Special town meetings sought by two petitions

ROXBURY — Selectmen at Tuesday night's meeting received two petitions, one of which they accepted. The other was waiting for signatures to be verified.

The first petition asks selectmen to convene a special town meeting to ask voters to review a proposed federally mandated Flood Plain Management Ordinance, which a majority defeated in June. They are also asked if they want to reverse that June 15 decision.

That corrected petition was received on Nov. 13, three days after selectmen received the initial petition, which asked for discussion and review of the wrong ordinance, Board of Selectmen Chairman John Sutton said Tuesday night.

Twenty-eight signatures on the revised petition were certified as valid and that document was sent to town attorney Jennifer Kreckel of Rumford for review, Sutton said.

Kreckel advised selectmen that the revised petition was valid.

Sutton and Selectman Deborah DeRoche agreed to hold a public hearing on the Flood Plain Management Ordinance at 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 3, at the Town Office.

The special town meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 15, followed by a regular selectmen meeting at 6 p.m.

The second petition presented Tuesday night by Colleen Martineau and Antonio DeSalle asks selectmen to convene a special town meeting in January to ask voters to help fund up to $10,000 of an appeal of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection permit issued in August to Record Hill Wind LLC.

A group of residents who opposed the wind power project have appealed that permit.

That petition dated Nov. 24 accuses the DEP of "failing to follow its own rules regarding the assurance of financial capacity and the funding of the decommissioning escrow account as prerequisites to issuing a final permit to the wind power developer." It also accuses the DEP of ignoring "expert testimony" and accepting "flawed noise studies, which understate the impacts to residents from turbine noise."

It accuses developer Record Hill Wind of failing to provide meaningful jobs as a "tangible benefit" to Roxbury residents.

The petition directs the town to hold a special meeting in January with a secret ballot vote directing selectmen to help fund the appeal and to include that money in the municipal budget to be voted on March 1 at the annual town meeting.

Selectmen acknowledged receipt of the Nov. 24 petition without discussion.

After the meeting, Martineau said townspeople are "concerned that DEP has not followed its own rules regarding the above issues, which should have been done before a permit was granted."

She said Record Hill Wind developers Angus King and Robert Gardiner have said publicly that work on the project would be postponed until after mud season.

"Since the DEP has been irresponsible thus far, there is great concern regarding erosion from the project if not properly monitored, identified problems noted, and supervision with immediate remediation once a fault is noticed," she said.

"With current problems resulting from some ditching in Byron and its effects on Roxbury Pond water quality, the potential risk to the quality of Roxbury Pond, Garland Pond and the Swift River from Record Hill Wind is also justified," Martineau said.

"Thus the reason that petitioners are requesting a budget item be established for inspection by an independent engineer and enforcement of his recommendations, as well as legal fees, if necessary, to enforce DEP to comply," she said.

She was referring to statements Sutton made Tuesday night after learning that the town of Byron may have improperly ditched Garland Road, allowing runoff to directly enter a brook that empties into Roxbury Pond.

Sutton said he would investigate that issue with Byron officials.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com