Delaware County, New York, has a remarkable set of priorities as to rural transportation - read Part I here, Part II here.
County District Attorney Shawn Smith operates a traffic-ticket diversion program charging motorists $317, including $250 for the District Attorney's services. Now he wants to increase the price to $350, generating additional revenue for the County and participating municipalities.
Meanwhile, for Delaware County residents, private automobiles in a rural area are the only means of transportation since the busy County, applying and receiving all kinds of state and federal grants, did not come around to get a grant for public transportation. Not a priority.
And now, in the Town of Hamden, a 6 by 10 mile area, a massive industrial Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) is proposed on a forested mountain ridge, raising the prospect of large scale catastrophic lithium-ion battery fires, explosions, toxic smoke, and wildfire spreading through surrounding forests and underground peat, gas and oil deposits - the County is sitting on a Marcellus gas shale and reports multiple oil wells, and the project's emergency "plan" reports the project being put 125 feet away from wetlands - natural source of peat deposits.
In other words, the local authorities - ALL, Town of Hamden, County of Delaware, CWT, CWC and the developers - represented by one and the same law firm Young and Sommer - are merrily putting a powder keg over a bonfire. Their site visits reported that - oh well, there are not a lot of people over there. So what? They are expendable now? With their homes, loved ones, pets, cattle and belongings?
NO EVACUATION ROUTES OR PLANS in any of the project documents that are so far publicly available. NONE.
So here is a question that Delaware County officials should answer before another permit is issued:
How are residents who cannot afford reliable transportation supposed to evacuate themselves if - or rather when, given how the project is handled - the Fraser BESS inferno occurs?
1. Delaware County's Motorists Are a Revenue Source
As discussed in the preceding article, Selling Justice in Delaware County, District Attorney Shawn Smith's traffic diversion program converts traffic-ticket dispositions into a source of revenue.
The current charge is $317, of which $250 goes toward the District Attorney's program. That represents approximately 78.9% of the total charge.
The proposed increase to $350 would make participation still more expensive.
For residents of a major metropolitan area, losing access to a car may mean taking a bus, subway, or train.
In rural Delaware County, the consequences can be considerably more severe.
Residents depend on their vehicles to reach employment, medical appointments, grocery stores, schools, and essential services. Those without a car may depend on relatives, neighbors, or limited transportation services.
For an elderly person, someone with a disability, or a low-income resident, the difference between owning a functioning automobile and being unable to maintain one can determine whether that person can leave home independently.
Yet the County treats motorists as a source of additional prosecutorial revenue.
And that transportation dependence has implications far beyond ordinary traffic enforcement.
2. Fraser BESS: A Fire Emergency That Will Not Wait for Residents to Find a Ride
The proposed Fraser BESS project is located on a forested mountain ridge in the Town of Hamden, within the New York City watershed.
The developer's December 14, 2025 Emergency Response Plan identifies 196 Tesla Megapack 2 XL units, each with a stated capacity of 3,916 kWh.
That amounts to approximately 767.5 MWh of installed battery capacity, substantially exceeding the 500–540 MWh figures publicly associated with the project.
The proposed facility would be unmanned.
The emergency response documentation contemplates a potentially four-hour response time for an owner's representative.
The surrounding terrain includes forested slopes, wetlands with potential peat deposits and difficult emergency access. If a peat bog catches fire, the equipment that is needed to extinguish that type fire needs to be delivered by giant military helicopters. If the surrounding forest catches fire, at the speed of the recent California forest wildfires, the entirety of the Town of Hamden (remember, roughly a 6 by 10 mile area) will be wiped out in less than an hour.
Hamden does not have its own fire department - a VERY good candidate for an industrial project of the type reported around the country and state of New York alike to burst into uncontrollable fires often, including on a scale requiring massive evacuations of surrounding areas.
Emergency response depends upon volunteer resources from neighboring communities, including Delhi, NY.
I reported on this blog how in one case, Delhi, NY volunteer firefighters arrived to a house fire at night without water. A dog died in that fire, the house was completely destroyed, the owner suspected and reported an arson, the Village and County refused to investigate.
I received not only harassment online, like here and here and here (not the full list), for reporting on that fire - and no other media source, as far as I know, reported on it.
Here is the juiciest piece of advice to me from commentators:
I also received death threats, and was relentlessly harassed for reporting the incident by Sharon Reichert-Morgan, wife to Josh Morgan, a then-volunteer firefighter who was among the crew who arrived at that house fire without water - and by a flock of her friends.
Josh Morgan's wife promised me, among other things, that if MY house catches a fire, she will hide her husband's keys. Which would have made no difference since he was arriving to house fires without water anyway.
Guess what - Josh Morgan has now risen in the local ranks, he is the Chair of the local Republican Party, a Councilman in the Town of Delhi, and a CODE ENFORCEMENT OFFICER in the Village of Delhi, and THE TOWN OF HAMDEN!!!
He is the one who is going to be "responsible" - a funny word, isn't it, when pronounced next to Josh Morgan given what I reported about him 10 years back - for fire safety.
But, in this case, Josh Morgan's competency - and conflicts of interests (Young Sommer represents every single stakeholder, developer and government alike) involved - are not the subject of online spats, or even death threats to one particular investigative journalist.
They may cost LIVES and may cost an ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER spreading far beyond the Town of Hamden.
A battery fire can produce hazardous smoke and gases. A fire spreading into the surrounding forest could require evacuations extending beyond the immediate facility.
In mountainous terrain, weather and wind conditions may complicate both suppression and evacuation.
A plan for managing the burning equipment is not a plan for evacuating the population.
Source: Fraser BESS Emergency Response Plan, December 14, 2025; project documentation concerning battery capacity, site conditions, and emergency access.
3. Where Are the Buses? Where Are the Evacuation Vehicles?
Suppose a Fraser BESS incident requires evacuation of nearby residents.
What happens to a household without a functioning car?
Who picks up an elderly resident living alone?
How is a wheelchair user transported?
What happens to someone who cannot drive at night, or whose vehicle cannot negotiate a seasonal road in winter?
Who transports residents requiring oxygen, mobility equipment, or other medical assistance?
And how are families supposed to evacuate their pets, horses, cattle, and other livestock?
An emergency evacuation plan must identify transportation resources before the emergency occurs.
It must establish who will dispatch vehicles, how residents will request assistance, where they will be collected, which roads will remain available, and where they will be taken.
It must account for road closures, smoke conditions, disabled vehicles, and the possibility that the same limited road network will be needed by arriving emergency responders.
Simply telling residents to leave is not an evacuation plan.
And, by the way, where the Fraser BESS project is planned, the road leading to that ridge-top location is gravel, narrow and windy, and equipment going up to extinguish the fire may clog the ways of frantic people and cattle going down escaping the fire and running for their lives.
If Delaware County cannot identify sufficient transportation capacity for residents without private vehicles, that deficiency belongs in the Fraser BESS risk assessment before the project is approved.
4. Delaware County Was Already Involved in Fraser BESS Planning
The County cannot treat these questions as matters solely for the Town of Hamden or the developer.
The Fraser BESS project review included County participation.
The July 9, 2025 project kickoff and site visit involved the Delaware County Emergency Response Director, County Planning representatives, and local officials. Was not very widely advertised though.
Subsequent project records describe coordination concerning transportation and road access, including an April 28, 2026 meeting involving the New York State Department of Transportation, Delaware County Department of Public Works, and Delhi and Hamden highway officials.
These meetings demonstrate that transportation and access were already within the scope of governmental project review. Under the guidance of Young Sommer, of course.
But reviewing how construction vehicles and emergency apparatus will reach a battery installation is not the same as establishing how residents will escape from it.
Where is Delaware County's civilian evacuation transportation plan?
Where is the inventory of vehicles available to transport people who cannot drive?
Where are the arrangements with transportation providers?
Where is the plan for winter evacuations, accessible transportation, emergency shelters, and livestock relocation?
And where is the evidence that the required transportation resources will actually be available during a major fire?
Sources: Fraser BESS project kickoff/site visit records, July 9, 2025; April 28, 2026 transportation coordination meeting records.
5. The Same Government That Collects Money From Motorists Must Plan for Those Who Cannot Drive
If you caged a person or animal, you are responsible for their well-being.
The same simple maxim applies if you grounded a person or animal and de facto deprived him or her of their means to escape a fatally dangerous industrial event.
The connection between traffic enforcement and emergency preparedness is not incidental.
Delaware County's residents depend exclusively on automobiles because of the County's rural geography and limited transportation alternatives. THAT'S WHY DA Smith reported such a high revenue for the tickets. In any metropolitan area, as Smith's and Public Defender Ermeti's disclosures reveal (reported today by the Reporter), people may use a taxi, an Uber, subway etc.
That dependence gives the District Attorney's traffic diversion charges an economic significance far beyond the nominal cost of disposing of a ticket.
Not in the Town of Hamden.
Not to escape off the burning forested peat-covered mountain ridge with seasonal snowed in gravel roads.
In the Town of Hamden, the proposed Fraser BESS project creates a scenario in which private transportation may become a matter of immediate survival.
A person who cannot afford to repair or maintain a vehicle does not become less vulnerable because the County has collected additional traffic diversion revenue.
A resident who cannot drive because of age or disability does not acquire transportation merely because an emergency alert instructs everyone to evacuate.
The County's responsibility to plan for those residents exists independently of whether they own automobiles.
The question is therefore one of public priorities.
Delaware County has identified a mechanism to extract additional revenue from motorists.
Has it demonstrated comparable initiative in identifying, financing, and organizing emergency transportation for people who cannot evacuate themselves?
The Fraser BESS project makes that question urgent.
6. Emergency Readiness Must Precede Industrial Development
The relevant distinction is between emergency response at the industrial facility and emergency preparedness for the surrounding community.
The developer may provide instructions concerning battery isolation, incident command, hazardous gases, and firefighting tactics.
But a major incident could extend beyond the facility boundary.
County and municipal authorities must address the civilian consequences, including evacuation warnings, transportation, accessible shelters, medical support, road management, and coordination with neighboring jurisdictions.
The issue is particularly serious where an industrial installation is proposed in a forested mountain environment with limited access roads and volunteer emergency services.
Emergency readiness cannot be improvised after an incident begins.
And the absence of reliable transportation cannot be treated as the private problem of residents who lack automobiles.
7. A Question for District Attorney Shawn Smith and Delaware County Government
The District Attorney's traffic diversion program has a price.
The proposed increase has a revenue objective.
But what is the County's budget for evacuating residents who cannot drive?
How many accessible vehicles can be deployed in Hamden?
How many people can be transported within the time available during a spreading wildfire?
Who has responsibility for residents living along seasonal roads?
Has the County determined whether emergency vehicles and outbound civilian traffic can use the same roads simultaneously?
Has it conducted a full-scale evacuation exercise involving residents without private transportation?
And has the County required the Fraser BESS developer to demonstrate that an industrial fire can be managed without leaving surrounding residents stranded?
These questions require documented answers, not general assurances.
Delaware County cannot reasonably treat motorists as a dependable revenue source while treating the transportation needs of its most vulnerable residents as somebody else's responsibility.
Before the Fraser BESS project proceeds, the public should be shown a comprehensive, operational civilian evacuation plan, including arrangements for residents without transportation.
Because when an industrial fire threatens a rural community, the ability to escape must not depend on whether a resident can afford a car.
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