A nearly two-year wait for people in this part of the Northeast Kingdom to find out whether an industrial wind project may take root here may be over soon. On Jan. 13 at 6 p.m., the Board of Governors of the Unified Towns and Gores will announce the results of a recent ballot of property owners in the UTGs, asking them their stance on a proposed wind project. The confidential, sealed ballot responses have been kept under lock and key since they were due to be postmarked by Dec. 12 and returned.
A nearly two-year wait for people in this part of the Northeast Kingdom to find out whether an industrial wind project may take root here may be over soon. On Jan. 13 at 6 p.m., the Board of Governors of the Unified Towns and Gores will announce the results of a recent ballot of property owners in the UTGs, asking them their stance on a proposed wind project. The confidential, sealed ballot responses have been kept under lock and key since they were due to be postmarked by Dec. 12 and returned.
FERDINAND -- A nearly two-year wait for people in this part of the Northeast Kingdom to find out whether an industrial wind project may take root here may be over soon.
On Jan. 13 at 6 p.m., the Board of Governors of the Unified Towns and Gores will announce the results of a recent ballot of property owners in the UTGs, asking them their stance on a proposed wind project.
The confidential, sealed ballot responses have been kept under lock and key since they were due to be postmarked by Dec. 12 and returned.
At 4 p.m. on Jan. 13, two hours before the scheduled UTG Board meeting, the ballots will be counted in private. Only one representative from the developers, Seneca Mountain Wind, LLC, and one representative of groups against the …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]FERDINAND -- A nearly two-year wait for people in this part of the Northeast Kingdom to find out whether an industrial wind project may take root here may be over soon.
On Jan. 13 at 6 p.m., the Board of Governors of the Unified Towns and Gores will announce the results of a recent ballot of property owners in the UTGs, asking them their stance on a proposed wind project.
The confidential, sealed ballot responses have been kept under lock and key since they were due to be postmarked by Dec. 12 and returned.
At 4 p.m. on Jan. 13, two hours before the scheduled UTG Board meeting, the ballots will be counted in private. Only one representative from the developers, Seneca Mountain Wind, LLC, and one representative of groups against the project will be allowed to witness the counting of the ballots.
According to the UTG office staff, a total of 282 ballots was received by one week after the postmarked deadline, and that was believed to be the final count of ballots. Eolian/Seneca Mountain Wind have stated for the record that if any community votes against hosting their project, they will pack their bags.
The project was initially larger by about one-third, and envisioned to span from Newark to Brighton to Ferdinand, but now is scaled back and proposed only for the Town of Ferdinand.
On Jan. 13, when the ballots are counted at the UTG office, it is expected the doors will be locked after hours.
At the most recent meeting of the UTG Board, Chair Barb Nolan "told everyone that the ballots would be open two hours before the 1/13/14 meeting," note the minutes.
One of the three citizen-led groups fighting the project, Save Our Senecas, has been conducting a phone poll of UTG property owners leading up to the ballot count. Pam Arborio, a founding SOS member, and the president of Brighton Ridge Protectors, said, "...personally not one person I spoke with mentioned the money offered (to property owners) in a positive way, but spoke of 'how can you put a price on destroying our mountains?'."
"Another fact people contacted were unaware of was Eolian paid for the mailing, not the UTG and, regardless of the outcome, this project will still have to face the Planning Commission," stated Arborio. "Overall, one comment (of polled UTG property owners) was consistent, we live or moved here for the peace and beauty of the mountains, the wildlife and untouched ridgelines, never logged, with trees and bogs hundreds of years old, rare ecological areas."
John Soininen, Eolian/Seneca Mountain Wind VP, said, "SMW has spoken to many property owners in the UTG and there is very clear and significant support for wind energy. The UTG cast a favorable straw poll ballot in 2012 at their annual meeting and we continue to hear from many people, resident and non-resident UTG landowners, who are in support of our efforts. Once we see the results from the poll in January, obviously we will all know more."