The fate of a proposed wind tower project for Roxbury will be at stake at a special town meeting this June.

Several citizens pressed the selectmen to have the special town meeting as soon as possible at a selectmen's meeting on May 8. On March 27, the Concerned Citizens to Save Roxbury submitted a petition asking for a 180-day moratorium on the wind towers. The selectmen approved the petition on April 11.

One of the questions was whether the town meeting should be held within 60 days of when the selectmen approved the petition. Chairman Mark Touchette responded that state law allows for the petition article to be voted on either at the next warranted meeting or within 60 days of when the selectmen approved it.

Linda Kuras, of the Concerned Citizens to Save Roxbury, had presented the petition with 89 signatures of residents wishing to have the moratorium. "I asked Linda about dropping the moratorium," said Touchette. "We were going to redo the ordinance all the way through again."

"How can one or two people have the power to drop a moratorium that was signed by 89 people?" asked Cathy Taylor in disbelief. She also asked how the moratorium could be retroactive to the March 3 town meeting when it wasn't presented to selectmen until April.

Touchette stated that the Maine Municipal Association had informed the town that the petition dates were retroactive from the March 3 town meeting.

In correspondence with the selectmen, attorney Frank Underkuffler noted that the board had asked on April 24 that the moratorium bet withdrawn "due to alleged 'time restraints.'" He pointed out that selectmen had no legal justification for not allowing residents to vote on the moratorium ordinance within the length of time set by 30-A M.R.S.A. 2522.

Also, Underkuffler said that his clients felt that under the circumstances, a moratorium on the wind project would be the best option.

"A hasty and cosmetic effort to correct the legal deficiencies associated with the passage of Article 60 would not be appropriate," he wrote. "The moratorium is designed to be retroactive and if it were withdrawn, legal chaos could ensue if someone were to try to slip an application "into the pipeline" in reliance on the questionable validity of Article 60."

Voters had given Independence Wind, LLC, the go-ahead at the town meeting to construct a series of wind towers on a mountain ridge in town. The project is still in the developmental stages.

In a telephone interview Monday, one of the Independence Wind principals, Rob Gardiner, explained that the moratorium could be beneficial in allowing for more information to be shared about the wind project.

"We've decided this moratorium isn't a problem for us," he said. "The more people understand about wind power, the more comfortable people get with it. We think it's smart what the town is doing."

The wind tower moratorium will be put at the end of the special town meeting agenda. An article asking whether or not citizens wanted to approve the wind towers was also put at the end of the March town meeting warrant as well.

"That's not fair," protested Taylor, who pointed out that many citizens had to leave the March town meeting before the wind tower article was discussed due to the lateness of the hour.

"Yes, it is," said Touchette. "It's the selectmen's discretion as to where it goes and that's where it's going."

In the letter to selectmen, Underkuffler addressed the issue of holding a written ballot as an alternative to the special town meeting. He wrote that from what he had been informed, Roxbury has not adopted the secret ballot statute pursuant to 30-A M.R.S.A. 2528(1).

"Therefore, a written ballot referendum on the moratorium pursuant to 2528(5) is not possible," he concluded. "If we were to do the ordinance over again, I would push for the secret ballot," said Touchette.

Other articles on the special town meeting warrant will include raising $5,000 for the fire department to make up for a mistake in the March town meeting warrant that resulted in $5,000 less being raised than the selectmen had originally approved. Other items will be raising money for ballot clerks and electing one selectperson.

Resident Mark Henry recommended that the board include an article on the warrant that would raise funds for the town's legal expenses.

The town meeting will take place on June 17 at 6:30 p.m. at a site to be determined.

Roxbury's roads came through the winter surprisingly well, but there are still some trouble spots that need to be repaired. "We've got a lot of paving to do on the (Horseshoe) Valley Road over the culverts that were put in," said Touchette.

He noted that although the town had a lot of routine maintenance it needed to take care of, the work would need to hold off until later this summer when tax bills go out. A culvert will need to be replaced at Roxbury Pond, and a manhole was put in recently in the village.

The fire department will soon be flushing culverts in town. The old fire station at Roxbury Pond may be used in the future for storage of fire equipment. "It needs a lot of work," said Touchette. "I'm surprised it made it through the last winter."