"David Page wants to be able to do what he wants to do, when he wants to do it," the supervisor said, blasting Mr. Page for complaining that town bureaucracy has kept him from erecting a 120-foot wind turbine at his vineyard on Oregon Road in Mattituck.
Mr. Page acknowledged that he would have the $93,000 wind system blowing on his property tomorrow if he could, and that he wants to be the first local vineyard to be powered by renewable wind energy.
"The clock is always ticking and the wind is always blowing up on Oregon Road. Every second I wait costs me money," said Mr. Page, 50, who runs Shinn Estate Vineyards with his wife, Barbara Shinn.
"I don't know why [Mr. Russell] resorts to personal attacks. He's trying to depict me as the impatient, bad guy."
Mr. Russell noted that town code allows for wind turbines on farms, but the structures must be set back at least 300 feet from the property line. The wind turbine proposed by Mr. Page would be 140 feet from his neighbor, Martin Sidor, a potato farmer.
"It's a very reasonable, straightforward law that makes sense," the supervisor said. "It provides an opportunity for neighbors, residential property owners, to be heard in a public process."
Mr. Page and Ms. Shinn were denied a building permit in April and their variance application to the Zoning Board of Appeals is not expected to be heard by the board until August.
The fate of their proposal could tip the scales in the use of wind energy in Southold, said Nick Albukrek, co-owner of GreenLogic, an alternative energy company in contract with Shinn Estate for its proposed wind turbine.
"There are plenty of people waiting to see how this pans out to determine whether they move forward or not with a wind energy system," he said.
"I think the town is being extra careful. We commend them for being visionaries in creating the code," Mr. Albukrek continued. "They're trying to do the right thing, but I think they need to be more educated about what is possible and what is not."
Mr. Page said the code's 300-foot setback provision is exorbitant and serves as a major deterrent for wind energy.
"It forces most farmers to go through a variance process that is expensive and takes a very long time," Mr. Page said. "My concern is that the setback was put in to slow down or stop the installation of wind turbines in Southold Town."
If Mr. Page applied the current setback rule in putting up his wind turbine, he would lose an acre of grapevines and would have to trench hundreds of feet to bring power from the turbine to the point of use. Moreover, the farther away the turbine is from the point of use, the lower the voltage supply.
The key impetus for the wind turbine is its increasing affordability. The Long Island Power Authority would provide a $49,000 rebate and the U.S. Department of Agriculture is offering a grant worth up to 25 percent of the turbine's cost.
The savings would mean that Mr. Page and Ms. Shinn would pay about $20,000 out of pocket -- and that's before a 30 percent tax credit. And when you consider the couple would save $8,000 a year in energy costs, the turbine is a "no brainer," Mr. Page said.
Town Councilman Al Krupski agreed, adding that the town's shift toward wind and other renewable types of energy is inevitable.
"There's a shortfall in the code," Mr. Krupski said. "It shouldn't be 300 feet. Obviously, you need a fall zone from your neighbor's property, but you have to be able to put it somewhere on your property where it's going to work."
The councilman predicted that the Zoning Board of Appeals will approve Mr. Page's wind turbine. Mr. Russell said he too assumes that the wind turbine dream will ultimately become reality, but he added that Mr. Page must "wait his place in line."
"He's not the most important person in Southold Town. He wants the law narrowly defined to fit him perfectly to a T," Mr. Russell said. "He has to wait for the process to take place. The code is meant to apply to 53 square miles of town, not just David Page."
bharmon@timesreview.com