Fate of Wind Turbines in Hands of Falmouth Town Meeting Tonight

Falmouth Town Meeting will decide tonight whether or not to remove two 1.65MW industrial wind turbines sited close to residences.

Letter to the Editor: Board of Health Postpones Turbine Health Survey

Resident Mark Cool weighs in on the Board of Health's decision to delay a survey examining the health effects of wind turbines.

  Falmouth's community health plan: Do you cost too much to protect? Falmouth”s Board of Health decided Monday night to hold up the board’s survey examining the health effects of wind turbines.  This position is largely due to the board’s desire to ‘wait & see’ what decision Board of Selectmen may make tonight on the future of the town owned turbines. To wait for some hint to the direction Selectmen may choose isn’t unreasonable to me.   What will be unreasonable however, given the overwhelming community outcry defining this problem primarily as a health problem, is whether the Board of Health will allow the 'Health Solution' to become the responsibility of some other local government body (i.e. Selectmen, Town Meeting or Voter). If the …

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Turbine Recommendations on Hold

It will be a little longer before selectmen hear options developed by a turbine group working towards a compromise. New data has sent the group back to the drawing board.

The Falmouth Wind Turbine Options Analysis Process group was scheduled to present two options aimed at reducing turbine complaints to selectmen Tuesday night. The group postponed that meeting after receiving word that some numbers were calculated with faulty methodology, according to the Cape Cod Times. The new numbers could show that Wind One produces more power than experts thought, making it even more valuable to the town. The group plans to meet at Falmouth Public Library Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. to discuss the new data.

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Falmouth Resident Weighs in on Article 42

Falmouth resident Mark Cool wants Wind One and Wind Two shut down and is supporting Town Meeting Article 42.

The Town Warrant Article #42 received an indefinite postponement from Selectmen, because they await recommendations from board commissioned 'Wind Turbine Options Process' group.   As a Citizen, the American people, by and large, are a very resourceful people.  Falmouth is no exception.  The great majority of people here have individual initiative.  There are acceptions.  We all know who they are.  But over the years and through the problems, we have struggled through them.  Because we have initiative to solve problems. If there’s one thing, however, that I’ve found in my lifetime, that will quickly knock down the resourcefulness of an individual, that will absolutely bury individual initiative - it's Bureaucracy! You see bureaucrats think …

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Willis Montgomery III

10:25 am on Wednesday, November 14, 2012

This is classic. the nocebo effect! LOL. No one seems to mind the non power generating Harley Davidson Wind Turbines, built to make extra noise. Oh wait, that's the sound of 'merican freedom, so it's ok type noise.   more ›

Letter to the Editor: More Wind Work Necessary

Mark J. Cool weighs in on a proposed by-law to regulate future wind turbines in Falmouth.

The Planning Board (PB) and Staff are to be commened for their determination during the board’s eight month effort to revise the town’s Wind Turbine bylaw.  The new draft has many distinctly positive differences over the old.  And it continues to promote wind energy in our community.  It’s a good start! Contrasting ideals, however, were made clear at the October 9 PB meeting regarding ‘how’ best to institute protections. One way, strongly supported by commenters, is for clear and defined performance standards. This argument is driven by a need to prevent the current wind siting dilemma from ever resulting in any future such civic disruption.  Who knew, four years ago, that our present wind turbine debacle would have caused such community …

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Letter to the Editor

A Compromising Controversy

Thursday night’s Wind Turbine Option Analysis Process (WTOP) exposed my worst fear. Instead of focus toward resolving the central problem(s), the tenor of the WTOP group seems resigned to just “compromise.” Too many question go unanswered. Too little information has been uncovered. The group’s frustration is palpable after 12 meetings. The lack of essential resource information obstructs the group’s ability to make well informed decisions. And it seems, in this writer’s view, the unnecessary compromise of principles will be the unfortunate result presented to Selectmen. The option getting the most “play” is a plan allowing curtailed Wind Turbine operations with dwelling mediation (i.e. home/window/door insulation, white noise machines, …

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OPINION: Board of Health Hears Turbine Complaints Loud and Clear

Falmouth wind turbine neighbors called on the Board to shut down the machines before more harm is done, but the Board refused.

After an emotional plea from an unstable neighbor who has resorted to sleeping in her car to escape the turbine noise in her home and a tirade by a former candidate for Falmouth selectman, the Falmouth Board of Health heard clearly and calmly from affected wind turbine neighbors at last night’s meeting.  Board Chairwoman Gail Harkness, an epidemiologist herself, opened the subject of wind turbine health issues by reading a compiled list of health effects from testimony received at its public hearing last month. In order of most complaints to fewest: loss of sleep to contemplating and attempting suicide. Harkness told about forty people at the meeting last night that it was compiling the large volume of testimony from its May 24 public …

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Tonight's Board of Health Agenda

Among other business, the Falmouth Board of Health will discuss the May 24 public hearing testimony of abutters affected by the town's wind turbines.

Tonight the Falmouth Board of Health will discuss the May 24 public hearing's written testimony by neighbors affected by adverse health impacts of Falmouth's wind turbines.  Below is the agenda for tonight's Board of Health meeting, which will be held in the Civil Defense Room in the basement of Town Hall. Discussion of the wind turbines is not scheduled until after 8pm, although the meeting begins at 7pm. BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING AGENDA: JUNE 4, 2012 7:00 - General discussion, review of minutes of May 21, 2012 correspondence, staff update, decide next meeting date  SEPTIC OR WATER WELL RELATED ISSUES 7:05 - Lot 2 Red Cedar Circle-Alternative technology approval request 7:10 - Lot 8 Cranberry Run- Alternative technology approval request 7:…

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Board of Health Holds Turbine Public Hearing

The Falmouth Board of Health held a public hearing last night to air residents' concerns about living near the town-owned wind turbines.

According to the Cape Cod Times, about 30 residents testified at an emergency Board of Health hearing last night that was held to address abutters' concerns about living near the town's two 1.65-megawatt turbines off Blacksmith Shop Road.  Speakers were required to submit written testimony beforehand and tell the board how the turbines had impacted their health and well-being. While resident Mark Cool testified that his turbine-induced sleep deprivation nearly caused him to be responsible for a midair collision at his job as an air traffic controller, another abutter, Diane Funfar, told the board that the turbines had caused her husband, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, to increase his alcohol consumption, according to the …

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OPINION: Mass DEP Complicit in Neglect

The author urges residents to attend Thursday's emergency Board of Health public hearing on wind turbines.

Falmouth’s wind turbine noise violation represents only the next community, globally, to be subjected to a systemic failure in the prediction of noise levels and sound characteristics emanating from wind turbine installations. The Mass DEP's noise level criterion is woefully inadequate. This fact was admitted by the state agency in a June 30, 2011 letter to Falmouth selectmen. Last night, the Falmouth Board of Health reviewed the recent DEP noise study that unexpectedly shut down Wind 1 operations for noise violations and further study. The study does nothing to address the urgent concerns/questions posed in the board's March 12 letter to the DEP. Specifically, the "study" does not provide the Board of Health with specific noise nuisance …

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mark cool

7:27 am on Thursday, May 24, 2012

Kevin.. Firstly, the "immediately under the turbine" party-line has been dispelled. #2 So has the assertion that wind energy is a non-polluting energy source. #3 the silently unspoken key finding of the Mass Health Report is: 41 citations are made recommending more research be done to quantify health questions/concerns needing address. Finally regarding your last about "at distances of 1000 ft…   more ›