speakers called for more studies, and I agree.

However, in the interim, I have to make decisions based on the information I have before me.

And so I did.