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Last week the contractor, First Wind, got the permits for overweight and oversize trucks it needs from the town of Barton, where most of the Duck Pond Road route lies.
But after their third lengthy meeting with the village trustees Monday night, a bevy of First Wind officials went away empty handed once again.
They hope to get their village permits at the next trustees meeting, June 22.
The project's most determined opponents were joined for the first time Monday by a score of Duck Pond Road residents who live in the town, outside the village limits.
Several of them acknowledged that problem, but persisted with their questions.
"We voiced our opinion to the select board," said town resident Richard Clay. "It pretty much fell on deaf ears. I feel the rug has been pulled out from under us."
His questions were not actually for the trustees to answer, said Allen Adler, another town resident, "but I'm going to ask them anyway."
Mr. Adler wanted to know how he, at age 94, would get to his doctor's appointments if big pieces of the wind farm are moving up Duck Pond Road. And what about ambulances and firetrucks, Mr. Adler added. "If they're impeded, an emergency becomes a disaster."
That was exactly the issue that gave the trustees reason to worry about Duck Pond residents who live beyond the village limits, said Trustee Ellis Merchant.
"You guys are hitting us with all this resentment about the wind towers," he said. "The town gave these people the right to use their portion of the road. But it comes back to us again, because we've got to make sure you're safe if your house catches fire."
The Barton Fire Department is a part of village government, though it serves parts of Barton Town, and the Barton Ambulance is also organized on the village level. There was a lengthy, detailed discussion of whether the village's biggest fire truck could squeeze past the biggest pieces First Wind needs to move, a 14.5-foot-wide base for each tower.
First Wind representatives said the road is just wide enough at most points, and noted that it will create wider areas where the big loads can pull over at three points. Drivers who encounter the big loads could also pull over in some 40 driveways to let them pass, the company spokesmen said.
JoAnn Stefanski, an outspoken opponent of the project, wondered if residents could close the road to First Wind's trucks by posting all their property against trespass.
First Wind had brought along its lawyer, Andrew Raubvogel, and he seemed confident that the tactic would not work. The full public right of way of Duck Pond, at almost 50 feet, would leave drivers room to pull over at a driveway without trespassing, he said.
Ms. Stefanski objected to the fact that First Wind had met with Barton Fire Chief Paul Sicard.
"In my opinion the fire chief and you should have talked," she told the trustees. "Who knows what went on, and what was said between them?
There is a conflict of interest. His son is a contractor for First Wind." Jason Sicard said Tuesday that he has had "a working relationship" with First Wind for some time. Indeed, he said, he had worked with First
Wind before his father was elected fire chief at Barton's Village Meeting in March.
In May Jason Sicard objected when the town selectmen decided to award the job of preparing Duck Pond Road for the big trucks, at First Wind's expense, to an out-of-town contractor. "I was disappointed with the town's take on how to spread the work around," Jason Sicard said Tuesday.
Paul Sicard, the fire chief, arrived at Monday night's meeting after Ms. Stefanski's comment.
"I guess I'm a little confused," Mr. Sicard said Tuesday. "Where's the conflict? The only thing I'm dealing with is the emergency issues.
"How do I come up with a plan if I can't meet with the people who want to plan?" he asked.
"I'm very disappointed, that's for sure.
They're grasping at every straw they can," Paul Sicard said of the wind project's opponents.
At Monday's meeting, the fire chief listed several options, if the road proves too narrow.
Within the village limits, he said, a hose could be connected to a hydrant along Duck Pond Road to provide fire protection if the road is blocked. If the hydrant lacks sufficient pressure, he said, a portable pond could be filled and left ready for duty.
As for the town's portion of the road, Mr. Sicard said, one of the department's trucks could be stationed above the big trucks, and move ahead of it as it made its way toward Sheffield.
First Wind representative Josh Bagnato was quick to agree to pay for any firemen required for such duty.
When asked, he said First Wind would park any truck out of the way if a fire broke out on Duck Pond while a piece of turbine was being moved.
Mr. Bagnato, indeed, was quick to agree to any demand the trustees made - except the thing they really wanted, a $1-million bond to guarantee repair of any damage the big loads might do.
First Wind, Mr. Bagnato reiterated, has already agreed to repair any damage it does, including to water and sewer systems, and to repave the village portion of the road to the village's specifications.
That was also a condition of the certificate of public good issued to the project by the Public Service Board, Mr. Bagnato said. But the project's opponents brought a guest to Monday's meeting who challenged such promises. Annette Smith of Danby, Vermont, said she and a friend had visited a First Wind site in Cohocton, New York, near Binghamton. She said the developer left ruts in the back roads, buckled the paved roads, and had to go back to fix the large number of turbines that broke down.
"We both wanted to be in favor of wind," said Ms. Smith, who is executive director of Vermonters for a Clean Environment. "But we found a community that had been taken over. "Do everything possible to make sure your town is taken care of," she urged the trustees.
Mr. Bagnato replied that First Wind has already agreed to much tougher standards in Barton than it negotiated in Cohocton. Among them, he said, that there be no deliveries on weekends, state holidays or the prior day before holidays. Deliveries will be limited to daylight hours and barred, twice a day, when school buses are on the road.
On Monday he agreed that, with proper notice, the trustees could close the road to his trucks if the company failed to comply with its agreement. There was, however, one complaint for which neither First Wind nor the trustees had an answer - that Duck Pond Road might suffer too much improvement.
"It isn't only the width of the road that's going to change," warned resident Chris Lawson. "It's going to look like a superhighway." The village will have to hire a cop, he suggested, to handle the traffic between Sheffield and the Lake House Saloon.
The meeting was more than three hours old when the trustees sent the developers and their critics to continue their arguments out of earshot, and turned to other business. They agreed that the chamber of commerce could post a sign on the village common to advertise the June 27 Barton Area Village-wide Yard Sale. And they agreed that Sarah Elliott could serve a spaghetti dinner at the Barton Memorial Building on Thursday, June 11, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. to raise funds for the 2009 Relay for Life, a cancer benefit.
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