no need for windmills in FK....sounds like plenty of hot air up there all ready...

I believe that we should all be looking at alternative ways, and if someone wants a windmill on their property it should be allowed.

Shiretown.net - Aroostook Countys Discussion Forum

The elected officials are elected to make decisions that support the best interests of the citizens of Fort Kent. It is understandable that they would not support a moratorium because one of the councilors himself is hoping to land some windmills on his farmland. The Town Manager himself has relatives that are looking to place windmills on their mountaintops to blight to landscape surrounding our town. As for all the big bucks this will bring to Ft Kent, that is certainly debatable. Mars Hill is still pretty much the same town they were before the wind turbines came and look at the beautiful mountain they have to look at now! It's horrible! Why do we wish to ruin our beautiful landscapes and mountains that our predecesors left us? They may "own" the land atop the mountains but they own it in their lifetimes only. I would recommend that the people of Fort Kent listen closely to the message that the people of C.R.O.W.D. as well as the people of Mars Hill are trying to relay to them. Wind power is highly ineffecient. It is only "feel good" power created at the expense of the taxpayers for politicians who are trying to look good. Let's not destroy our community for the sake of a few landowners who want to make a quick buck!

StJones: It is NOT ok for someone to install a giant wind turbine on their property when it will negatively impact their neighbor's lives as well as REDUCE their neighbor's property values. If it would work that way, I should be allowed to raise cows in my neighborhood in Ft Kent. Animal dung is also a great "alternative energy" I hear. I doubt my neighbor's would mind one bit!

Good for CROWD to raise awareness that there are a plethora of issues relating to utility-scale wind developments, countering the constant propaganda that comes from the wind industry. With all due respect to attorney Plourde and members of the council, it is entirely appropriate to enact a moratorium sooner rather than "when the wolf is at the door". Enacting a moratorium allows the town and its citizens to be pro-active in deciding whether or not this is an appropriate type of development. The wind industry is relentless and they depend on small rural areas to be so desperate for any kind of development that they throw down the welcome mat. You can even expect they will demand TIF, as every single wind development in Maine has done, a local subsidy on top of all the other subsidies this industry receives. Fortunately, in Ft. Kent there are citizens that question this and want to maintain the region as a lovely, peaceful, healthy place to live rather than the host to a noisy, health threatening industrial blight.

Good for the town officials. NIMBY's do more harm than good. Who says the towers are ugly? I stood on the main street of Mars Hill, looked at the towers and thought of the good they were doing and thought they were beautiful. And the only noise I heard was passing cars.

Why not ask yourself some questions?Better than ,ask Horizon Wind some questions? Will this power stay in Fort Kent? Or even in the good old state of Maine or will it be sold to another state like Mass.?Will my power bill go down?with all this extra power in town?How much money will my property tax be cut ,since the town of Fort Kent will be gitting all this extra tax money?Is Horizon Wind realy based in Texas?or another country.follow the money, you wil be suprised.I have one of Horizon Winds contracts,it says they will hold your land for 55 years,most of you will be dead and gone,so what does this tell you?they control your land,is this what you want?land onwers this isnt just about waiting for that free money to Blow in,it has a lot more strings than you know about.This will effect everone in F.K. its your town,dont let someone else control it,if you decide to let the blowboys come to town,make sure your in control not them.And dontdodo something you dont want.

complain, complain, complain.....people are funny....they all want alternative sources of energy so they can get away from the oil barons, but when something comes along that works... they find reasons to complain about it....everything I see that gets us away from the money grubbing oil barons is beautiful to me.....I suppose they would complain if their cars ran on water.....saying its draining our water supply....pathetic...

Hay bumpinroad,Did you ever think that just maby the people are thinking now,and are tired of being run over by big money people,weather there grubbing oil barons or people who have played the oil market and drove the price up,or wind blowboys,thers allways some money hungry fool that is waiting to cash in on you if you just stand there and take it.next.

so dodo.......whats your solution, do absolutely nothing about alternative sources of energy...just keep buying oil...

I say screw the wind farm. I'm OK using oil and electricity. And to all posts... past, current, and future...if you do not live in an area, hold your comments about things that are affecting that area to yourselves, for they matter not. Take the windmills to the coast where there is lots of wind, and start drilling for oil in our own United States.

not in my backyard .....hmmmm....wonder how you would feel about oil drilling in fort kent...lots of wind in fort kent...whether natural or man made...windmills would spin twice as fast with all the hot air up there...

If you want to harness the wind set a few of those things up in Agusta. All of the hot air coming out of that place could give us enough excess energy to clear the states financial problems in no time.

Well you can't pry my views from my cold dead hands! I want to see my vacant potato fields and homesteads sold on the cheap to more folks from away who can appreciate a clear skyline. And since they only will use these homes now as a 'camp' then oil and electricity rates really don't matter. And on a clear day the unobstructed view of young people leaving aroostook county can be still breathtaking unfettered by those lousy windmills!.

Where did I say do nothing about alternative sources of energy?I dont like paying high price any more than you do.I SAID THINK and ASK QUESTIONS,OR LET THEM SCREW YOU OVER,and yes I am a countyboy.End of story.

Woody1, of course standing in downtown Mars Hill, more than 2 miles from the turbines, you will hear the sound of passing cars. Drive up to East Ridge Road and Mountain Road, on the east side of the mountain and it is an entirely different story. You will hear the relentless rumbling roar of these huge machines---they are 389 ft. from base to apex of the blade. If you are there long enough, you will also feel the vibro-acoustic effects of the low frequency pulses from the turbines. Stay even longer and you will experience the illnesses that come from this effect. It is real and it is immoral what the good folks are being subjected to in that part of Mars Hill. Furthermore, the State of Maine is allowing the wind site to operate out of compliance with the permit for allowable decibel levels and that is illegal

Isn't that cause for Ft. Kent to enact a moratorium in order to pro-actively address these issues of wind turbines? It makes sense to me.

hey blower.....how far away does a person have to be before the effects of noise and vibration aren't felt and how many people are being affected....and I wonder how fast these conditions would go away if the goverment would slip them a few dollars....seems to be the going thing nowadays when someone doesn't like whats going on in the hood....holler and scream we may get a few bucks out of it....I hear noise pollution everyday, between the trucks, cars, snowsleds, dogs barking, and the neighbor yelling..then the fumes...gas and oil from the snowsleds...the air just hangs there at times, diesel fumes from the trucks...exhaust fumes from the cars, then anyone lucky enough to live near a factory or two always subject to some sort of smell that I'm sure can't be too good for anyone..I can't even open my windows without getting a smell from a few or all of these....give me clean wind energy anyday....the noise fades with time...they should set them up from top of maine to southern california....puts thousands to work ...and the best part no oil from the middle east....

It's sad...we all want everything quick, easy, profitable, unintrusive, disposable...things have become too complicated for me. Give me back the horse and buggy...home gardenting, bartering, a good old fashion barn building, piece of a paper and pencil and postage stamp. Penny candy...

I like elizabethann....

These issues are coming up on the table in many towns across this state because it does propose infringement on surrounding landowners. These things are 4-500 ft up in the air with a rotor diameter of approx. 273 ft. Does it effect the health and private property rights of your neighbors? I have a small scale turbine up at my home 180 ft back from my back door with a 9 ft rotor diameter and my daughter had been having headaches almost everyday. Then one day, my husband points out the from window to the trees and there was flicker from the shadow of the turbine coming over the house. I went to the living room and it was on the wall as well as my daughters wall from the east side morning sun. On the days that are cloud covered and it doesn't do that, she doesn't have a headache. So we have to get shades to cover those two windows in the morning that will block that out for her. I didn't think about anything like that when I first looked into wind, I was excited, what could be wrong with a machine that produces energy for free? It is a wonderful unit and it is directly powering my home, no question as to where the benefits are going. Point is that I have discovered that the issues of set-back is a justified concern and should be respected by the town officials that have been put in place by the vote of the town's people to be sure a development doesn't create harm for the town's people. I would not put up anything that I thought was going to harm one of my neighbors. No one I know, even the people raising concerns due to the magnitude of these is against alternative low impact producing power. I don't feel that the concerns that are coming up as issues are invalid. We don't need to treat each other like that, we are capable of so much more. These issues should be fleshed out with updated analysis on sound and flicker effects before any projects of this size go forward. That would be the responsible and respectable thing for our legislatures, state and town officials to do for the people they have been put in place to represent. To find out more ,check out, www.conscious-possibilities.org

ST. Jones, nobody is talking about a windmill on their property... they are talking about letting a PORTUGUESE CORPORATION GET RICHER AT the expense of the quality of life and heritage of residents. The attorney seems to have forgotten that the elected officials are supposed to take into consideratin what the taxpayers and residents are telling them, I hope you all have a plan to replace as many as you can in November. It is an absolute disgrace for the attorney to stick up for a bunch that have a blantent conflict of interest....ohhhhh, that's right the United States Attorney General is considering launching an investigation against people like that...glad I got the email from Congress after I urged them to follow the footsteps of the NY Attorney General because of all of the illegal activity in our area especially by two wind developers and town official...OOppsss..Horizon just happens to be one of them that leased to Town of Ellenburg, NY officials and egged them on to stay active and keep voting on the issues....even funnier yet, Horizon got permits for projects in NY and ran away in light of the Grand Jury investigation....Hello Town Fathers...do your homework...I have researched these 500 foot monsters for 5 years now....I still have much to learn...my life has been devoted to this research as I live alone and can't work, my brain has a freat deal of time to spend on it. All this and I knowHorizon knows who I am, but, hey, that's what I do best. ALthough Pat Doyle is in Albany trying to force "community wind" on some poor little towns, I am sure Mike Skelly is still sitting in his office chair rolling in the dough.....GREED energy...a disgrace, robbing taxpayers, making them pay to destroy their own lives, their American dream...yeah right..now they have to run....Look at all of the lawsuits and abandoned homes. Is this what you want for the fate of your town?? Proud to live in a turbine free community :). www.windturbinesydrom.com is a great site to visit.

ooopss...got me going there..the site is www.windturbinesyndrome.com