May 18, 2011
Massachusetts

Bourne turbines plan review is less tense, but still controversial

Bourne Courier, www.wickedlocal.com 18 May 2011

BOURNE – New Generation Wind plans to construct a seven-turbine wind farm north of the canal beyond Scenic Highway remain controversial.

But the Cape Cod Commission’s Tuesday night public hearing into the contentious proposal attracted less than 40 people. And many of them were attracted to New Generation’s consulting team, were Bourne officials or Cape residents from out of town.

The tone of the session was markedly less tense than the hearing in the first round of agency review into the wind-farm proposal of Tudor Ingersoll and Sam Lorusso, head of Cape Cod Aggregates.

Page Czepiga, the commission’s regulator officer, said before the hearing commenced that the sub-committee would afford the session four hours. At about 8 p.m., it was winding down.

Hyannis attorney Paul Revere, representing John Economides of Bournedale, a direct abutter to one proposed New Generation turbine off Scenic Highway, assailed the “truthfulness” of the Ingersoll/Lorusso plan.

“They said they had no further plans for the site,” Revere told the commission. “Then they filed a subdivision plan. Why? Because they wanted to be grandfathered.”

Revere said “people in Bourne” voted against the wind-farm proposal by amending the town’s turbine siting bylaw on May 9.

Monica Mann of Head of the Bay, however, told the commission that the May 9 Special Town Meeting vote came after rounds of “pitchfork politics.”

Joyce Lorman of Pocasset said up to 70 people had departed the special session during a power outage, saying the final vote on the zoning bylaw regarding turbine review might not have been truly indicative of the meeting.

A Bourne police officer was assigned to the hearing at Bourne High School.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/05/18/bourne-turbines-plan-review-is-less-tense-but-still-controversial/