Wind turbine noise problem in Mars Hill (Yarmouth, Manchester: condo, disposing)

[JustSayNo]

Oh David, you are very right, but here in my Small NY town, we had a Comp. plan and a Palnning Board and ZONING all in place, but leases were still signed in secret that made up the desired line, the Planning Board reccomended turbines because half of the members, or family members of the members, HAD SIGNED LEASES.

Our very clear Comp. plan, our zoning stating nothing higher than 40 ft ANYWHERE, and our PB did NOTHING to protect the town. It was a very vocal and unitied group of taxpayers that STOPPED the development in our town. If we had not organized, researched, and voiced our opinions our town would be full of them right now..

SO, and Comp. Plan, a Planning Board, and Zoning laws are not the silver bullet to stop something or protect the town as a whole. It is the ELECTED officials, voted in by the taxpayers, that are the ONLY ONES that can protect a town. In our case, our Boards were already on the side of the turbines and had we "let them do thier job" without questioning them, without "bothering them" than the boards and leaseholders would have gotten their way, leaving the rest of the town screwed!

Needless to say, elections are in November and now everyone is hopped up on voting the old guard out, as people believe their self-serving, short-sighted ways have finally been shown to all.

[Nine Lake]

I am trying to avoid another situation like Mars Hill's. We have a test site up at Number Nine lake near Bridgewater, Maine. Would love to know if anyone has any ideas on how to stop this. I am not against wind power, but I believe that we have lots of areas in Maine that would not effect peoples homes and in this case camps. We have to deal with LURC. Anyone have any info that could help.

[JustSayNo]

Nine, google the terms wind turbine and the following NY towns: Cohocton, Cherry Valley, Stamford, Andes, Merideth, Bovina. Also look at turbine and Cape Cod.

The results of these searches will yield the websites of grass-roots organizations that have formed to stop IWT in their towns. Look at the "links" pages of all and you will find A TON of information regarding the research, opinions, and data that is around regarding turbines.

The key to stopping this, or slowing it down and having it done properly, is to let your local government KNOW that you are watching them, questioning them, and that there are residents whom are oppossed to IWT develpment in your area.

Make a website, hold informational meeting for the residents, KNOW YOUR FACTS, know all there is to know and share it with your residents. Create a petition, a survey, find out where every resident stands on the issue. Get the email address of everyone interested and keep them up-to-date on every moce the town board makes. Find out which company is doing the developing, dig up the info on them. ETC>

There is A LOT one can do to fight this, but often the news is made public too late. We fought this battle for a year and a half and FORCED the board to ban turbines in our town. By forced I mean we made it crystal clear that the majority of the residents were against the development, that law suits would be filed if the board went against the town's wishes. We provided them with 100's of pages of documention regarding the develpment etc.

It is hard work, takes a lot of time, but well worth it to try and prevent the fate of living under the shadows of 410+ ft. monsters.

Stick around, ask questions, we that have gone through this, or are going through it, can and WILL help.

[rabbitlover]

..............

[rabbitlover]

Originally Posted by Nine Lake

I am trying to avoid another situation like Mars Hill's. We have a test site up at Number Nine lake near Bridgewater, Maine. Would love to know if anyone has any ideas on how to stop this. I am not against wind power, but I believe that we have lots of areas in Maine that would not effect peoples homes and in this case camps. We have to deal with LURC. Anyone have any info that could help.

Find an attorney...stop them anyway you can. UPC lies...lies...and lies...PM me for an attorney who maybe able to stand up to these bullies. I can also get you in contact with some people, who can help.

[Pericles]

Originally Posted by rabbitlover

Too bad the residents of Mars Hill did not get to vote on the project. People in Redding Maine were able to vote about the proposed wind mill farm and they voted it down. The town councilor was a dictator about the matter.

Are you sure it was Redding Maine, and not Reddington Maine? I'm just asking because I know there is a lot of controversy around the project in Reddington, but I didn't know that a project was proposed in Redding Maine. Do you know what company proposed it, and how long ago?

[GregW]

Moderator - this is not a personal attack but a considered discription.

You people would deny the development of environmentally sound wind turbine installations to protect camps because they might interfere with your playpens?

That is the very height of self centered selfish arrogance. What a bunch of spoiled brats.

[JustSayNo]

I don't understand the point of this comment?!

Am I missing something? And, it can be said that the height of self-centered arrogance is the population that will NOT do anything meaningful to conserve or reduce consumption. Insteed, said group continues to gorge the energy supply and allow people and towns to have their lives ruined so some outdated, ineffecient boondoggle can r a p e their land and lives all for the show of the big companies to say "we are green"

LIKE GE's "eco-imagination" bullcrap they are clogging the airways with. Ever been to the Hudson River? Ever seen what "the great mighty caring green GE" did to the river and HAS YET to clean it up years after the decision came down in the courts to DREDGE and clean all the contaminated areas well down streem from their chemical spewing, fish killing, poluting and devasting factory.

Eco imagination MY ****. Tax-subsidy, snake-oil-salesmen, make the executives richer imagination-YES.

The current technology for the IWT are already outdated. There are far better and quieter and smaller turbines being invented AS WE SPEAK.

BUT, the big companies want their money NOW, so they ramrod, bribe, lie, cheat, and steal to put up 410 ft white elephants, make their 10s of millions and srew the people whose lives they just changed forever.

Conservation, consumption decrease, team effort nationwide and money going into PROPER technology is what SHOULD be done. Not the latest, greatest scam on the many to make the few richer. The turbines on Mars Hill WILL NOT do anything meaning to the energy pool. They WILL NOT save the world, save the children, save the puppies and kittens. They are NOT the right object for the solution to our problem. The problem remains, the solution is being worked on, but meanwhile the towns are suffering from this "premature-instalation" of things that will be shut down as soon as a better solution is discovered.

The current estimated cost to decommission one turbine, repair the land where the pad was (and that is all they can do-the rest will remind us for generations to come the mistake this country made) is $1.5 million. Without escrowed, audited de-commissioning funds in place PRIOR to the final agreement between town and company, the installation company will pull up the stakes, pack the tents, and leave town in the middle of the night and leave the industrial litter for the small town to worry about.

Now, who is REALLY the selfish party in this game? To each his own. keep believing that this is the next best thing, the right thing to do, the silver bullet. The government treats its citizens like mindless sheep. Some behave that way.

[GregW]

JSN-
"The current technology for the IWT are already outdated. There are far better and quieter and smaller turbines being invented AS WE SPEAK."

What better technology?

Two things dominate natural energy collection (wind, water and tidal power). One is they can only be developed where the natural conditions are located and bigger is better (more energy collected per $ spent).

Also why should these times be any different? Since the beginning of time people have been moved to accomodate energy development. Previously they have been choked by coal plants and their farms drowned by hydropower. If individuals are unable to cope with these changes then they can move to somewhere else where there is no windpower or hydro power or nuclear power or coal power and still connect to the grid so they can continue their use of convienient cheap electricity. I think the primary complaint of most of these NIMBY's is that they did not get any money from the IWT developers. Thier neighbors did and they are envious.

My primary point is simple. Narural energy collectors have to be built where the resource is concentrated.

There are a couple of hills in Londonderry, NH suitable for IWT installation. I would personally like to see them installed because they would then drive away the annoying noisily large aircraft the fly over my house every afternoon.

Just kidding. I would not mind having both. I live in a technological environment and realize that convienence and quiet generally do not go together.

[BovinaCowHateWindTurbines]

Originally Posted by GregW

JSN-
I live in a technological environment

How do you live in a technological environment?