Questions about wind turbines or tax increment financing did not appear anywhere on the warrant Saturday, but a pair of ongoing lawsuits relating to the Beaver Ridge wind development affected discussion of the town's budget for legal services. Last year, Freedom appropriated $25,000 for legal fees and spent $18,000 on the two ongoing lawsuits. This year the budget committee again recommended setting aside $25,000.

About 90 voters in Montville followed suit with Thorndike at town meeting Saturday, March 28, at the Montville Town House, and enacted a six-month moratorium on wind development projects. The issue of potential wind power developments stirred a lengthy discussion. Article 11 asked voters to enact an ordinance titled "Moratorium on Wind Power Development for the Municipality of Montville." According to the draft ordinance, which was included in the town report, the moratorium would target large-scale commercial wind developments.

Townspeople came within a single vote last week of joining the small but growing number of communities statewide that want no wind power developments within their borders for 180 days, Town Manager Donald Guimond said Monday. The article banning wind farm applications or wind farms in town for six months failed in a 45-45 vote by secret ballot during a town meeting.

Another wind energy project for a mountain in Maine may be in the works. A subsidiary of TransCanada Corp. has submitted an application to gather wind and weather data on Sisk Mountain by installing up to four meteorological poles there, state regulators said Wednesday. The 3,245-foot mountain in far northern Franklin County spans portions of Chain of Ponds Township and Kibby Township in the Boundary Mountains and is not far from the border with Quebec Province.

Weighing in were Dr. Albert Aniel, an internist at Rumford Community Hospital, Dr. Michael Nissenbaum, a radiologist at Northern Maine Medical Center, former Gov. Angus King, a partner in Independence Wind and Dr. Dora Ann Mills, director of the Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state's chief medical officer. Aniel and Nissenbaum would like the state to place a moratorium on future wind projects until more research on the effects of turbines on people can be gathered and analyzed.

A recent federal ruling that rejected 13 of 22 proposed wind turbines in Roxbury because of height restrictions was based on incorrect information, after all. As of March 18, the Air Traffic Airspace Branch of the Federal Aviation Administration reversed its Jan. 29 rulings by determining that the 13 turbines will pose no hazards to air traffic.

Saint John-based Irving Oil Ltd. is studying the potential construction of a 500- to 600-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant to sell into the energy-hungry New England market. The project was revealed as New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham and Maine Gov. John Baldacci were in Saint John announcing their governments' intention to explore the development of an energy corridor to move electricity and natural gas between the Maritimes and New England.

A consulting firm will propose a tax-increment financing zone for representing Beaver Ridge Wind during a meeting tonight. Selectman Ron Price said Tuesday that the select board and the public alike will be able to comment on the proposals. The meeting in the basement of the Freedom Congregational Church begins at 6. Price said that Eaton Peabody of Augusta has put together TIF plans on behalf of the town.

Selectmen Monday night approved putting 10 proposed ordinances on the May warrant, including a town wind power ordinance and significant changes to the town's growth ordinance. Few residents spoke at the second and final public hearing on the proposals, and most who did spoke about the wind ordinance. The ordinance will allow small wind turbines in all base zones in town, except in historic district or wetlands areas. Power output will be 20 kilowatts maximum, except for those on municipal lots of more than five acres. In that case, a 50 kilowatt turbine could be built.

Voters approved a six-month moratorium on development of wind turbines. The moratorium is aimed at collecting more information, upgrading existing land use ordinances and addressing environmental, land-impact and tax issues regarding commercial electricity-producing turbines.

This small Franklin County town is the latest site for possible wind turbine development. If constructed, the project would more than double the valuation of the town. Todd Presson, chief operating officer for Patriot Renewables, a Quincy, Mass.-based company, said at least 12 turbines capable of producing about one-and-a-half megawatts each, are in the early planning stages.

Sixteen residents crowded into the tiny Freedom Town Office for the most recent meeting of the Board of Selectors after word circulated that Selectman Ronald Price, who owns the land under the turbines, had called a special meeting with representatives of Eaton Peabody, a law firm hired by Competitive Energy Services, the parent company of wind developer Beaver Ridge Wind. The meeting was on the subject of establishing Tax Increment Financing (TIF) for the turbines.

Lawmakers heard hours of often emotional testimony Thursday on bills that highlight growing tensions over the use of Maine's abundant wind and water resources. Much of the debate focused on the roles municipalities and local residents play when wind-energy companies and water bottlers come to town. Dozens of people turned out to oppose a controversial and short-lived proposal that aimed to speed up development of industrial-scale wind power by limiting municipalities' ability to control where massive turbines are located.

With the Town Council's first try at negotiating a 20-year tax break for First Wind of Massachusetts essentially dead due to a deadlocked 3-3 council vote on March 9, councilors will meet Monday to resume talks with the wind- power proponent, officials said Thursday. The executive session is the meeting's sole purpose. No council votes are expected, Chairman Steve Clay said.

The final sections of a crane that will erect 410-foot windmills began arriving Tuesday at Kibby Mountain in western Maine, where New England's largest wind farm is scheduled to be completed next year. Last September, Canadian energy company TransCanada Corp. began construction on the $320 million project that will power up to 50,000 single-family homes.

One of two wind-power developers behind a proposed local project said Wednesday he was baffled by a recent federal ruling that rejected 13 of 22 turbines because of height restrictions. However, Record Hill Wind LLC Principal Rob Gardiner said he didn't believe the Federal Aviation Administration ruling would hinder the $120 million project. "We are treating this seriously because this is a federal agency," Gardiner said.

Dr. Albert Aniel will share his concerns about health risks associated with wind turbines with selectmen when they meet at 7 p.m. Thursday in the municipal building auditorium. Interim Town Manager Len Greaney said Wednesday that Aniel asked to be placed on the agenda to share issues he broached at a Feb. 18 Maine Department of Environmental Protection hearing on a proposed Roxbury wind power project.

The best route as recommended by MDOT, she said, would require the 182 annual over-sized loads to take Route 1 to Route 3, bypassing the low High Street and Waldo Avenue underpasses by traveling in the wrong direction up the on-ramp to High Street, across Field Street and down the off-ramp at Waldo Avenue. To accommodate the unusual route, Sewall Co. was asking to cut down three trees ...

The proposed $60 million Stetson II wind farm in Washington County earned its final state permit Wednesday after proponents made their strongest statements yet dismissing health concerns associated with wind power. ... Held at the Spectacular Event Center on Griffin Road, the three-hour meeting drew more than 40 people, including several who oppose First Wind’s 28-turbine Mars Hill facility and its proposed 40-turbine Rollins Mountain project on ridgelines in Burlington, Lee, Lincoln and Winn.

Staff at the Land Use Regulation Commission is endorsing a 17-turbine wind power facility in northern Washington County near the town of Danforth. The project by First Wind of Massachusetts would be an expansion of the company's 38-turbine Stetson Mountain wind energy facility that began commercial operations earlier this year. Stetson II, as the new project is called, would be built in T8 R4 on Owl and Jimmey mountains north of Route 169. Commissioners will take up the LURC staff recommendation this Wednesday.