As a Wind Power Advisory Committee member, I wish to address questions surrounding the ordinance recently presented to Rumford’s Board of Selectmen.
WPAC’s goal in crafting this ordinance was the health and safety of Rumford’s citizens. WPAC did not target First Wind; we addressed any potential wind power project in Rumford. WPAC’s meetings are open to the public, meeting minutes are posted on Rumford’s website, and there has been coverage in the media.
The board has questioned proposed setback and noise limits, and why we did not follow the state’s “standard model.” We chose Dixmont’s ordinance as a starting point because it was the most protective. These limits are in line with the World Health Organization’s European section, where a long history of wind development has provided ample opportunity to discover where health-impacting mistakes were made.
Bottom line: The proposed ordinance is not anti-wind; it is pro-Rumford.
When Maine Revenue Services presented the WPAC an $80 million model, it showed minimal property tax benefit to Rumford. First Wind’s proposed project is $60M (25 percent less); the tax benefits would very likely be less as well.
Finally, First Wind’s often angry tone is winning no friends in this debate. I am pro-wind but dismayed by First Wind’s consistent inability to present a rational and detailed explanation of the presumed benefits of a wind power project in the River Valley. As a citizen of Rumford, I am quite turned off by its attitude.
Charles Hoff, Rumford
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It's time for a new Special Interest Group
It is time for a new special interest group in Rumford, one that supports economic development and is interesting in sending out the message to business and industry, "we want you here," we want jobs, Roger Arsenault and his cronies have a personal ax to grind with First Wind and they have the nerve to be hitting us up year after year for Black Mountain which he also controls? Come on that's crap, Roger! Roger, you are not doing right by this down that has been supporting you and your business a lot of years. We can't let these people destroy what's left of our town. The mill is coming back a little, maybe, haven't we learned not to put all our eggs in that basket? We have all lived with the noise and only they and God knows what pollution coming out of there for over 100 years, these wind turbines wont hold a candle to the noise coming from that mill every day and ALL night and no pollution. I'm not saying we give them free rein, but be reasonable. If we aren't no one will come, ever. This ordinance the selectmen have been threatened and coerced by this vigilante group to put on the November ballot has to be voted down for our survival plain and simple.
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A brief correction. Two councillors, Mike and Marscella, did do the homework. The other councillors are on the payroll or just refuse to listen.
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Rumford is looking to protect its citizens. What is wrong with that? At least they took the time and researched wind power unlike Lincoln whose Town Council was too lazy and gullibly accepted the fabrications , half truths and exaggerations of the wind developers. Beware of any developer who comes to your town armed with lawyers from Bangor to Portland. They are up to no good. We are so close to HydroQuebec. Why can't Maine have 6 cents per kw/h like the deal Vermont just signed? Why can't we have cheap hydro power instead of expensive windsprawl and get to keep our scenery and mtn. tops? All the developers want is to rob our tax dollars. That doesn't sit well with most Mainers.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Thank you Charles Hoff
A month ago, Andy Novey from Patriot Renewables looked me in the eye and said that 2000 ft was a sufficient setback for 400 ft tall 110 dBA industrial machines. Patriot Renewables and First Wind have proven they have no compassion for the people who live in Western Maine. They do not weight their huge negative impacts with their small nameplate capacities and dislike hearing about it.
Fortunately, many of us have mastered words like moratorium and ordinance and will not stop until we have protected our families and our friends. Labeling people as "anti-wind" because they believe industrial wind parks should be placed back away from people is prejudice. Thankfully, the informed citizens of Maine can see right through this misjudgment.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Good job Advisory Committee!
The committee's job was to protect the health, welfare and safety of the citizens of Rumford and that's exactly what they did. First Wind's job is to put up turbines anywhere they can, period!
Everyone in Rumford could have gone to the meetings and read the same thousands of pages of noise studies, etc., etc. that the committee did...but most chose not to. Having been there and done that in Jackson, I can say that it was absolutely exhausting. If I had to choose between doing that again or having all my teeth pulled…”Hello Mr. Dentist”. But for anyone who sticks with it till the bitter end, they can reach only one conclusion...turbines do not belong within a mile to a mile and a half of families.
As far as First Wind's offer to "help" draft the ordinance, it would be like having the fox help the farmer design the new chicken coop. Rumford's committee did their homework and did plenty of it, so kudos to them.
Recently Denmark, one of the world’s leaders in wind power, inventors of the “Wind Farm” and home of Vestas, the world’s number one wind turbine manufacturer, made two crucial decisions. First, they slashed subsidies to the wind industry and second, because of public anger over turbine noise and loss of property values near turbines, they banned all new land based wind farms! Now that’s quite a change for a country that has more turbines per capita than anywhere else in the world!
Rumford’s proposed ordinance didn’t even go that far.
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Oh! you must mean the citizens of Rumford, Dixfield, and Roxbury that will be adversely affected by the development of wind farms. The special interest, the folks waiting with their hands out for huge government subsidies are these temporary wind companies.
The committee did good work. Unlike Dixfield where we were sold out and no public comment will be allowed before the vote.
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Mr. Hoff you are now attempting to protect your butt side and the wind committees. If you and your committee were concerned about Rumford you would have worked with First Wind instead of against. The committee was anti wind and we all know that. So save your breath.
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All the nimbyism with wind has proven one thing to me - people will allways find somthing to complain about.
So we should just ignore them and build a nuclear reactor. Mother nature is a fickle source of power. The energy output of uranium dioxide is stable and controllable.
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I would like to call to everyone’s attention that I write under my name and do not hide behind a pseudonym like so many others do. I also work for a living which is why this post is being made at 6AM as I read the paper before I go to work, something alien to so many here.
Mr. Hoff I fail to see this “angry tone” of First Wind. First Wind offered to provide technical assistance to Rumford’s Advisory Committee sending their offer formally in a letter through their attorney, very appropriate and very professional. The committee did not even acknowledge the letter and First Wind did not push the issue. First Wind, at the request of the Selectmen, appropriately through the Town Manager, has attended the selectmen’s workshops on the proposed ordinance. They have shown the utmost respect of the fact they are not citizens and have no right to participation. Historically, before a non-resident is permitted to speak at an official meeting the legislative body or body holding the meeting must vote to permit that individual to speak. Historically these votes have occurred at the request of the non-resident who wishes to be heard. In the case of First Wind, they have not asked to speak but have sat silently and politely through meeting after meeting speaking only when spoken to and answering only the question they are asked. The do not ramble on like so many politicians or anti-wind power activists on unrelated issues with nothing to back up what they claim. I have not once heard a First Wind representative raise their voice. I could not begin to count the number of angry unsupported comments, letters to the editor and articles printed in the newspapers on behalf of the anti-wind power special interest, on the other hand I can’t come up with a single one for First Wind or any wind power company for that matter. I have also seen many “brochures” the most recent having been distributed at the Selectmen’s meeting Wednesday, and given to me by an attendee yesterday, by the anti-wind special interest was full of unsupported angry threats and innuendo. Therefore, Mr. Hoff I would say you have it backward, it is not First wind with the “angry tone” it has been the anti-wind power folks who are frustrated because they don’t have a supportable cause. The group here in Rumford is no different than the loony out-of-staters that chained themselves to a truck this summer after camping out in the woods claiming they were not up to anything.
The Rumford Special Interest Group has felt free to sling mud at First Wind and at those who have stuck to or wanted to stick to science and proof. I think it is time that someone point out some rather interesting facts that may have some baring on the true motives of members of this group. There is a certain business in town which has been having some financial difficulty and has some serious loans and loan issues with a local bank. One of the principal’s owns land that abuts land First Wind negotiated leases with for access to the proposed Rumford project. The individual with the reported business issues held out, purportedly for a better deal to bail out his business. First Wind doesn’t play those games and passed making an offer to a neighboring property owner which would work as well. That owner passed feeling they had a conflict of interest because of a business relationship with the person in financial difficulty. First Wind then moved they entire access project out of Rumford and all the land owners lost out. The guy with the debt problem blames First Wind because he is major screwed.
Now this person also sits on a board of a nonprofit organization in town that asks the town for money every year. That organization has also been in serious financial difficulty for many years and the town voted down their request this year and that board refuses to accept the will of the people and is forcing another vote. What most people may not realize is that the project being planned by First Wind included a major lease of land where this nonprofit operates which would have been a big boon to the nonprofit which rescued the operating nonprofit a few years ago. They also insisted that the operators of the ski area run tram tours of the wind farm facility during the off season with mountain top access via the ski lift to make the facility self-sustaining and get them off the taxpayers and their backs. In addition the parent nonprofit negotiated with First Wind to provide free power to the ski area to operate all their lifts, lodge and snow making equipment which would have put a huge dent in their operating costs. Unfortunately, members of the local operating board are with the business man in trouble and fighting First Wind out of spite. This has not made the parent nonprofit happy at all and so they have cut off their financial support of the local and will not bail them out with season start up money and told them they will not cover losses as they have in the past. Without the assets sold to the parent nonprofit to get out of the huge previous financial mess, the local can’t get a loan. That has sent them back to voters with desperation in their voices and warnings they can’t open if the voters don’t get it right and the area will be out all kinds of business.
The third piece to the puzzle has been the advisor committee which is mostly people from a privately formed special interest group that came out of this guy’s anger at not getting First Wind to pay him big and solve his problems. If you think back you will remember that we all voted in favor more than 2 to 1 more than 1000 people voted to support wind power here. The next the you know a small group has the selectmen hold a special town meeting and by show of hands 25 people slap a moratorium on it, get themselves appointed to a committee, an emergency is declared, and we are voting off cycle on an ordinance that is nothing short of a permanent moratorium. Why? If you ask me, it all comes down to one man’s greed, selfishness and ultimately vindictiveness when First Wind wouldn’t give him more than others.
Say what you will Mr. Hoff, the truth is the truth. Now I’m going to work. Have a nice day everyone.
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The arrogant, sarcastic, condescending tone of your opening remarks makes it easy to ignore you.
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