Health & Fitness
Fitting Round Pegs into Square Holes
Falmouth continues to evolve as a likely case study for what not to do regarding mis-sited industrial wind turbines.
Selectmen have recognized the poor siting problem created by the Town’s industrial wind turbines. They’ve identified that the health of the community is at risk. They’ve affirmed that Falmouth is being torn apart. To ‘fix’ the problem, Selectmen encouraged Citizens in May, to vote for a budget resolution to bring closure to the Community's problem. The Voters decisively declined and now the problem lingers.
Selectmen must grapple with the wind turbine’s impact to the Town budget. The 12 hour ‘sleep protection plan’ adopted in May 2012 has had the forecasted financial implications. As expected, the projections account for a $140K+ annual deficit, challenging the Board’s fiduciary responsibility.
Our Town Leaders have a Civics 101 test before them. Whether to protect resident taxpayer’s normal sleep periods or to protect a major municipal investment’s solvency.
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The August 26th Board of Health meeting provides a good glimpse of how disconnected Selectmen have become. It was on this night that a Citizen of our Community had to be the responsible party to point out to the Board of Health that Selectmen are considering night time wind turbine operations.
More disturbingly, the Board of Health acknowledged that they had not been consulted, EVEN AFTER their offer of assistance to Selectmen in June (maybe Town Staff didn't correlate sleep deprivation as a pressing issue, so why would assistance be required from the Board of Health?When a Citizen brought forward this fact, I was heartened to hear the Board of Health declare that they did not consider the data presented to Selectmen to be complete. Certainly, the serious consideration suggested by the Board of Health requires a wider scope of interest. The decision, from an “incomplete” report, the Town Staff urges Selectmen to implemented by October 1, is obviously flawed.
Find out what's happening in Falmouthwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
One of the guiding princples of Civics 101 is that good decisions are only as good as the information used to make Them.
Clearly, an abundance of “sleep study" information exists, warranting prudent avoidance of turbine operations affording residents a sleep period of less than 8 hours. Too many failed tests have riddled Falmouth’s decision making history. It’s time Selectmen “bone-up” on all the information for this one.
