Wind turbine proposals draw crowd in Jackson
JACKSON — The possibility of large wind turbines being built in town attracted dozens of people to the Jackson Community Center on Tuesday, Oct. 7, where they heard sales pitches from two companies and asked questions about what the project would mean for them.
“Basically, Jackson is a bride and we have two wonderful suitors,” said one resident in summary later in the meeting.
One of those two companies is the Boston-based Citizens Wind, an offshoot of Citizens Energy Corporation.
The other is Mt. Harris Wind, LLC, which, in turn, is an offshoot of Portland-based Competitive Energy Services. Competitive Energy Services is known in Waldo County for its connection with the recently completed and soon-to-be-operational Beaver Ridge wind project in Freedom.
Both companies are interested in erecting a series of wind turbines along a ridge that stretches through three towns — roughly, from Mt. Harris in Dixmont at the northern end to Files Hill in Thorndike at the southern end. In between those end points, the ridge cuts across the northwest corner of Jackson.
Each company is considering placing as many as two-dozen turbines along the length of the ridge, but those numbers may be tempered by the geographic realities of the situation.
Both companies have secured leases with different property owners, although in some cases abutting property owners have opted to go with different companies.
“Right now there is a checkerboard,” said Roger Freeman, a managing director with Citizens.
Richard Silkman, a partner with Mt. Harris Wind, said his company has six leases in place with property owners along the ridge and will soon have two others.
Freeman at first declined to reveal how many leases his company has, then changed his mind when Silkman shared his numbers. Freeman said Citizens has nine properties under lease, three pending, and four “exclusive agreements” with other property owners.
“I think it’s fair to say both Citizens and we each believe the project we have currently available to us can be built,” said Silkman, who added the two companies might have to work together under certain circumstances.
Freeman offered a similar assessment of the situation.
The subject of leases proved to be controversial. Aside from wanting to know how many leases have been signed, people also wanted to know who had signed them. Freeman’s citation of confidentiality requirements was not well received.
Jim Shue, who said he has signed a lease, began to name the property owners along the ridge and say which side they had signed with. As he progressed, a woman stood and told him he didn’t have the right to do what he was doing.
“You don’t have the right to shut him up,” another resident told the woman. It was then that calls for a moderator went up, and Selectwoman Cindy Ludden filled the role.
Both companies hit on similar themes in their presentations. They talked about how the wind turbines could benefit the town economically, primarily in the form of a significantly increased tax base.
Silkman used the Beaver Ridge project as an example. He said Freedom has a total valuation of about $33 million. He expects the three windmills there to be assessed at roughly $10 million when they are added to the tax rolls in April, meaning the Beaver Ridge project will account for about 25 percent of the town’s tax base.
Jackson is in something of a unique position, however, because it stands the chance to see a second direct economic benefit. The town owns one parcel of land along the ridge, and both companies would like to either lease or outright purchase some acreage within that land for their projects.
Ludden described the chance for the town to have an increased tax base and to make money from the town-owned property as a “bonus round.” But she cautioned the town should proceed carefully since it has not been in a situation like this before.
“We are all green at this,” she said. “It’s going to be one step at a time.”
That sentiment seemed to be shared by those audience members who spoke. Although a number of people said they support renewable energy and wind power in particular, those statements were often followed up by questions about concerns of noise and light pollution, harm to birds and other general safety issues. The effects on those living closest to the wind turbines were also questioned.
Freeman said the noise from a wind turbine is approximately 45 decibels at 1,000 feet, which he said was “not very loud.” Using the same distance as a reference, Silkman said noise from a wind turbine is “equal to a refrigerator operating in a house, the equivalent of a whisper.”
One resident offered a different take on the noise issue. Bob Moore of Blue Star Alpaca farm suggested people visit the Internet search engine Google and type in “wind turbine noise” and read through the results.
“We can Google this and we can Google that,” said another resident shortly after that. “In another month, I’m going to ride over to Freedom and take a look.”
Silkman said he would work on arranging an open house event at the Beaver Ridge project in November.
Silkman said the design of modern wind turbines is such that they are less likely to attract birds to perch on them, which was a problem with earlier designs. He provided statistics that show each individual wind turbine annually kills two to five birds, then he spoke about other ways in which birds die each year.
One billion birds are killed by cats, he said, while another 100 million are killed by hunters. Buildings account for 250 million bird deaths, he said, and communications towers account for some 25 million dead birds.
Some townspeople appeared to want the chance, though not necessarily that night, to have an up-or-down, yes-or-no vote on the project. Town officials said there are two ways in which voters would have a direct say in the projects — deciding if they want to adjust town ordinances to address wind turbines specifically, and deciding if they want to lease or sell any of the town-owned land.
One resident asked if the latter issue would involve a bidding process. Selectmen said yes, that if the town authorized selectmen to sell or lease any of the property, they would ask for proposals to be presented to the town by interested parties. After a review of the proposals with the town attorney, selectmen would pick the proposal they believed was best for the town.
Town officials encouraged interested people to attend planning board meetings the third Thursdays monthly at the Town Office.
Both companies said 2010 or 2011 would be the earliest any wind turbines along the ridge would be fully operational. Each group outlined the extensive review process and myriad of requirements that must be met before the blades on the turbine would actually start turning in the wind.
By Steve Fuller
The Republican Journal Reporter
8 October 2008
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