River Valley

Board sees no reason for moratorium on wind farm

Sep 18, 2009 3:59 am

RUMFORD — By a 3-1 vote at Thursday night's meeting, selectmen decided not to convene a special town meeting to allow residents to vote on a petition-initiated moratorium of 180 days on any development of wind farms on town hills.

Their reasoning? Acting Chairman Frank DiConzo and Selectmen Mark Belanger and Robert Cameron all agreed that no emergency exists to warrant slowing the process.

Cameron said selectmen had only had one meeting with representatives of First Wind, the Newton, Mass., company that has proposed to build a 40- to 55-megawatt wind farm called the Longfellow project on Rumford hills.

"This thing is months and years away, so I don't understand this point of a moratorium," Cameron said. "To me, that stops the process. I don't understand where this sense of emergency is that people have that the mountains are going to get bulldozed. They're not."

Belanger suggested forming a committee to gather information by working with First Wind and other sources to bring in experts and convene informational forums. He agreed with Cameron that putting a moratorium in would slow the process, when there isn't any reason to do so yet.

"We don't even know when this is going to happen," Belanger said. "There will be plenty of time to discuss things."

"I think a moratorium is the wrong decision to put out," he said. "The way the economy is now, we don't want to slam the door on anyone."

"Calling for a moratorium is not the way to go about it," DiConzo said.

Board Chairman Brad Adley was absent.

Selectman Greg Buccina, the lone dissenter, argued that the board needed more information before making any decisions that could impact the town 10, 15 or 25 years down the road.

Former Town Manager Len Greaney, who is representing the Rumford Wind Turbine Petition Committee, prompted the discussion, when he read the petition.

The group, he said, wants a commitment from the board, that selectmen wouldn't approve the wind farm or have town planners OK a site development permit for First Wind without first agreeing to gather information with which to make an informed decision.

That, Greaney said, would give them time to gather signatures to put the petition before voters.

"We certainly don't want to slow progress, but if there's a process that protects the rights of the people to hear the facts, that's what we're all about," Greaney said.

Businessman and taxpayer Ron Theriault and others asked selectmen not to seek a moratorium, but to let the process continue.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

Terry Karkos/Sun Journal

At Thursday night's meeting, Rumford Board of Selectmen acting Chairman Frank DiConzo tells former Town Manager Len Greaney his reasoning for opposing a petition-initiated moratorium of 180 days on the development of a proposed wind farm in Rumford. DiConzo said a moratorium, in his opinion, solves nothing. Greaney is representing the petition backers.

- Terry Karkos/Sun Journal
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Comments

ai was at last nights

Submitted by dandee84 on Fri, 09/18/2009 - 12:16.

ai was at last nights meeting when Len Greaney made his lengthy presentations. At the beginning of his first one he explained that his group was required to collect 25 signitures to bring the request for a special town meeting to the selectmen and they had collected several times that many. He also stated he did not believe it was possible for his group to collect the required number of signitures to put the question on the November ballot. It was very clear that Len and his group were asking for a special town meeting and since an emergency situation must exist for a special town meeting to be called as pointed out by selectmen and as is in the wording of the motion no emergency exists the selectmen turned down the request. They had no choice no matter what their personal feelings may have bee. No one has applied to the planning board or contacted code enforcement for permits as required to build the roads that would be needed to begin the studies required before planning of a wind project could begin in Rumford. I clearly heard that as well. Rumford has ordinances concerning road, grades, widths drainage and more and permits, the police and fire department are all involved. I remember this was a big deal when some property was developed by Tibbetts off South Rumford Rd about 15 years ago. Wind power may come here but without even roads or any prep work to see if it is feisable at a location it is years away from construction so stop the fear mongering and Len yield the floor.

If we could only return to common sense...

It has been refreshing to

Submitted by candiceanne on Fri, 09/18/2009 - 07:47.

It has been refreshing to find on my my return to Rumford to serve the community with the Community Pride Project (I left in 1998) a calm deliberate board or selectpersons has replaced the squabbling, reactionary, micromanaging boards that were Rumford's standard. Last night's meeting was a fine example as the meeting was well contolled and orderly dispite several difficult and potentially contentious issues on the agenda and arising out of resent events (the announcement that the board of assessors has reduced the valuation of NewPage 30%).

The board also decided to send the selection of the name for the renovated auditorium to the people at the next regular election. I thought it very consiterate when the board pointed out that this was the people auditorium, they paid for the renovations and they should choose. This is not a management matter nor one of urgency and certainly can wait for the people in November.

The issue that took up more than 50% of the even was a request by Len Greany to call for a special town meeting to vote on a 180 day morutoium on windpower developmment in Rumford. This vote by selectmen would NOT put the morutorium in place. This was just a vote to call for a SPECIAL town meeting and the rules are very specific as to under what circumstances that can be done. specifically, there has to be an EMERGENCY. In this case there is no emergency.

As was pointed out, road construction permits for this area due to the grade are required and not so easily obtained as other areas, there are many DEP hopes to jump through and that has not even begun, (states that have had problems do not have DEPs) and so much more. In short, wind power in Rumford is years away and therefore an emergency does not exist. This does not mean the board is ignoring the issue. It means they are taking a calm, deliberate approach. At last nights meeting it was clear they intend to form a citizens comittee to bring ing ligitamite experts and documentation on windpower

Again, know your facts.

Submitted by grampiescott on Fri, 09/18/2009 - 10:35.

Again, know your facts. What was being asked was NOT to call a special town meeting but, to put the moratorium question on the November ballot. So we can have find out the truth before it is too late. We need to know what we are getting. You are also wrong for saying DEP permits have not even begun. If you don't believe me, go to Augusta and ask and you will find the truth that the process has begun...... Rumford is not years away, it is a lot closer then you think. Find out the truth, did taxes go up in Freedom when they were supposed to go down? We just want to know the facts. If we go ahead and push this through and taxes don’t go down but property values do and all we get is an eye soar I think the town is going to open it’s self up for lawsuits like Mars Hill. This is what we need to prevent.

I find it sad in last

Submitted by grampiescott on Fri, 09/18/2009 - 06:48.

I find it sad in last night’s meeting that the selectmen were more worried about getting a good name for the town auditorium then they were about the fate of the town. They wanted to have more discussion on that and put it on a ballot. They promise that there will be no back door politics with First Wind. I hope they look to the State of New York which made First Wind sign a code of ethics policy after they were indicted on ethics violation charges with local officials…… I know most people in this town are scared with the fate of the Newpage, I am to. Last night the people just wanted to look before we leap so to speak. The board says that this will take months or years. Unfortunately, the people of Roxbury felt the same way. They don’t even have the final permits yet and First Wind has already started with the surveying and cutting of the roads. When Roxbury had a majority and a petition, they were threatened with a lawsuit because work had already begun. It is too bad that SOME of the selectmen were not as smart as the ones in Dixfield and Buckfield. Instead, they rather take the path of Mars Hill which has ended in lawsuits……

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