To the Editor:

Warwick residents, I ask you a question. What elevates your blood pressure? What raises it 20 to 30 points where you have trouble focusing your eyesight and your body temperature rises 10 degrees?

Could it be looking out your window and watching a neighborhood dog crap on your lawn and the owner walk away without picking it up?

Could it be when you are shopping and at the checkout the person in front of you cannot complete a credit card transaction without help or purchased an item without a price tag?

Could it be when you are stopped at a traffic light, the light turns green and the car in front of you does not move?

Could it be the classic a problem with your neighbor?

Could it be when you see abandoned shopping carts in your neighborhood?

My blood pressure rises with all of these actions as well as this one.

There will be Ordinance #PCO-6-20 Sub A or B for Amending the Zoning Ordinance for The Installation of Solar Energy Systems in Warwick presented at the August 16 Warwick City Council meeting. Now, I will preface my remarks by saying I am all for renewable energy. It is the future and is good for our environment, but at what cost by destroying what little forested area remaining in our city?

My elevated blood pressure comes from reading this ordinance and the questions arise:

1. I believe the way this Ordinance is written it allows solar farms in every zoning district in this city.

2. It leaves the ultimate decision for each request, yea or nay, to the nine people on the City Council. They will control what our city will look like for decades to come.

An ordinance should be in place to protect the city and all its residents, not the select few. This ordinance must be narrowed in scope and zoned areas, to limit where these solar farms can be constructed. Rooftops, carports, contaminated land, closed landfills, above parking lots, etc.

Take a ride around a solar farm and envision this could be coming to your neighborhood and next door to you. Get ready Cowesett at the Little Rhody Beagle Club.

I will be attending this meeting at 5 p.m. That is when the committee meetings start. I have to be there early because I am not a student of parliamentary procedure so they move issues around to confuse me, which is not very difficult.

Philip D’Ercole Sr.

Warwick