The Governor will be going to work for these companies once his term is over. All you friends of Lincoln Lakes who voted for him take note.

Great news! Let's get these towers built.

I was there yesterday and it really sheds a clear light on what is happening to the public's rights to be heard. What was clearer than anything is how our state official boards are locked behind inadequate laws that surround a new technology. I listened to the testimonies from DEP and other officials and repetitively witnessed a lack of confidence and an "unfinshed" conclusion about what was being advocated. Matt Kearn states that his company has done all the studies recommended. Then why are there problems in other locations? This clearly identifies that the current DEP regulations around sound are not applicable for Industrial scale wind technology. There is nothing we have currently that replicates wind power, nothing is that tall that spins with a rotor diameter of 275ft. You have to live with a turbine to understand how it really works as a machine, how it produces energy and what it takes to create a return on the investment. Bottom line, read through this article or any other one in reflect of these scale projects, and there are words from experts like, "Should" fall within the restricted limits of sound. Shouldn't they know when they are advocating something of this scale and investment level especially when using tax payers money? "The issue of health impacts from turbine noise is still a matter of scientific debate in the U.S." Can you believe that this is being stated in an article that is expediting such a project that has significant implications with sound issues? "the project’s economic and environmental benefits to the region and the people of Maine,” the company said in a written statement." I challenge anyone to request the numbers (cost/benefit analysis) as to how this realized. I have requested this data from officials and it is never provided. The publics voice is being ignored. Anyone who asks for transparency in these projects either gets ignored or they attempt to romance you with promises. Spare me, give me the facts in numbers, I never buy a car without taking it for a test drive and looking over all the pros and cons to be sure this car with be worth my investment. There was a person there sitting at the front podium with FoLL's lawyer who has done extensive research on the issue of Industrial scale wind, how come we heard all kinds of testimony from the wind developers angle but not from Steve Thurston?? Do the people of Maine still have a voice?

THUGUSTA. Sunglass wearing shady state and local officials befitting a central American dictatorship. But it ain't over until it's over.

PUMP THE CESSPOOL in NOVEMBER 2010.

Yes I was there to. It was very easy to read there faces and jestures while First Wind and the other state officials testified. The decission of the denial of the appeal was made even prior to the appeal. Too bad we did not have an expert who could read there actions and quiz them more, but it was made clear that those kind of things were not allowed. Angus King took lots of notes and was thrilled with the decision. Blasting has already started in the

Rumford/Roxbury areas as of last week. We heard them echoing across the pond just the beginning of the destruction of the Western Mountains.

Some people use the cover of green to fool the public. Angus King uses it to fool his conscience.

If you don't like it, buy the land yourself and creat a sanctuary.

"create"

It is clear the Government serves itself and no longer the people.

It is time to abondon the government or dismantle be removing its funding.

I do not understand why in this state you cannot have bill boards and signs can only be so large YET,you can put these windmills up so everyone can see them from 50 miles away. This great state of ours is not so great anymore. As for the noise, go and stand under them in Mars Hill and listen. They are noisy. As for eagles, bats , osprey. blue herons and the rest of our wonderful birds of flight watch out for that Giant Machine taking over the mountains. Oakfield is next........... Seems like no-one has a say of where these Giants will stand. Very sad.......Goodbye Maine the Way Life Should Be.

Who lost control at the meeting and yelled "whitewash"? Temper Temper. This is a great day for the state of Maine.

Now Firstwind says it starts in 2010. Soon to be 2011, then 2012, then.... The legal battle is engaged.Citiznes will be heard. Hey graysmom, don't waste too much saliva over the TIF money , cuz you may never see any. Lincoln town management couldn’t even negotiate a TIF as good as Burlington! HA!.Council lost over $850,000 bucks on that negotiation alone, enough to pad the pay of certain town officials for years, as well as buy a shiny new fire engine numerous times. You could have even bought a town office with that negotiation alone if you did it right. How inept!

I see chelsie has now drank the kool aid. You have jumped on the bandwagon a little late dear. It has left the road and hit a tree.

I hope chelsie throws her hat in the ring at Lincoln's next election, cuz a concerned Citizne like her is just what we need to get us out of this mess.

Chelsie - you're going through the "garysmom" learning experience as many of us have in the past. Just ignore anything she says. Pretend she doesn't exist. She only clocks in to cause problems and in her own words she wants to "play you like an old fiddle". Any time spent trying to reason with her is just time lost on your part. As I've said in the past, if she truely is "Gary's mom" then we should all feel fortunate we're not "Gary".

Thank you for the intro northwoodsmaine. For your info, gary is a dentist.

40,000 folks need LIHEAP this winter, how will this help ?

Lincoln area total population voters and how many against turbine project?

Is tis a project to benefit all of Maine?

Now if only we can get a Nuclear plant restarted in Wiscasset too.

hi how are you?

First of all what I would like to say to all of the tree huggers out there is what is your means to accomplish a safe form of electricity? I have heard whining since the days of hydro electric power. Then it was on to nuclear power. Now it is the wind mills.

By the way. What are your feelings about mercury in your fish here in Maine?

Instead of complaining can you give me solutions? Anyone can complain but who can solve the issues?

Did you forget how high prices rose on oil just last year? Need I remind you? Do you think they will get better because you say you are tired of high oil prices?

What next. Will you complain if they put solar panels in your back yard? Probably/ I’m sure someone will say that the solar panels Blind The Birds. No?

What if we knock off the crap and get down to business.

What’s your thoughts.

I Like to fish. I like to do it without coal from western New England destroying our fishing habitat. We need to start somewhere. No?

No. I don’t work for one of those fancy firms. I am just looking to see some resolve from all this mess.

I say give a solution or go with a program subscribed to help….. Why is that so crazy?

Hi BeReal,

The solutions are not simple, that is the problem. The biggest part of the problem is the behaviors of people and how they have been conditioned to use energy. You can go to my website conscious-possibilities.org and get some ideas (lots of links) and to take a carbon footprint test for grins. (please, only respectful inquiries) It at least gets you going in that direction, but people are going to have to re-learn how to use energy efficiently. Too many people just want the quick fix and don't have enough of an education to understand all the pros and cons of what they suggest for solutions. I want to work on an LD bill and present it to the legislature that advocates for ground zero applications like solar panels and low scale turbines that don't create impacts as well as any other of the numerous alternative renewable devices that can be implemented within the municipalities, local businesses and residents that are willing to get involved with their own energy use. THIS has the potential to create jobs here for Maine within their communities as well create real investment returns to them where they live and work as well as void any reasoning to increase the transmissions lines and the costs associated with that. The transmission lines emit dangerous EMF radiation that if you increase have the potential to cause an increase in the level of diseases like Cancer we are already seeing. Ever seen a child struggling for life in a hospital, bald and trying to survive through the chemo? What other choices do they have? Yes Garysmom, if you go to the meetings about the transmission lines, the officials will tell you that is a risk factor we take with these upgrades. Anyway, I have a lot of great links on my site and you can shoot me a message anytime you are trying to investigate a solution, it is a great adventure and it is a solution to this, but we have to be willing to work for it and stop looking for quick fixes, it's only making things worse. Is it really so hard to see that the scale of these units could cause problems? Plus they are fuel propelled to keep the mechanisms moving due how costly maintenance is and to avoid dangerous blow apart events that could occur. They also require 60 gallons of hydraulic fuel changed out in the head every month per unit. They cost 4mil per unit. I want to see a cost/benefit analysis as to how this is a viable solution.

Garysmom - Your welcome, and I'm sure your son is successful and is probably a very nice person and a pillar of his community. That doesn't change my opinon of you and what you try to instigate here on these discussion forums.

BeReal - we're not all "treehuggers" as you suggest. If you knew me you'd know I'm about as far away from being a tree hugger as one can get. My profession allows me to work from almost anyplace in the country with reasonable airline service - something that's becoming very scarce here iin recent times. I chose to move back to Maine 10 years ago. By doing this I knew I was forgoing chances for future promotions with my employer and there were many other consequences, financial and otherwise. I chose to live here because I love this state. I love the large tracts of wilderness (or what passes for wilderness in this century). I love outdoor sporting activities that range from fishing, hunting, ATV riding, eagle watching, and sometimes just a nice long walk on a gravel road in the early morning with my dog. In short, most any activity that allows me to spend time enjoying mother nature's splendor brings me great peace and satisfaction. I love going to sleep to the sounds of loons every night for half the year. I love that I live in a very small rural community that offers a sense of neighborness that most places haven't experienced since the '50s. I even enjoy the solitude and beauty of a day out on the ice in February. Catching fish is merely a bonus.

What I don't like is the thought of losing the panoramic views and having them replaced with flashing red lights 400' in the air. I also don't like the thought of my property value diminishing by 25-35% due to the wind tubines. I also don't like it when a corporation comes to town throwing cash around to buy people's influence and blinding good people's natural tendencies to make the right decision. It's a trueism that small town management thinks like small town management. Many of these towns are fighting the same budgetary issues as the large cities, so it's relatively easy for a corporation like First Wind to send their front men in thowing around wads of cash, and promises for much more to come, in order to blind these small towns full of good hardworking people into giving away the farm with TIFs and other concessions. A fire truck here, a trail groomer there .... it all looks like free money .... until some day off in the future they realize that they've sold off the very reason most of us choose to live here.

I should clarify that neither the Mars Hill or Stetson Mt. projects affect me directly in any way. The Lincoln,Lee, Winn, Burlington project also will not affect me personally. But who's to say that the next project might very well bring to reality all my greatest fears. I do feel the pain of people who have had family camps on the shores of the Lincoln Lakes region for generations, or have worked tirelessly all their lives for an opportunity to retire in a modest home on a ridge surrounded by peace and quiet and wonderous views who will soon wake up amd look out their windows over their morning coffee at the sight of these totally out of scale 400' high man made monstrosities.

I won't even get into the whole debate over whether or not these turbines are even financially viable once you get beyond all the government subsidies that allow First Wind to make a profit without ever hooking these into the power grid.

Tree hugger no, nature lover yes.

ok fine, but be sure to take down all of the cell phone and radio towers, they have red lights too. Oh, and douse those street lights, they take away from me seeing the stars. I can also hear the train off in the distance, thats gotta go, its ruining my night of listening to crickets. Have any of you people seen the landscape lately, its already been took over by the various logging companies and soforth,(Why are you crapping on the fire department Northwoods_Maine? What did they do to you?)

Is Maine uppity? Wind farms can bring property values down as much as 50%...yet there does not have to be a public hearing before we get our very own industrial wind park next door.

The so called DEP does not have to hear from it's employers...US..just the wind farm corporation spokes people.

So since ME has allowed the strong corporate influence to replace democracy....perhaps it is time to let the corporations pay Maine's bills.

It would be pretty sad if WE were only needed to pay taxes.

On 8/7/09 at 9:31 PM, localresident wrote: .... Have any of you people seen the landscape lately, its already been took over by the various logging companies and soforth,(Why are you crapping on the fire department Northwoods_Maine? What did they do to you?)

It boggles my mind "localresident" as to how you could think I was "crapping on the fire department" from my statement. You should go back and read what I said again. There was absolutely no mention of any fire department in what I said. I was merely talking about some of the money being thrown around by First Wind and happened to mention "a firetruck here, a trail groomer there" as a couple of examples of money being thrown around to influence votes. I have several family members that are firemen and respect and admire what they do. As to your assertion that we already have a blighted landscape due to radio and cell towers, etc., I slightly agree with you. There's nothing attractive about cell towers or radio towers. The big difference here my friend is that neither cell towers or radio towers are 400' high, and they also don't come in groups of 10, 20, or 40 of them lined up across a ridgeline totally dominating the view. Can you see the difference there? In fact, I'd be willing to bet that if a company came to town wanting to build 10, 20 or 40 cell towers stretched out along an entire ridgeline, I believe they'd meet with a lot of opposition too.

Since you seem to be totally in favor of these wind tubines, tell me what you see as the perceived benefit from them for yourself or any of your neighbors.

Well if anyone thinks they will lower your taxes, think again. Ours went up an extra $150. this year. The highest they have ever been. Thanks Stetson Mountain wind farm! I didn't want or expect any of your benefits, and certainly not this one. Guess this goes to prove they will NOT lower your taxes.

rubyrose- you spent that in gas money driving down to Augusta on Thursday. ..northwoodsmaine- thanks for sharing your life story with us. Gary is a narcissist also. I hear a loon.

My last statement was not a dig at northwoodsmaine. I dont know the man enough to think that he suffers from NPD. I do know that he likes bikes and atv's. He made fun of mike and andrea kervin after their accident. He has a choice between a salsa red tundra or a dodge charger for his transportation needs. Other than that, I don't know much about him. Oh yes, he is 58 yrs old.

garysmom....Is so scary...Kirk Richie used to be a private detective. Oh noooooooooo.

Why is it so important if you like a wind farm to know personal information on commenters. Trying to intimidate and bully? First Wind's way of doing business.

Chelsie wrote that burlington got a better TIF than lincoln, Well maybe thats because the Fiends of Lincoln Lakes caused such a problem that Lincoln couldn't get a fair shake. Get off the Kool aid chelsie it will only lead to bad things, have you ever heard of a little place called "Jonestown".

Northwoods- do you not trust anyone in the government, do you think that there are pots of unaccounted for money sitting around that gets handed out behind your back, or that everyone is covering up for each other. The town of Lincoln is in need of new Fire Equipment. Did you happen to go to the homecoming parade and see the FLASHBACK to yesteryear fire trucks lincoln was driving. Compare them to the other towns around and you will see the need.

Seems getting an extra $851k for Lincoln doesnt matter? Only because of Friends did they even attempt a negotiation, inept and corrupt as it was.