June 20, 2012
Maine

Clifton looks to get wind farm complaint tossed

Written by Mike DeSumma | News Center | www.wcsh6.com 19 June 2012

An area couple is continuing their battle to keep a wind project from being built on Pisgah Mountain.

Peter and Julie Beckford filed a legal complaint against the town of Clifton back in March. They say their quality of life will suffer if the five turbine project is built not far from their farm.

Land developer Paul Fuller of Bangor is looking to do that. He says the farm could power thousands of area homes. Clifton’s planning board granted him a permit to build the farm on the mountain in the fall of 2011. The town’s board of appeals upheld that decision in January after the Beckfords filed an appeal.

Attorneys for Clifton are now looking to have the couple’s legal complaint against the town dismissed. They say the Beckfords filed it too late to have it considered by a judge. They also say the couple failed to issue a legal summons to the town.

Yet Peter Beckford says that simply isn’t true. He said he did hand a notice of the complaint in at the Clifton town office the day he filed the appeal.

“Clearly they want to keep it out of court,” Beckford said, “whatever it takes they don’t want our arguments heard. I’m sure they’re desperate for that. They will lose.”

“What has been done so far has been slip shot on how to file a complaint…how to file an appeal,” said Paul Fuller, who also attended the hearing at the Penobscot Judicial Center, “there are rules that we live by in this country…and they were not followed.”

Fuller added that his company also didn’t get summoned for the complaint. The Beckfords are looking to revoke his permit.

A judge will be taking the motion to dismiss under advisement.