To the editor:
I am writing concerning the recent article on the proposed solar array being placed on the current Egremont Golf/Country Club property directly on Route 23. It is both problematic and ironic that it is where the entering Great Barrington sign is on one side and entering Egremont on the other side.
Aside from the residential nature of this area with the Windflower Inn directly facing it on one side and the Egremont Inn on the other side and the various homes that abut the current golf course, it is one of the major routes entering both Great Barrington in one direction and Egremont in the other direction. To place a considerably large solar array at this entry point is extremely short-sighted.
We are, among other things, a tourist destination. Is this what we want all the people leaving the cities to come to this country setting to feel like they haven’t really left the city. Any benefit derived from additional electricity to businesses will be greatly overshadowed by lessening the tourist trade.
Having another solar array is not the central issue at this point. It is the inappropriate placement of it on that highly visible site that will in the future be one of the things people will point to and say, “What were they thinking?”
Bill Burger
South Egremont
