Falmouth Taxes & Wind Turbine RFP Due By May 1, 2019

Everybody is still making money even two years after turbines are shut down and taxpayers keep their heads buried in the sand.

The two Falmouth town-owned wind turbines were shut down in June 2017, after Barnstable County Superior Court Judge Cornelius J. Moriarty II and Appeals Court upheld the zoning board of appeals' decision the turbines are a nuisance.

Taxpayers are paying for a laundry list of expensive items.:

Parasitic electric power going into the turbines for airplane warning lights, heat, AC, batteries, computers all things any massive power plant needs.

A maintenance plan changes the oil in gearboxes and conduct borescope inspections on gears.

An insurance policy.

Ongoing engineering services first to evaluate moving the turbines and now engineering services and legal fees to sell the 110-decibel wind turbines.

The town borrowed $4,865,000 from the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust through American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) for the construct of Wind 2. ARRA funds do not allow a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety related to the implementation or use of covered funds"

The loan agreement states the town would not owe principal or interest as long as Wind 2 remains in operation. The turbines have not operated for almost two years.

In January of 2019, the Falmouth Select Board unanimously voted to direct Town Manager Julian Suso and Town Counsel Frank Duffy to prepare three requests for proposals (RFPs) to either sell the turbines or move them out of town.

In March Falmouth Town Administrator Julian Suso updated wind turbine plans and expected to have a final plan for the turbines ready to issue by April.

State regulations require municipalities to include all specifications in Request for Proposals which would include the Vestas warning the turbines do generate 110 decibels of chest pounding noise.

"The Town has previously been provided with the Octave Band Data / Sound performance for the V82 turbine. This shows that the turbine normally operates at 103.2dB but the manufacturer has also stated that it may produce up to 110dB under certain circumstances."

Face it, the way things are now if your town bought a commercial wind turbine, you’re getting screwed and you will continue to get screwed. This is another way of the state saying: "the beatings will continue until morale improves”

Time to get off the couch and vote.