LINCOLN, Maine — The number of new business startups stayed constant in Lincoln in 2011, but town-issued building permits fell dramatically for the third straight year, town leaders said Thursday.
Code enforcement supervisor Ruth Birtz blamed the struggling regional and national economies for the town’s having granted just 227 building permits in 2011, down from 328 the previous year and 358 in 2009.
“It’s a definite indicator of the fact that the economy, jobs market and the refinancing of homes or home improvements have all gotten harder over the last year,” Birtz said. “Banks and other lending institutions’ regulations have also gotten a lot stricter, so it’s more difficult to get refinancing to buy new homes or repair.”
The planning board and code enforcement office issued 14 new businesses permits in 2011, the same number as in 2010, Birtz said.
Golden Jade Restaurant, Styles By Abby, a Verizon communications outlet, two or three church and food cupboard thrift stores, Lincoln Lakes Olde Tyme Butcher Shoppe, several home-based businesses and a Dysart’s convenience store are among the new businesses permitted in 2011, Birtz said.
Dysart’s bought a carwash on West Broadway last year and has plans to add a Dysart’s Travel Stop to the building this spring, town officials have said.
One of the biggest businesses technically logged as having been permitted in 2011 is the $130 million Rollins Mountain industrial wind facility. The planning board issued the permit years before, but First Wind of Massachusetts did not claim the permit officially until last year. Company officials awaited the exhaustion of permit appeals, Birtz said.
Construction finished and the project went on line last year.
The 227 permits in 2011 include certificates allowing the construction of new businesses, new buildings and renovations plus plumbing and electrical work. The permit counts are seen as general indicators of a given economy’s health.
The number does not include permits for roof reshingling or building demolition. At the suggestion of Public Works Department Director David Lloyd and the town recycling committee, the code enforcement office separated those counts from the general numbers and started individually charging people doing that work disposal fees at the town transfer station.
That helped relieve most taxpayers of the burden of paying for the disposal of construction waste, Birtz said.
“It’s a pilot program,” Birtz said. “It needs some tweaking, but we are on the right track.”
Birtz and Code Enforcement Officer Dan Whittier said that it feels now as if 2012 will be better than 2011. They have no hard data to support this; rather, a sense that the number of questions they get regarding potential new business or construction starts is increasing compared with last fall and December and January of a year ago, they said.
“We are just like a lot of other towns,” Birtz said. “We’re hoping that things will get better this year.”
Hmmmm, where’s all the wealth, riches, and prosperity that the Rollins wind turbine project was supposed to create? Could it have all been just “snake oil” as the opponents to this project were stating all along. You bet it was. Where are all the new jobs it was going to create? Where’s the ripple effect it was supposed to have on local businesses? What a joke. A very short 6 month long ‘bubble’ during construction ….. is that all there is my friend? You betcha.
Hollow promises by a disreputable developer, plain and simple. You ruined the aesthetic value and beauty of the whole Lincoln Lakes region for a handfull of 6 month long jobs. Watch for the drop off in tourism that’s coming too. If people wanted to vaction in the shadows of ugly industrial projects chances are they could do that much closer to home. Nice going Lincoln planning board!
Write to the wind pushing economics experts at NRCM who wouldn’t stop talking about this project’s economic panaceas for Lincoln. See what they have to say now.
When will the media start to admit that wind projects hurt property values?
If you’re looking for a reason Lincoln’s economy is down, just look at all the homes and camps that are currently on the market. Folsom, Upper, Mattanawcook, Madagascal, Center, Egg, Long and Silver Ponds ALL have an unusual number of properties available. If you know anyone who is both deaf and blind, they could be very happy living on any of these lakes.
I don’t know about the Silver Ponds, but the other lakes are nothing but a blood suckers paradise. If you drank a glass of water out of any of theses lakes, you would die of a bacterial infection. Guess what they are there and running, get over it. If we got scammed. we’ll have to live with it.
The only blood suckers in the area are in the town government , and in the minds of some , perhaps, like you.
Worms at least know not to eat their excrement.
You might want to drill a hole through the ice in 1 of these ponds and see what comes out of the hole for water. It looks like sewer water, blame that on the wind mills. The blood suckers are the out of staters that bought up the lake property to make a killing. Go back to your flatlands.
Stupid is as stupid does.
You are a prime example.
Amen.
Talk about my reply, the lakes around Lincoln that was named are nothing but swamp water, nothing to do with FW.
So how is it working for the wind
scoundrels and self-servers of Lincoln?
How is it working for you Ruthie,
Branden, Peter, Rod,Jay and Tom?
Now that the recreational long term
potential of Lincoln has been destroyed, what will there be left to
attract real outside money to this sad community of self-serving,
myopic greed ridden personalities?
How are lake front sales going?
All Lincoln ever had working for it,
long term, was its unique geography comprised of pristine lakes
rolling hills in a mill town that was gifted with a beautiful
surrounding.
It is what attracted people from the
world over to the area.
It Is Now Gone!
Now it has been destroyed by huge
near useless machines on the horizon for all to see.
They have overshadowed that which was a gift
God gave to the area.
The citizens, many of which never
realized what they had nor appreciated the areas unique
characteristics, are now the owners of industrial sprawl created by a
scoundrel company that will in short order leave the the gift of
rusting huge hulks that no one is committed to remove. The few
hundred thousand dollars of earmarked money to perpetuate a corrupt
town government will end, and taxes will increase for the sad
residents who cannot leave .
Well done Lincoln!
Now that other towns use Lincoln as
the example of all the things that should Not Be Done .
You certainly have achieved one goal.
Now, all over Maine other towns
state….”Do not do what Lincoln Town government did to its
taxpayers and area”
They now state, all over Maine,
“Ordinance Big Wind OUT”!
How sad, to be known as the “Fools of
the State”, and THE example of ignorant , self-serving municipal
government!
I wrote this piece of satire two years ago. We now have a Governor who understands that wind power is just a taxpayer supported scam. First Wind has turbines that barely produce power at either Stetson Mt. or at the Rollins project in Lincoln and there isn’t any capacity on the grid to even take their fickle trickle of electricity when it is produced. The four towns in Lincoln Lakes have been scammed big time, yet First Wind keeps pushing to reap the tax subsidies and selling Enron inspired REC’s. When it dries up, they will walk away, protected from liability by the LLC.
Maine Cedes the Northeast to First Wind
New State to Be Known as FirstWindiana
April 1, 2010 Augusta, Maine. Maine Governor Baldacci signed a historic measure today ceding a huge portion of northeastern Maine to First Wind Holdings. The law, passed as “Emergency” Legislation by the Maine 124th Legislature, creates the new state of FirstWindiana and cements Baldacci’s legacy as one of the biggest buffoons to ever occupy the Blaine Mansion.
“This historic bill accomplishes many things”, stated Baldacci. “It recognizes all of the hard work of this administration to keep First Wind afloat. I am so anxious to assist this exemplary business that I felt compelled to ram this through as an Emergency rather than wait for my Task Force to recommend it. Besides, it helps solve the financial mess by shifting all those poor towns to this new state and get them off state assistance from Maine. Since most of the elitists I hang out with don’t even know this part of Maine existed, it will not be missed”
A ceremony will be held at the Stetson I site near Prentiss to commemorate the creation of FirstWindiana. Festivities include the inauguration of Governor by acclamation Matt Kearns and a 21 turbine salute. Gov. Kearns will promise a Met Tower for every ridge and a TIF for every town in his inaugural address. He is also expected to announce new contracts with China for turbines and with Brazil for blades. The Obama administration has announced $500 million grant to the new state as a good will gesture from American Taxpayers.
State of FirstWindiana
Governor: Matt Kearns
Statehood: Created in 2010 as “Emergency” legislation by the Maine Legislature
Boundaries: Penobscot River to the Canadian border, from the northern shores of the Grand Lakes of Eastern Maine to Southern Aroostook.
Capitol: Prentiss, centrally located and in honor of Stetson I: “where the revolution began”
State Flag: GE 1.5 MW turbine on a “green” background
State Bird: Clubbed and Mangled Bald Eagle
State Animal: Barotraumatized Bat
State Tree: Whatever is left standing after being run over by a H C Haynes skidder
State Song: “We’re in the Money”
State Motto: “Big Wind, Big Lie, Forever!”
Who from Lincoln hasn’t heard the derisive chiding of “Stinkin’ Lincoln”? I know I have, when I’ve told people where I am from. But I used to be able to say that the mill is using the natural resource of the forest to produce something of value and some 500 people have good employment and it has a great multiplier effect with the payroll and the mills purchasing of goods and services locally and regionally. You might say I sort of understand economics.
I also used to say, yes, the pulp mills has an odor that sometimes can be blowing over parts of the town and to people from away it is not pleasing. But I would also say, turn your back to the mill and look over this beautiful area of rolling ridges and lakes, the gateway to many hidden treasures in the forest that reaches to the Canadian border, including the magnificent Downeast Grand Lakes. Lincoln was blessed with beauty that would be the envy of many people. Indeed, in the Lincoln Lakes region, around a thousand people live year round or have seasonal cottages on the lakes.
All this beauty, this natural resource, has been destroyed by the Rollins Wind project of First Wind. Nobody wants to buy a home or seasonal cottage with a view of 389-foot tall wind turbines. This project, a total waste of taxpayers’ money, subsidized by TIFs from all the towns, has destroyed the potential for increasing waterfront values. The people from away pumped a steady flow of money into the town without demanding services and instead of that increasing over time, the wind project has driven it away. Indeed, an argument must be made that the project has damaged waterfront property values and the ability to sell and, thus, these premium waterfront property values must be re-assessed and lowered.
Sure, there was a short burst of economic activity that flowed through the area during the brief construction period, something that First Wind touts a heck of a lot more than they do their electricity production, which according to FERC is next to nil. But where are all the jobs? The handful of maintenance jobs and nearly no goods and services as the turbines just sit there slowly spinning, occasionally putting out a trickle of electricity when the wind is just right. The Rollins Wind project has zilch multiplier effect on the Lincoln economy.
The town leaders sold out to First Wind. They lack any vision for the town. They turned it from the “Land of 13 Lakes” to the “Land of 40 Turbines”. There is something stinkin’ about Lincoln, all right, but it ain’t just the mill.
It is distressing to read the antipathy in these
comments. The Rollins project has caused
divisiveness in Lincoln, just as the wind industry has done in almost every
community it’s romanced for the sake of avarice.
But the article is about the economy of Lincoln and I think
it is very important that the reporter follow up on this thread. “The biggest business…permitted” was First Wind’s
Rollins project. So… how many full time
jobs has it brought to Lincoln? How many
of the construction workers who built the project actually live in
Lincoln? How many properties have gone
on the market since Rollins construction began last winter? How will property taxes be impacted this
year? Will Lincoln see a dramatic drop
in real estate taxes? Or will they find
that once the state re-assesses the town in a year or two, their revenue
sharing drops so much that the tax benefits are negligible?
How did the biggest project to be permitted help the town of
Lincoln?
It would be interesting to see how the positives and negatives
stack up. But such a comparison calls
for real data and not supposition. I challenge
Mr. Sambides to take a look at the verifiable numbers–and include in those
numbers exactly how much electricity Rollins is producing, and how much it is
selling. What value did that project add
to Lincoln, and to the state of Maine?
The data ought to be very interesting.
It is not just Lincoln’s economy that struggled in 2011…there are hundreds of towns in Maine that have struggled and are still today. I just think this article was written to get the wind farm activists wired up again so they can blow more of their ill feelings out. I personally hope that 2012 will be a great year for everyone. I do not waste my time in a panic about last year or even 2010…2009 etc…it’s GONE people let it go. Focus on the present time and please for your health…stop blaming everything on the windmills.
True enough. However, like it or not, Lincoln has become the “guinea pig” of the wind industry. If all the wind industry’s promises come true, the town’s residents should start singing high praises to First Wind as their lives and prospects improve dramatically. Time will tell, and everyone is watching to see how this plays out, as well they should.
No, you’re right, Let’s not pay any attention to, or learn from our past mistakes. Just dismiss them and move on. Very intelligent viewpoint there fenchiemom. It’s people with attitudes similar to yours that were responsible for this project being built in the first place. Everything that’s happened, or rather, everything that HASN’T happened was very, very predictable based on the quantifiable evidence left behind by these type projects, and this developer in particular in Hawaii, New York, and other places. Like they say, a skunk can’t change his stripes.
They are here, stop complaining. If Lincoln messed up so be it. All your reports will not take FW away. If it fails everyone will remember that you told us so. Stop beating a dead horse, it is over with and done. Not everyone cares how smart you anti wind people are or think you are.
Blah Blah Blah……………..
Very intelligent response – I should have expected it from you.
I guess you missed the central point of this article and the comments entirely “frenchie mom”, it’s not about the wind mills per se in this article, it’s about all the lies that both the developer and your planning board made about all the riches and development that would come as a result of the turbine project. They traded the future of your tourism business, your property values (high view and lakefront properties) and the whole asthetic value of the area for a 6 month project that employed just a hand full of locals and even fewer long term jobs, and is producing just a smidgeon of power. But don’t worry, there were 4-5 people that made lots of money on this project, the same few that make lots of money on most every project in this area.
Lincoln touted many new high paying jobs and amazing trickle down economics, from the big wind development, to create a flourishing bountiful town.
The planning board chose to break the laws of the town, to railroad the citizens that cried for more time to build knowledge before throwing away the primary attraction of the area.
This is a planning board that is supposed to uphold the town ordinances, not abandon them at their convenience. The town council and the planning board of Lincoln exhibited government at it’s worst. A local government that uses back room politics to get around what is good and right, a government that allows itself to be seduced by big money and promises, a government that allows lobbyists and self serving “researchers” to provide the “data” on which the biggest decisions were made.
Who are you? What have you done.
I hope you are ashamed every time you drive by each and every one of those industrial erections towering above what used to be a wonderful place that welcomed every one of us to town.
You sold us down the river. You did nothing for the economy. Shame on you and the lies you told.
Lincoln is screwed.
And the ugly strip that keeps expanding closer towards I-95 will eventually kill the downtown.
You know, everyone is entitled to their opinions, just as I am. I’m probably naive, unobservant, and am not as on top of things as I should be but I never even noticed the windmills until this past fall and only then when someone mention the fact that the windmills could be seen across the lake. I currently live on the lake in Lincoln and don’t even notice them. Oh well, you can’t please everyone and no matter what the issue, someone is going to complain.
If you didn’t hear the blasting that echoed across town, if you didn’t notice the turbines going up then you are both deaf and blind to the biggest scam I have ever seen in my long life. What you write exemplifies the problem we have with “sheep”le just not noticing how corrupt things are and how the thieves from out of state must laugh every time they exploit places like Lincoln, Lee, Winn & Burlington. These icons to greed and “greenwashing” stick out as eyesores, my blind and deaf friend!
Wow, 40 story tall turbines and you never saw them until some one pointed them out to you … perhaps it’s time for new glasses?
Remember they are 7 or 8 miles from Lincoln, when you pull into town, with the naked eye they look very small. With your fake pictures on high zoom, it makes them look like they are right on top of town. I ride by them every day, and once in a while we stop by FW’s main road. Guess what can’t hear them. Maybe it’s from all the bats making noises when they bounce off the blades.
a movie called WINDFALL will be showing throughout the state soon. I wish everyone in Maine had seen this movie. You will see the masterplan and realize the small man does not count.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87TGW9eLAtU
I think town fathers may see how they were taken by GRID scale WIND and the promises made.
Hawaii wants to know where the First Wind benefit are, too.
News reports on First Wind operations in Hawaii “Kahuku”:
Hawaii Wind Developer tied to Largest-ever asset seizure by anti-Mafia police
http://hawaiifreepress.com/main/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/4008/Hawaii-Wind-Developer-tied-to-Largestever-asset-seizure-by-antiMafia-police.aspx
Confidential Memo: Wind Turbine Model Installed at Kahuku has Structural Problems
http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/5604/Confidential-Memo-Wind-Turbine-Model-Installed-at-Kahuku-has-Structural-Problems.aspx
Mafia-Connected FirstWind Got $117M in Federal Loans for Kahuku Windfarm
http://hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/5440/MafiaConnected-FirstWind-Got-117M-in-Federal-Loans-for-Kahuku-Windfarm.aspx
Lawsuit targets “Illegal” $117M Federal Loan Guarantee for Kahuku Windfarm
http://hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/5597/Lawsuit-targets-Illegal-117M-Federal-Loan-Guarantee-for-Kahuku-Windfarm.aspx
Hawaii Windfarms killing endangered Birds: After five years Mitigation Lagshttp://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/4141/Hawaii-Windfarms-killing-endangered-Birds-After-five-years-Mitigation-Lags.aspx
Crony capitalism in Massachusetts and First Wind have not escaped the critical attention of the US House of Representatives Chairman of the House Budget Committee:
CHAIRMAN PAUL RYAN HOUSE BUDGET COMMITTEE
‘THE EMPTY PROMISE OF GREEN JOBS’
“THE COSTLY CONSEQUENCES OF CRONY CAPITALISM”September 22, 2011
http://budget.house.gov/UploadedFiles/GreenJobs9222011.pdf
excerpt from Chairman Ryan’s Report:
First Wind Holdings, received a $117 million loan guarantee in March of 2010. First Wind withdrew its initial public offering in October of 2010, due to a lack of investor demand. 11 According to the Boston Globe, investors shied away from the company because “First Wind owes more than $500 million, loses money on a steady basis, and reports a negative cash flow.”12 [cut]
I guess the point of this article was not to get you Blow hards going again but to point out there are still people interested in doing business in Lincoln. Times are hard and Lincoln is no different than any other town. The economy is “BAD” no matter if you have Wind Mills or not. I’m glad that the extra money gained from the Windmills is being put towards much needed projects. Taxes were not raised, and several items the Town of Lincoln has needed were done. Let it go you.
Yup Forest Gump said it right, and it sure applies to some in Lincoln, particularly the self -servers in municipal government.
“Stupid is as Stupid Does”
If you are from Lincoln, you have somes reasons to whine. If you aren’t from Lincoln, it is none of your concern. Who cares what you think or say. I’m from Lincoln and the windmills do not bother me one bit. Remember we live in a town where we have one main industry. Anything extra could be all gravy