Roxbury News

ROXBURY a ' The Maine Board of Environmental Protection on Thursday will consider a petition from Concerned Citizens to Save Roxbury and other appellants who want to halt development of a $120 million wind farm atop Roxbury peaks.

Residents at Tuesday night's Roxbury Board of Selectmen meeting learned that town officials will soon replace the worn planks on this bridge over the outlet of Roxbury Pond.

DIXFIELD a ' Selectmen on Monday unanimously authorized Town Manager Eugene Skibitsky to sign a letter of agreement with a consulting firm that would provide information on tax incentive financing for wind farm development.

ROXBURY a ' Owners of a wind-power company set to erect 22 turbines on local hills have decided to delay the project by a year because the energy market has fallen in the recession.A A Record Hill Wind LLC is building a $120 million wind farm along the 4-mile ridgeline that connects Partridge Peak, Record Hill and Flathead Mountain.

Two groups came to the State House on Monday to ask the state to slow down wind power development, which they say is gobbling up environmentally sensitive mountain ridges for questionable results.

RUMFORD a ' Despite a lack of proposed commercial wind power development projects in town, backers calling for a 180-day moratorium on such projects still believe the action is warranted.

RUMFORD, Maine a ' A wind-power company says a western Maine site it's been looking at is too windy for turbines.

Steve Thurston, a summer resident of Roxbury, decribes what he believes would be the noise impact of a wind farm on a ridge in Dixfield and Canton at a forum in Dixfield on Friday night.

HIGHLAND PLANTATION a ' A $250 million project to erect 48 wind turbines on four peaks in Somerset County was outlined at a meeting of about 30 people Thursday night.

At Tuesday night's nearly two-hour informational meeting, about 70 people learned that blasting begins Wednesday morning on Record Hill Wind LLC 's $120 million, 22-turbine wind farm project.

" With dozens of wind turbines proposed in a half-dozen towns in various stages of planning, the Wind Farm Development Committee of Rumford is planning a panel discussion on the pros and cons of such development.

"You begin to feel like you're being used," a long-time Maine Audubon supporter and state legislator told me about the wind power movement in Maine.

A citizens group is contesting last month's state approval of a significant wind energy project near Rumford, citing, among other things, the potential health effects of noise from the turbines.

ROXBURY a ' Opponents of a wind farm project approved last month by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection are appealing that final order.

Gov. John Baldacci is heading to Spain, Germany and Norway this week on a wind power trade mission.

Rumford-area Lithuanian Heritage Club members Julie Koris, left, Christine St. Cyr and Barbara Arsenault, all of Rumford, show off the traditional Lithuanian meal of kielbase, potato-based kugelis, beet salad, rye bread and sauerkraut, which they served at the first annual old-fashioned Lithuanian-style picnic on Saturday at the Mountain View ...

As Roxbury Selectman Deborah DeRoche, center, takes notes, Selectmen Mike Worthley, right, and Chairman John Sutton listen to Floodplain Management Program planner Brigitte Ndikum-Nyada of the Maine State Planning Office explain how Roxbury can get back into the National Flood Insurance Program.

So you want to run a business that generates electricity from wind and then supply that energy to the power grid? You will need an abiding love of the environment, the patience and temerity to slog through months or years of local, state and federal regulations, and money.

DIXFIELD a ' Plans for a wind farm atop Colonel Holman Mountain drew a handful of opponents to to the selectmen's meeting Monday night.

I am sickened and astonished that the beautiful, pristine Western Maine mountains may soon be a thing of the past a ' a victim of the wind rush.