RUMFORD — Selectmen are expected to approve sections of their proposed wind ordinance at a special board meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 4, in Rumford Falls Auditorium.
These sections were brokered by the board during a nearly three-hour workshop at a rare Sunday meeting April 17.
The new proposal is modeled after the original one widely believed to prohibit wind farms. The original was defeated in November.
Selectman Jeff Sterling reduced the defeated 41-page ordinance to a 28-page proposal, removing some sections altogether and altering other language and distances. He said he wanted to simplify it for voters and make it less restrictive than the defeated proposal.
Selectmen went through Sterling's proposal page by page, clashing on shadow flicker, blade glint, safety setbacks for sound and turbine collapses, and decommissioning.
At the board's regular meeting Thursday, May 5, near the end of their agenda, selectmen will discuss possibly extending Rumford's moratorium on wind power projects. The current six-month-long moratorium ends this month.
Barring any unforeseen complications, the new proposed ordinance is anticipated to go before town meeting voters June 14.
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No More Moratorium
Time for moratoriums should be over. The board has procrastinated long enough. It is unfortunate that two members of the selectboard have held up this ordinance for this long. They have never kept an open mind through the entire process. They have allowed the anti-winders to control their every thought. Now they should make sure that any wind company ,no matter which one, contributeS to the towns needs whenever a need arises; like a new Public Safety Building for the River Valley area. HINT! HINT! MERGER OR CONSOLIDATION !
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