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.

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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.