CHUCK MARTIN, BIO-EN, FIT PROGRAM

Tomorrow's Woolwich Observer is out although not on line yet. Steve Kannon has written the following story "Not enough time to review green projects; township". A total of five projects were presented to Council for their last minute endorsement under new rules by the province's Feed-in-Tariff program. The only one getting an immediate blessing was the rooftop solar panel for chateau gardens. Chuck Martin of Bio-En had three proposals all for immediate neighbours of the Martin's Lane Bio-En facility. One was to use excess heat generated by the Bio-gas faciltiy and the other two to use excess bio-gas itself to produce electricity for a neighbour.

The point of the story is primarily the tokenism being shown by the province in pretending to listen to local council's input on these projects. The problem of course is the extremely short time frame for councils to educate themselves with the facts and thus make an informed decision.

For me there is another equally disappointing fact. I've been carefully watching the lack of activity on the Martin's Lane site for many months since they were given the complete go-ahead. Yes I've seen earth scraped and moved around. I've also seen a few surveying stakes put up. What I haven't seen is any real construction. Keep in mind our winters aren't nearly what they once were with all construction absolutely shut down from mid November through to April. Thus I was still holding out some desperate hope that without footings for foundations at least; that maybe there was some deliberate stalling going on. Maybe there might be a reason to go slow. That feeble thought seems to be a whole lot less likely when Chuck Martin is still trying to expand his sales to nearby neighbours, based upon excess capacity at the Martin's Lane location.