June 22, 2012
New Hampshire

Antrim selectmen say that meetings with a wind-power business were legal

www.sentinelsource.com 22 June 2012

ANTRIM – Selectmen say meetings to negotiate a payment deal between the town and a wind energy company were held legally, in response to a group of residents that alleged otherwise last week.

The selectmen’s attorney, Robert W. Upton 2nd, responded in a letter saying negotiations concerning a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreement could be held in private under state law.

On Wednesday, selectmen signed the PILOT agreement with Antrim Wind Energy LLC for the company’s plan to build a wind farm in town.

Charles Levesque, Sarah VanderWende and Martha Pinello, three of the seven residents who claimed the negotiation meetings were illegal and should have been held publicly, are also on the town’s planning board.

The letter from the town’s attorney says the three should recuse themselves from future consideration of the project since they have “been formally identified as opponents to the project.”

Levesque said he’s not opposed to the wind farm, but he maintains the meetings were illegal under the state’s right-to-know law. He said the group has not decided whether it will pursue the issue.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/06/22/antrim-selectmen-say-that-meetings-with-a-wind-power-business-were-legal/