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Falmouth Massachusetts A Wind Turbine Mortuary

Beacon Hill "Wink and Nod" No Pay Back On ARRA Loan

Falmouth Town Manager and Falmouth Select Board
Falmouth Town Manager and Falmouth Select Board (Image Credit : Falmouth Community TV )

The Falmouth town administration and elected officials are Town Manager Julian Suso, Select Board: Sam Patterson, Nancy Taylor, Doug Brown, Megan English Braga, and Doug Jones pictured above.

The Massachusetts courts after years of curtailments and eleven lawsuits and multiple appeals to those lawsuits shut down the Falmouth town-owned 1.65 megawatt 110-decibel wind turbines in June of 2017.

Since the installations of the wind turbines in 2010 and 2012 Falmouth public officials have demonstrated, time and again, in both word and deed, that their solution, and the Town of Falmouth's solution, is nothing more than to deny the extent of the noise and shadow flicker problem, express moderate sympathy — and do nothing but appeal every piece of litigation trying to outspend the wind victims in court.

Find out what's happening in Falmouthfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

Taxpayers appropriated funds are being designated to prevent the repayment of an ARRA loan on Falmouth Wind 2 the second town-owned wind turbine. The money should have been returned to the Massachusetts State Revolving Fund for other worthwhile green energy projects.

The Beacon Hill politicians push green energy projects but when it comes to the 5 million in ARRA funds that should have been paid back they give Falmouth officials the "wink and a nod" to use the money to run town affairs rather than give some other community green energy funds.

Find out what's happening in Falmouthfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

The SRF, state revolving fund issues funds through the Massachusetts Clean Water trust for worthwhile green energy municipal projects, and in this case state officials have failed the state initiative. Political favors apparently come before green energy.

These same officials continue to obfuscate the removal of the wind turbines despite Falmouth Town Meeting voting 2.5 million in November of 2019 to decommission the wind turbines.

In January of 2019, the Falmouth Select Board directed the town attorney an manager to issue an RFP, Request For Proposal to remove the turbines by at least three different methods. There is no Request For Proposal.

One Falmouth Select Board member after years of obfuscation suggested designing a so-called "business plan" to remove the turbines down the road.

The obfuscation appears to be to prevent paying back the 5 million dollar ARRA loan on Falmouth Wind 2.

Town Meeting Members still, by the way, have never been told the 5 million dollars in funding on Falmouth Wind 2 was a loan provided through the ARRA, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The town owes the balance as Falmouth Wind 2 is no longer energy efficient. It's long overdue time to pay up.

The Falmouth Building Commissioner determined by December 2017 that the town’s wind turbine, Wind 1, is a non-complying structure and needs to come down. The town continues to break its own zoning bylaws as they did when they installed the turbines.

Millions of dollars have been wasted by the town on outside law firms and engineering studies that stalled the shutdowns.

The Town of Falmouth despite written warnings from Vestas the foreign wind turbine manufacturer that the turbines were twice as loud as a General Electric domestic wind turbine went forward installing the turbines with no permits in 2010 and 2012. General Electric refused to place one wind turbine due to residential setbacks and ice throw to a nearby highway.

The two primitive gearbox driven turbines were designed in the late 1990s and assembled around 2004 from outsourced parts.

The average lifespan of a gear-driven wind turbine is 20 years and needs massive maintenance to reach twenty years.

Nationwide these type turbines are being hauled off to landfills where the seven-ton blades made of fiberglass can not be recycled. They call the blades man-made asbestos.

The Town of Falmouth Board of Selectmen, acting through the office of the Town Manager, in June of 2019 said they expected to issue an RFP regarding the wind turbines within 30 days. Now well over a year later the timetable for issuing this RFP is not finalized?

There are no state regulations or legislation that allows the Town of Falmouth to move the town-owned wind turbines to public or private property.

The turbines will probably be buried right at the Wastewater Treatment Plant at some date in the future. The state wind turbine mortuary.

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State of the Town: Falmouth Wind Turbine Update February 2018

Former Select Board Chair Susan Moran now Massachusetts State Representative Sue Moran

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meCC5XU-uzw

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?