Wind turbine a boondoggle  

Credit:  GateHouse News Service, www.wickedlocal.com 3 September 2010 ~~

When will we ever learn?

It has been reported that the citizens of Ipswich would be out our $25,000 non-refundable deposit on the wind-turbine project because the original manufacturer went bankrupt. Apparently this is correct only if the purchase contract were shifted to another supplier. The understanding now is that the bankrupt company has been sold or otherwise absorbed into another turbine manufacturer, which may or may not accept this liability.

The town also has already spent a pile of dollars installing the transmission lines along Town Farm Road. This boondoggle came into being several years ago when our School Department found another way (CREB interest-free bonds that had earlier been denied to the Town Utility Department) to extort more funds from the over-burdened taxpayer to support their profligate spending educating our children. Town Meeting voted to fund the project’s cost beyond what was provided by the CREB bonds.

Once more we have been bamboozled. Many of us doubt this deal will ever come to fruition at the price we originally approved at Town Meeting and we’ll bet that this project will reappear again and the taxpayers will be expected to cough up still more.

John Meers

35 Allen Lane