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I can't see what she's trying to accomplish unless she's just a control freak. There are much worse things he could do than make whiskey: how about a 500 acre hog farm? Or, since he has to comply with Act 250, he could put in a real industrial park, complete with new roads and a stream of semis every day. I think she's pushing her luck.
That was my point in the other thread.
There are two sides to everything if not more, but part of me says he should just find a place more than willing to have him bring his 20-30 jobs and tax revenue to the area and turn WhistlePig's 500 acres into a hog farm or bring back the dairy farms.....I haven't met a NJ transplant yet who wants to build their love nest of Yankee Magazine utpoia downwind from a working dairy farm. Enjoy your berries......nothing makes me want to overpay for organically grown jam with the pungent smell of cow**** wafting through the grounds.....
What will she do then? Loby the county to force the cow farmer to install scrubbers to take the smell from the air?
I sense there is a portion of the local popualtion there that will just want to say no to anything "new" and involving "change" no matter what it is. Those folks are probably just watching from the sidelines and quietly telling the breakfast crowd at the diner that "we're probably better off anyways.....it'll bring in more flatlanders and Canadians, the roads can't take it".
Then we have the vocal folks that on one issue want to bring more jobs to the area but then on this issue, jump on the berry cart and side with someone adding basically no jobs and very little tax revenue to the area vs. Captain Whiskey.
I laughed my arse off at the picture of that "group tour/meeting field trip" for zoning etc. at the farm....had like 10-20 people there to learn about what? Mold? Whiskey? Rye? Berries? Red tape?
If you take out the aspect of who is bringing in jobs I think it changes the color of this issue.
How about instead of a NJ transplant who has no intentions of being a real farmer and who is instead being a grandma with no grandchildren of her own, it's just some folks from VT or not who are concerned about development. Or how about it is a REAL farmer trying to eke out a living who is concerned about something they read on the internet about black mold being worried about their livelihood.
I think it is right and good that such people can have a voice and don't have to get bullied by owners of businesses who can run roughshod over the landscape.
My problem with this particular struggle between two transplants is that we know damn well that berry lady is cloaking herself with the holy shroud of farming when in reality she is nothing of the kind. And on the other hand, I know damn well as a VT business owner that is it not what you know but WHO you know, and the holier-than-thou stance of the Natural Resources Board sounds like one more piece of hypocrisy coming out of Montpelier. If Whisky guy had cultivated the right friends in the VT legislature, this issue would have been "fixed" to his advantage.
If Whisky guy had cultivated the right friends in the VT legislature, this issue would have been "fixed" to his advantage.
All indications are that Raj Bhakta didn't do his homework regarding state officials, so he actually deserves some trouble. I agree though that letting economically vulnerable locals have a say is important and is probably why Act 250 exists in the first place. It seems a little ridiculous in the context of non-native gentleman farmers having a spat. Maybe they could resolve this with a duel - and WhistlePig Farms could become a stop on the tourist circuit for those seeking local color. I just have a hard time thinking of this as a significant overdevelopment issue, because the changes would be minimal.
Last edited by pauldorell; 03-04-2013 at 07:36 PM..
As I have maintained there are two sides or more to every story, Whiskey man really had some additional homework to do in this. My head shaking moments are more for the long term lack of vision employed in these situations.
I think the intent of Act 250 may be good but the way in which it plays out in many cases just increases the the volume of red tape people must wade through.......
I'm not sure but what I hear the fat lady humming.
Bhatka has the right politicians in his corner it would appear. The revenues he is generating (and can generate) are nothing to scoff at. I bet Berry Lady has her day in environmental court, but Bhatka is smarter and will ultimately prevail. No doubt he is getting help from other distilleries as to how to defuse the arguments that Berry Lady's hired gun will present.
I always cringe when I have to go to our legal dept for a meeting on something.....40+ lawyers worry me.....
Berry lady should concentrate on the upcoming berry season.
Lawyers don't really contribute much to society. They are mostly about protecting the property rights of the rich. I'm sort of getting a kick out the fact that the profession is dying out due to outsourcing and automation.
Lawyers don't really contribute much to society. They are mostly about protecting the property rights of the rich. I'm sort of getting a kick out the fact that the profession is dying out due to outsourcing and automation.
Let's be clear here; at the corporate level the profession is very much about two guys reading books and case transcripts that have never been read before to contribute to a third set of transcripts which will never be read again. It's very much a bunch of highly read folks charging their clients hourly fees to have a johnson measuring contest.
I deal mostly with labor lawyers who think like lawyers not business people.
Lawyers can be useful, but in between useful outings, there is a lot of space to fill up.
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