Showing posts with label Lexington Township. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lexington Township. Show all posts
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Saturday, November 19, 2011
You Are Not Welcome Here
My family doesn’t post our property. We never have, for as far back as I can remember. My grandparents owned many acres, as did my parents, and there was never a “No Trespassing” sign posted on trees.
My husband and I are lucky enough to own 70 acres of forest. We feel fortunate to be able to step off our front porch and take a walk in the woods and we want everyone to have that same freedom and ability. When I was a child, almost all of Maine was ‘open’. It was rare to see a “No Trespassing” sign and Mainers were able to roam the forests and fields and mountains to experience that ‘quality of place’ and quality of life that is so integral to our contentment.
A shiny silver Ford pick-up drove out of the driveway to our orchard. That was not a big deal. It happens all the time in November, since this is the height of deer hunting season. The truck then proceeded up the road and stopped beside our house. Since my husband has just gotten into his Blazer to take our son to work, he got out and walked over to the Ford.
He noticed the GPS antenna mounted on the front of the hood. He asked the driver what was up.
The driver informed my husband that he and his partner were ‘fixing the positions’ of residences in the area for a survey they were conducting.
Mr. Pease asked them who they were working for.
The driver informed him that his client wished for its identity to remain confidential.
Mr. Pease said, “Oh. Iberdrola, huh?”
The men became deer in the headlights. Kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar. They shut their mouths. Stick a fork in them—they were done!
It’s easy to have the last word when the other party won’t speak—but the words my husband uttered could not have come easy, nonetheless. He’s the kindest, gentlest, most generous man I know. But he meant what he said when he told those wind industry surveyors that they were not welcome on our land--that he knew he couldn’t prevent them from using the county right-of-way to invade our privacy or help a foreign company threaten our way of life, but he could forbid them from stepping foot—or driving tire—onto our property.
This is a tough battle we’re fighting. We don’t have anything against those men—not personally. Those contractors are Mainers who are “just doing their job”. But as a friend from Vinalhaven said of the construction workers who built the Fox Island Wind turbines near his island home: “YOUR job has ruined MY life.” Those six words sum it up quite succinctly.
That shiny, decked out Ford (and yes, I went outside and got their license plate number) which was driven so nonchalantly onto the property we generously share with all may very well have been purchased with money earned by work that was done for an industry which is negatively impacting the lives of hundreds of Mainers.
So, no. We don’t post our property, and unless something drastic occurs--we won’t. But let this be public notice that anyone working for an industrial wind developer--whether directly, or indirectly as a subcontractor--is not welcome at The F.A.R.M. If you’re going to try to plot and plan how to sidestep the wishes of more than 77% of the residents of Lexington Township, you’re going to have to do it without our help. If you don’t care that we have stood together and said “NO!” you will not be the beneficiary of our largesse. We will not harbor you, we will not welcome you—and we will not hesitate to firmly escort you off and arrange for your transport to the county jail if you come onto our property without having express and written permission from my husband or me.
I can't make this any clearer. You are not welcome at The F.A.R.M. and you are not welcome in Lexington Township. Or in Concord, or in Highland. Accept defeat, please. You are not welcome here and I am just one voice of many asking you to respect us and abandon your plans for wind developments in these three communities.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Voices of Support
Today, the residents of Lexington and Concord Townships and Highland Plantation, Maine, took a stand. In a press conference in the State Capitol, we requested that Iberdrola Renewables and Highland Wind LLC abandon their wind development plans due to the fact that a majority of the residents signed petitions in opposition to grid-scale wind developments in our communities. We also asked Governor LePage to support our colllective will by using the powers of his office to remove us from the Expedited Permitting Area. Our Senator, our Representative and our Somerset County Commissioners showed their support--for which we are grateful. Below is the letter sent by Rep. Larry Dunphy, District 88.  House of Representatives2 State House Station (207) 287-1440 TTY: (207) 287-4469 |
Larry Dunphy North Residence: (207) 635-2831 |
November 14, 2011
To Whom it May Concern:
This is a noteworthy day. Today, Maine citizens—American citizens–are standing up and stepping forward to make sure that they have a ‘say’ in determining the future of their communities.
Constituents from three communities in my district have spoken, and I intend to support them. Just as I will respect majority votes in New Portland or Bingham or Caratunk, so will I defend the determination made by the citizens of Highland, Lexington and Concord. They have spoken and their voices echo a resounding “No!” to industrial wind turbine facilities on the ridgelines in their communities. I urge Iberdrola Renewables and Highland Wind to abandon their development plans for this particular corner of rural Somerset County and I urge the Governor to support these citizens. The People have spoken. We need to listen.
The current Administration has vowed to put “People before politics”. Under former Governor John Baldacci, the Wind Energy Act was marketed as a panacea for our energy problems. But since those panic-driven days of 2008, we have learned much about the impacts and the benefits of wind-generated electricity. People were not put before politics when the Wind Energy Act, favoring one industry, rezoned 2/3 of the State of Maine as an industrial zone for grid-scale wind facilities.
My constituents in Highland, Lexington and Concord have been proactive. They’ve educated themselves about this issue and they’ve made their desires known. They were denied input when their community was rezoned, but they are speaking on the record today. This isn’t a secret ballot. My constituents feel strongly about this issue. They have publicly put their names on a ballot and sealed it with their signatures. As their Representative, it is my intention to support their votes.
Larry Dunphy
Anson, Bingham, Caratunk, Carrabassett Valley, Embden, Jackman, Moose River, Moscow, New Portland, Wellington and Plantations of Brighton, Coplin, Dennistown, Highland, Pleasant Ridge, The Forks and West Forks, plus the unorganized territories of Concord, Lexington, and Wyman Townships, Northeast Somerset (including Rockwood Strip), Northwest Somerset and Seboomook Lake
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Voices of Somerset County--A Press Release
Once again, the names Lexington and Concord are in the forefront of a People’s right to self-determination. As the Colonials did in 1775, the citizens of these Maine communities are facing what would seem to be an overwhelming force from abroad.
But citizens in Lexington and Concord Townships--and in Highland Plantation, too--will not be intimidated. We're taking a stand. Speaking up.
And saying "No!"
PRESS RELEASE
Who: FRIENDS OF THE HIGHLAND MOUNTAINS
When: November 17, 2011; 11:00 a.m.
Where: Hall of Flags, State Capitol, Augusta, ME
RESIDENTS OF THREE SOMERSET COUNTY COMMUNITIES ASK GOVERNOR LEPAGE TO HELP THEM PROTECT THEIR HOMES AND QUALITY OF LIFE FROM MULTIPLE WIND DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS.
A majority of the residents of Highland Plantation and Concord and Lexington Townships are expressing opposition to the wind development plans of former Governor Angus King’s Highland Wind LLC and Iberdrola Renewables, a subsidiary of Spain-based Iberdrola SA, and the largest operator of wind turbines in the world. Highland Wind LLC is backed by the Yale University Endowment.
In an ongoing petition effort, a majority of the voting age residents have, so far, signed petitions stating their opposition to industrial wind development within their respective communities. In Lexington, seventy-seven percent (77%) of residents have already signed. Many of the communities’ non-resident property owners have also shown their opposition by signing the petition.
In 2010, Ignacio Galan, chairman of Iberdrola Group, told the Portland Press Herald that “If Maine signals that it’s no longer friendly to wind power, the global energy company will expand elsewhere.” Alan Michka, a resident of Lexington says “The Concord and Lexington petitions make it clear that these communities are not friendly to Iberdrola’s plans. Hopefully, Iberdrola will make good on their threat to expand elsewhere. Certainly, they’re not welcome here.”
Many Maine towns have passed ordinances that effectively restrict wind power development within their borders. Plantations and unorganized townships such as Concord and Lexington, however, have no legal means to protect their communities with such ordinances.
“If 51% of the registered voters in any Maine town came out against a wind development, it would not be permitted,” says Karen Pease, another Lexington resident. “It simply would not be built. Period, end of story. In this case, we have 77% speaking in opposition. Rural areas of Maine have been targeted for industrial development, and citizens who live here were not allowed to have a say before these Unorganized Territories were rezoned. Our communities have spoken decisively. We do not want grid-scale wind facilities to be built within our borders. We must not be disenfranchised simply because we live in rural Maine.”
At the conclusion of the press conference, copies of the petitions will be delivered to Governor LePage’s office along with a letter asking the Governor to use his executive powers to remove Highland Plantation, Concord and Lexington from the state’s Expedited Permitting Area (EPA), thereby fully restoring the voice of residents and property owners in the future of their communities. Removal from the EPA does not prevent wind energy development, but requires the developer to secure approval for a change of zoning, an action that allows the residents to weigh in on the proposed change. Petition results and an appeal for support will also be delivered to key legislators, state agencies and the Somerset County Commissioners in an effort to draw their attention to the residents’ effort to protect their community from the negative impacts of industrial scale wind development.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Words of Wisdom on the Wind
This "Letter to the Editor" was written in April of 2010 by Greg Perkins, a licensed soils scientist and Highland Plantation tax payer, in response to an op-ed published in the Waterville Sentinel. Greg and his wife are owners of the cabin which will be closest to the Highland Wind project, if built.
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The truth is that logging roads and skidder trails are nothing like the roads that are actually being built to haul each turbine (3 MW - nearly 390 tons of metal) to the mountaintop - or what is left of the mountaintop. These roads are not like narrow skidder trails where protective organics are left in place and no fill is required.
A road to support loaded turbine transport trucks needs to be designed and built to support at least 90 tons of weight and is typically over 50 feet wide (width of two lanes of I-95). A road system in a typical industrial wind development in the western Maine mountains may be a long as 15 -20 miles and requires hundreds of thousands of yards of aggregate material to be installed on the mountain side to conquer the 30%-50% slopes and switchbacks. Where the slopes are too steep, the mountain is blasted away.
A devastating impact created by climate change is the removal and/or destruction of the plants and animals that exist in a habitat or ecosystem, essentially destroying it. This is the very same impact generated by an industrial wind development on a fragile mountain ecosystem, only the wind development takes much less time to do its destructive work – it is immediate.
The author ends his letter by asking. “If anyone can come up with a cleaner source of power than wind, I'd like to hear it.” After thinking about all the carbon that is pumped into the atmosphere to build, transport, and site just one industrial turbine, I can come up with several cleaner sources – hydro, solar, wood, natural gas, oil…just name one.
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