Falmouth Town Meeting Bamboozled Wind Turbine II Loan

A rare Falmouth Special Town Meeting was convened in June 2009 to consider using America Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to build a second town-owned wind turbine. The meeting was held because of deadlines in applying for the ARRA funds.

At the time federal grants were being given out to shovel ready projects at Wastewater Treatment Plants around the state of Massachusetts for renewable energy projects. Everybody thought they were getting a free wind turbine or so it seemed a free lunch.

Watching the video below it appears the town officials thought the money to build the turbine was a grant and conveyed those thoughts to town meeting members who in turn voted yes to all three articles.

Town officials gave a long involved PowerPoint presentation reflecting the actual articles number 1, 2, and 3. Except for a "Blue Piece of Paper" handed out just prior to the Special Town Meeting. The paper was two-sided and reflected changes in the advertised articles prior to the meeting. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection asked for the change in the articles resulting in the blue paper handout. No one asked why MassDEP required the change or which side of the paper was the correct side. (see video)

These same officials left out one small detail to town meeting members. Falmouth Wind II had to remain an energy-efficient project or the 5 million has to be paid back with 2 percent interest. In other words, the turbine could not break down or be taken out of service for any reason for the length of the financing. (not in video)

Town Meeting Members were never told the loan agreement was brokered between the lenders Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Massachusetts Clean Water Trust and Massachusetts State Revolving Fund, and the debtor Town of Falmouth.

The Town of Falmouth and neighbors in 2012 spent one year conducting the Falmouth Wind Turbine Option Analysis Process (WTOP) overseen by the Consensus Building Institute (CBI) to resolve noise and shadow flicker problems.

At a September 12, 2012 WTOP meeting a participant asked the Falmouth Town Manager, about the status of the Wind II grant .. The manager three years after the 2009 Falmouth Special Town Meeting stated that the Town doesn't have a clear answer. He explained that there are a series of possibilities, none of which is definitive.

( The WTOP-CBI September 12, 2012 video tape was lost never seen on local Falmouth Cable TV). The public has never been told the tape was "lost."

The Town of Falmouth owes the remainder of the 5 million ARRA financing plus 2 percent as the courts closed the wind turbines in June of 2017.

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FALMOUTH OWES THE 5 MILLION STATE MEETING:

MEETING OF THE MASSACHUSETTS CLEAN WATER TRUST BOARD OF TRUSTEE

June , 2017

State House Room 227 Boston, Massachusetts

CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order by Treasurer Goldberg at 1:35 p.m.

Item #2 REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Ms. Perez reported to the Board on the situation in Falmouth. The Barnstable Superior Court handed down a decision that stopped the operation of both Wind I and Wind II.

The Trust notified the Town in April of 2013 that if the Trust financed Wind II turbine ceased operating as an energy efficient project the Town would not be given principal forgiveness on the $4,865,000 original principal amount of its loan.

The Board discussed options for assisting the Town following this court decision:

(1) begin paying back the loan at 2% pursuant to the original Schedule C;

(2) begin paying back the loan at 2%, but with a credit for the years that Wind II did operate as an energy-efficient project;

(3) make the loan a zero-percent loan, also with a credit for the seven years that Wind II did operate and re-amortize the loan to reduce debt service per payment period; and

(4) forgive the loan.

The Board agreed that the loan cannot be forgiven. Link

https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2017/10/12/06212017-board-meeting-minutes.pdf

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VIDEO FALMOUTH SPECIAL TOWN MEETING JUNE 2009 --WIND II LOAN

Falmouth Special Town Meeting June, 2009 Meeting Starts after 14 minutes of advertising

This was left out of the June 2009 Falmouth Special Town Meeting:

"Wind II is subject to specific provisions of ARRA and applicable federal regulations and guidelines ("Federal Law') in addition to the terms and conditions of the MassDEP Project Regulatory Agreement ("PRA") and the Loan Agreement associated with the funding of Wind II, Under Federal Law and the PRA and Loan Agreement, the Town must maintain Wind II as an "energy efficiency" project, as described in EPA guidelines dated March 2, 2009, in order to benefit from the financial subsidy provided by the Trust under ARRA and the Trust's Clean Water State Revolving Fund program."

The Wind Turbine II money was a loan !WHY DID THEY LEAVE THIS OUT? Advertising first 14 minutes