A Letter To The WDT By Cape Vincent Resident Mrs. Elisabeth Brennen

  Use the link below to see Mrs. Brennen's WDT letter.

http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20140124/OPINION02/701249965

Below is a quote from Mrs. Brennen's letter.

"I know that when people in the Cape see a person in need, they don’t ask themselves what side of an issue that person is on before they step forward to help. They just help."

Although I am certain Mrs. Brennen is genuine in her spirit to shed a positive light on the Cape Vincent community and I give her credit for that, but I am not sure I agree with this overall statement.

They just help????  let's examine that statement for a  minute.

Now many of my readers already know that Mrs. Brennen is a very influential voice in Cape Vincent, particularly in the village since she is a village trustee and involved in many important CV activities.

However, this  makes me wonder where Mrs. Brennen's spirit and influence was last summer when CV town zoning officials ignored the pleas of a fellow woman citizen Mary Grogan and her son, while the same zoning officials made a travesty of the town zoning law at significant expense to Mrs. Grogan as her rights.  Even though it was the town govt. not the village govt that created the zoning mess that hurt Mary Grogan.  I assume Mrs. Brennen's letter is referring to the town and village, not just the village.

Town officials even had to admit what had occurred with the CV town zoning process against Mrs. Grogan would not have held up in court.

I assisted Mrs. Grogan as best I could, and a couple other people spoke on her behalf, but otherwise Mrs. Grogan was a lone voice trying to protect her rights and her property to no avail.

 With this egregious situation even hitting the WDT as a front page story...the same paper Mrs. Brennen posted her letter in and I am sure she reads,  I don't recall many CV citizens  nor Mrs Brennen just helping.  Many citizens knew quite well what was going on but very few were willing to just help.  And had there been more outrage by Cape citizens maybe it would have made a difference.

What's far worse is that the people who should have helped and didn't despite Mary's direct and repeated pleas to them, were town officials. 

Of course it was an election year, and the town supervisor was even caught up in this same zoning mess!!!  Apparently that was more important than just helping! 

It is one thing to write a nice letter to the editor to shed the Cape Vincent community in a positive light, as a small friendly community where people jump to help one another.

However, it's quite another thing to take some actions that actually demonstrate Mrs. Brennen's claims.

I think Mrs. Brennen should call Mrs. Grogan and ask her how she feels about the overall CV town village community and Mrs. Brennen's letter! 

And just for clarification, Mrs. Grogan is the woman on Cty Rt 7 who has a private wind turbine zoning screw up looming her house. She has pleaded with the current govt to do something about that issue too.  Then she had to deal with the solar zoning fiasco on the same property.  Her property values have probably tanked as a result...and virtually no one has stepped up to just help, especially town officials.

After last summer I doubt Mrs. Grogan not is quite as enthusiastic as Mrs. Brennen about the CV community's willingness to step up and help.

I think who in the CV community will just help often depends on how much it will upset the "well established " apple cart!

* A final note.  I do want to praise CV ZBA official Ms. Hester Chase who heard Mrs. Grogan's case when it came before the  ZBA, and did show the type of spirit Mrs. Brennen is talking about while attempting to help Mrs. Grogan by voting to deny a permit that will now have a high impact on Mrs. Grogan's property.