BUCKFIELD — The Board of Selectmen voted Tuesday night to support the efforts of Kean Engineering to put wind turbines on Streaked Mountain.

Kirk Nadeau, president of Kean, said he came to the meeting to demonstrate his company’s commitment to the town.

“I have an agreement with the landowner on the north face of Streaked Mountain to erect three wind turbines,” Nadeau said.

Nadeau said he was moving his site back to get it further away from abutters, even though it would be more costly to the company. The original site would have placed the tops of the turbines no higher than the mountain peak. By moving back, the turbines would now reach about 100 feet higher than the peak.

Nadeau said when he left the Planning Board meeting two weeks ago, he had the feeling that the town did not support wind power. “We can’t proceed if all of the town is against this kind of energy,” Nadeau said.

Putting a meteorological tower up to measure the possible wind power would be the first step and Kean has a permit for putting up this tower. However, if they don’t get the support of the Planning Board for the turbines, he can’t afford to waste the money on the meteorological tower.

The Ordinance Committee is presently writing an ordinance to address wind turbines.

Nadeau projects that with the three turbines, his company would be paying the town between $100,000 to $110,000 in taxes each year plus another $6,000 to $8,000 in donations for a community project.

“Wind power does not cause water or air pollution and the turbines can be used as an educational experience for students,”  Nadeau said. He said the goal for the United States is to have 20 percent of energy come from wind power by 2030.

In other news, the board voted after much discussion to expand the Recreation Board to 14 members. The last time the board met, they increased the number to 11 members to accommodate all the additional applicants but ended up with only nine. But there were five additional applicants.

David Chabe, a new applicant who had withdrawn his application at the last selectman meeting, said a 14-member board would cause quorum problems among other things. Town Manager Glen Holmes pointed out that the Recreation Board could handle the issue with a bylaws change and set the number required for a quorum rather than having the problem of canceled meetings if a quorum of eight was not present.

Warren Wright, who is a technical writer, was appointed to the Ordinance Committee. Planning Board alternate Joyce Hartson pointed out Wright’s excellent work on past ordinances.

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