http://www.thejournalnews.com/newsroom/022102/21iloveip.html
Buchanan politicians fight for nuclear plants
By KEN VALENTI
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: Feb. 21, 2002)
BUCHANAN - While the din of politicians and activists shouting to close
the Indian Point nuclear power plants rises, here in the plants' home
community the mayor and his challenger are outdoing each other to show
who can trumpet its benefits louder.
Mayor Alfred J. Donahue, a 66-year-old Republican who boasts of his good
relationship with labor unions, says he has lived in the area since long
before the plants opened, first Indian Point 1 in the 1960s, then Indian
Point 2 and 3 in the mid-1970s. Indian Point 1 is no longer active.
"My five children went to school here; 12 of my grandchildren were born
here," Donahue said. "If I didn't think the plant was safe, I'd be yelling."
His challenger, Democrat Daniel O'Neill, wants the mayor of the small
community to be the anti-nuke nemesis, aggressively going after the
plants' detractors.
"I would be more vocal about the benefits of Indian Point," said the
44-year-old attorney who lost to Donahue two years ago. "I would talk
not only to people in Buchanan, but all around the county and all around
the metropolitan area . I think the public outside the Buchanan area
needs to be educated about the good things the Indian Point plants do."
Fears of a post-Sept. 11 terrorist attack have turned up calls to close
Indian Point to what may be their highest pitch in its three-decade
history. But the battle for the March 19 village election also comes as
plant employees and their supporters have awakened politically, staging
rallies to demand that the plants keep operating.
The tiny village of Buchanan has the most to lose if the plants are
shuttered - and the most to fear if an accident occurs.
None of the 2,200 residents in this 1.5-square-mile village live more
than a mile from the plants. At the same time, the plants supply the
village with 90 percent of the money it raises in taxes - including more
than $2.6 million this year. That keeps homeowners' taxes low - the
average tax bill is $235, and the tax rate has not increased in seven
years - while the village has services it otherwise might not afford,
including a full-time police department.
What's more, the plants' new corporate owners have given gifts to the
village, including $250,000 that Entergy Nuclear Northeast gave last
year for a new recreation center. But supporters say the plants'
benefits reach farther than the village's border. The 239-acre energy
complex also pays school and county taxes. If the plants shut down,
energy rates could jump 25 percent, an official of the state energy system has said.
It is not difficult to find friends of the plants in Buchanan.
"These crybabies who come from upcounty, downcounty, they don't live
here. What do they know?" said Dave Cross, 60, who lives across the
street and one door up Bleakley Avenue from the plants. His
father-in-law worked as a carpenter at Indian Point. It did not surprise
him that, in fact, all of the Buchanan candidates are in favor of
keeping the plants open.
"Of course they are," he said. "They know where their bread is buttered."
For Donahue, who has served four consecutive two-year terms as mayor and
one earlier term, O'Neill's criticism was baffling. Donahue, a retired
state trooper, has appeared at pro-Indian Point rallies wearing an
American flag tie. He gives reports on it at the twice-monthly village
Board of Trustees meetings.
"I stay on top of everything, and everybody knows when they talk to me,
I talk about the benefits," he said.
Running with O'Neill are Fran Surak and incumbent Trustee Joseph
Tropiano, a registered Republican running on the Democratic line.
Donahue's running mates are Robert Lupica and Richard Fay, husband of
Trustee Deborah Fay, who is not seeking re-election. Surak proposed
setting up a task force including police, county officials and
emergency-service experts to keep tabs on plant safety.
Opponents say Buchanan is fooling itself if people do not believe there
is a danger.
"I think they're pretty complacent," said Georgianna Grant, a village
trustee in Croton-on-Hudson, just down Route 9. "September 11th hadn't
happened before either."
The Croton Board of Trustees in November called for the plant to be shut
at least until its evacuation plan - viewed by critics as unworkable - is redone.
Indian Point's hometown backers say they are more aware than others of
the nuclear complex and that knowing the people who work there, and
seeing its operation up close, assure them that it is safe.
O'Neill wasted no time showing how he thinks village leaders should
counter-attack as he blasted key opponents of Indian Point, including
Mark Jacobs, co-founder of the Westchester Citizens Awareness Network.
"Mark Jacobs uses junk science and misrepresentations to gain media
attention," he said.
He noted, for example, Jacobs' comment at a rally that "two or three
guards" at the plant would not stop someone from crashing the front gate
with explosives. O'Neill said there are many National Guard officers at the plant.
Jacobs said he was referring to the guards he had seen stationed at the
front, not to the undisclosed number of additional guards inside. He
listed the sources of his scientific facts, including the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission.
"You picked the wrong guy to say I don't justify what I say," he said.
Donahue is more passive about the opponents.
"I'm not going to knock them or attack them," he said. "I just disagree with them."