Falmouth: Officials 7 Years Later Unaware How Turbines Were Financed ?

In April of 2010, the Town of Falmouth put into operation its first enormous industrial scale wind turbine larger than a 747 just over 1000 feet from residential homes. The turbine is a foreign made Vestas V-82 type 1.65 megawatt wind turbine.

General Electric a domestic wind turbine company refused to place a smaller turbine in Falmouth due to residential setbacks and ice throw to a nearby highway

Neighbors immediately complained about headaches, shortness of breath, sensitivity to sounds and heart palpitations.

More than 45 Falmouth neighbors of the turbines complained to the town's Board of Selectmen and Board of Health. Besides the noise described as pressure or infrasound the shadow flicker from the sun through the blades turned several homes into what was described as a Disco.

By the end of April 2010, the Town of Falmouth got an EPA federal waiver to buy another foreign made wind turbine under the Buy American requirements of the ARRA act. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 requires buying American products unless there are no domestic products available. The EPA waiver was granted despite General Electric refusing to build one small wind turbine.

In 2013 a town wide election was conducted to take down the turbines. The town voted by a margin of 2 to 1 not to take down the turbines. Later after the election through Freedom of Information Act requests and up to eleven ongoing court cases, it was disclosed the town hid negative safety information that showed how health would be affected by the turbines.

The town had a letter the turbines generate a chest pounding 110 decibels of noise, a map showing over 50 decibels of noise at local homes, emails from Vestas employees about noise, a memo from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center admitting "mistakes" in acoustic noise models prior to construction. On top of all this, the state agency dropped the warnings of two distinct types of noise one measured in decibels called regulatory and the other human annoyance or what is low-frequency infra sound.

The Massachusetts Superior Courts have shut down the turbines

The last chapter after the town hid all the negative noise documentation the town now doesn't know how the turbines were financed!

In 2012 negotiations were held for over a year through the Falmouth Wind Turbine Options Analysis Process (WTOP) to engage in an open, transparent, and collaborative exploration of the range of .options for the noise from the turbines. The cost to state taxpayers was $139,000.00

A participant in the negotiation process asked Julian Suso, Town Manager, about the status of the Wind II ARRA stimulus fund grant at the September 12, 2012, WTOP-CBI meeting.

Julian stated that the Town doesn’t have a clear answer. He explained that there are a series of possibilities, none of which is definitive.

That financial question was posted over four years ago and the town still has no answer?

In June of 2009 prior to the construction of Falmouth Wind II a Special Town Meeting was held in order to obtain American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 stimulus funds to build the second turbine

The Special Town Meeting had three articles in which if you watch the video below it appears to Town Meeting Members through visual aids they may have been getting up to 8 million dollars in grants. At one point they all clapped.

It appears this Special Town Meeting was just another in a string of disastrously mishandled undertakings.

Special Note # During the 2009 Town Meeting a Blue piece of paper was given out as a hand out. The paper had two different stories on each side -today its unclear what was on each side of the Blue piece of paper ! Which side did Town Meeting vote for ?

At the end of the video if you look at article three the town borrowed ( 5 ) five million dollars to build Falmouth Wind II

The question today is where is the grant money and why were the Town Meeting Members clapping if they thought they were borrowing 5 million dollars ?

The video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8LFk6JbxhU

Falmouth Special Town Meeting June , 2009

FalmouthCommunityTV

Falmouth Special Town Meeting June , 2009.
The question that should be asked is if Falmouth Town Meeting Members June 2009 7:00 p.m. Special Town Meeting thought they were voting for a grant or a loan for Falmouth Wind II -
Did the power point presentation reflect the actual article? :

Article 3 Provide funding for Articles 1 and 2

Page 25 : This is the actual article Falmouth Town Meeting Members approved :

CHAIRMAN ANDERSON: Mr. Moderator, I move that the Town vote to appropriate the sum of $5 million for the purpose of designing and installing wind or solar powered photovoltaic energy facilities at the Wastewater Treatment Facility or at the Long Pond Pumping Station, or at either or both of them, and further that the Town Treasurer, with the approval of the Board of Selectmen, is authorized to borrow said sum under the provisions of General Law Chapter 44, paragraph 7, sub 3b, or any other enabling authority, including borrowing from the commonwealth's Water Pollution Abatement Trust, the so-called state Revolving Fund, and to issue bonds and notes of the Town therefore, and further to authorize the Board of Selectmen to enter into any agreements and to execute any and all documents it deems advantageous on behalf of the Town for partial or full reimbursement of the costs associated therewith, or forgiveness of indebtedness incurred, therefore, and to apply for and accept grants under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, said sums to be expended under the jurisdiction of the Board of Selectmen for the purposes of Article 2.
PDF June 29, 2009 Minutes - Town of Falmouth
www.falmouthmass.us/DocumentCenter/Home/View/2606
www.falmouthmass.us/DocumentCenter/Home/View/2606
falmouthmass.us
Votes of Special Town Meeting June 29, 2009

1. June 29, 2009 Minutes

Where is the grant money ?