To the editor:
The Oakfield wind farm turbines have been visible to most people with camps and homes on Drew’s Lake for a several weeks now. We live on the South Shore, and from our camp we only see 10 turbines on Sam Drew Mountain and parts of about five more behind the western shore of the lake. From the middle of the lake, we can see 24 of them. Many have very visible red lights flashing in unison at night.
People with camps on the North Shore probably see most of those 24 we can see from the middle of the lake.
While I like the idea of using “free” wind to generate electricity, I have decided, after the fact, that I don’t like it that we Linneus residents, and other affected residents of towns around Oakfield, are getting no immediate benefit from the turbines, only immediate disruption of what was once a fairly unspoiled view.
People in southern Aroostook don’t have a lot of money, but we have a lot of beautiful scenery, peace, and quiet, that make up for that, at least a little. It is sad that the wealthier parts of New England are demanding and getting resources that take away from us our most valuable asset: the simple, inexpensive pleasure of looking at our natural surroundings . The turbines haven’t started turning for real yet, so we don’t know if we will have our quiet disrupted also.
I remember arriving in Aroostook County almost 45 years ago and having a small business owner say, “I’ll use you good” or people saying about a local business, “They used me right.” And it was true: we got good services and products at a fair price. We still do. However, I am beginning to think that First Wind, or whatever mega-company now owns it, has simply “used” us.
If First Wind decides they want to “use us good,” maybe they should compensate us for our loss by supplying some of that green electricity to us at a reduced rate, say the cost we now pay for the power offered through Houlton Water Company, a reasonable 7 cents or so per KWH, instead of sending it all to Massachusetts or Connecticut.
If this and other wind power projects really do reduce the amount of greenhouse gases caused by coal and oil burning to generate electricity, that might take a bit of the sting out of having to look at the turbines instead of at regular, unspoiled, tree-covered hilltops. We should have spoken up earlier, but I don’t think we realized how big these “environmentally-friendly” turbines would loom on the horizon. And, if we have to look at them and live with them, shouldn’t we get some of the power they generate?
Michael Fasulo
Linneus
