Wind turbine permit appeal lawsuit

Some residents have filed a lawsuit appealing the special permit granted for two wind turbines in town. I have scanned the suit and uploaded it here. The suit seeks to have the grant of a special permit annulled. The crux of the suit seems to be that the Select Board cannot issue a permit in this case because they are the executive board of the town as well as the special permit granting authority. The arguments seem to be pretty scattershot to me, at one point claiming the Select Board ceded their authority to the Alternative Energy Committee ...

... and in another that the Select Board exceeded their authority by issuing the permit. Other claims include harm to the abutters, lack of proper notification, and that the bylaw set up a flawed process for approval.
You can read the suit yourself at this link
Click here to read on!

Congressman Capuano introduces campaign finance law

Representative Capuano has a post over at Blue Mass group on his solution to corporate funding of political campaigns.
Call or email Mr. Frank ...

... and ask him to support this bill.
Click here to read on!

Bipartisan fiscal responsibility

Every Republican member of the US Senate voted against the so called pay-as-you-go statute today. The measure passed on a party line vote 60-40. Pay-as-you-go requires ...

... that all spending increase proposals be offset by increased revenue or reduced spending in a different program. Any tax cuts must be accompanied by equal reductions in spending.
The party of unfunded $500 billion liabilities for Medicare part D and $2 trillion foreign wars doesn't want to impose fiscal discipline.

Is that a surprise?

All you Republicans join in when we say, NO.

Our system is broken. This is ridiculous.
Click here to read on!

Will California adopt a single payer system?

Bob Neer at Blue Mass Group has this post on a move in California to adopt a single payer system of that state.
Goes to show you how bad Congressional Democrats are.
Humorist Will Rogers was once asked ...

... if he was a member of an organized political party,

No, I'm not, he shot back, I'm a Democrat.
Click here to read on!

Town election roundup

As of today, there are a three races shaping up for the April town election, two seats on the School Committee and Library Trustee.

The Select Board has two seats up for election and only one candidate has taken out nomination papers for each. Joe Michaud pulled nomination papers to run for re-election and David Gonsalves of Fieldstone Lane has taken papers to run for the other seat which is now held by Ms. Dias. She has announced that she will not seek re-election.

The School Committee has two seats up for election and incumbent Shawn McDonald has pulled nomination papers. Former School Committee member John Nunes, Doug Roscoe of Shipyard Lane and Meagan Monteiro of Old Westport Road, also ...

... have taken out nomination papers for School Committee. Mr. Roscoe has been active with the Dartmouth Parents group. Ms. Monteiro currently serves on the Disabled Accessibility Committee for the town. Unlike the Select Board, I don't think that School Committee candidates must declare for a seat. The two top voter getters will be elected to the committee.

Others seeking nominations are Lynn Brodeur of Flagship Lane, Rachel Charrier of Kirkat St, and Andrew Costa of Bryant St. for Library Trustee, Elaine Lancaster for the Housing Authority, Thomas Hardman for Board of Health, John Haran for Planning Board and Kevin Santos for Assessor. Ms. Charrier and Mr. Costa are incumbents on the library board. Ms. Lancaster, Mr. Hardman, Mr. Haran and Mr. Santos are running for re-election to their respective boards.
Click here to read on!

Mass Budget and Policy Center analysis of the Governor's budget proposal

Here is the link The budget level funds local government and school aid at last year's level. There are very limited revenue increases, cuts to human services, and an increase in health care spending.
This is a preliminary report ...

... as the budget was only released today. Mass Budget will have a more detailed report in the next few weeks.
Click here to read on!

Special Town Meeting votes to fund wind turbine project

After hearing presentations from Dr. DiPippo of the Alternative Energy Committee, Ms. Jenkins from the Finance Committee (that committee voted unaimously in favor of the article), Dr. Friedman of the Finance Committee (who wrote a computer model for the turbine economics) and Mr. John Aylward. a resident who opposes the project, the Town Meeting voted to authorize borrowing of $9.5 million dollars to fund the wind turbine project, 182 in favor and 44 against. The authorization required a 2/3 majority of the Town Meeting and the article passed. There is a bit of confusion on the exact vote which the moderator has addressed in an email. Here is what he reports in the email to Town Clerk Lynn Medeiros,

Subject: Offical Vote Total on Article 1 - Wind Turbines
Hi Lynn ... Thanks your help again tonight. My records will reflect a 182-44 vote on Article 1, the wind turbine article. After the Town Meeting, I gave that count to WBSM and The Standard-Times. I'm sending that same information by e-mail to The Chronicle. If I announced it as 182-49, it's only because I couldn't read my own writing. Both tellers clearly counted 44 negative votes and my notes show that. I do know I announced 182 in favor and said that 226 had voted. Either way, the vote was far in excess of 2/3rds. In fact, it was about 80% in favor. In your records, it should be correct. Blame my poor eyesight.
Thanks Steven C. Sharek

In related news, some residents have filed a lawsuit, ...

... appealing the special permit and seeking to block the wind turbine project. The Town Counsel was notified of the suit by the Standard Times on Monday. The paper got the filing before the town. The town and Select Board were served yesterday. I will post the filing here on the blog when I have time to scan it. Ms. Sweet raised a question from the floor about how the town would proceed if Town Meeting authorized the borrowing for the turbines in light of the suit. Executive Administrator, Mr. Cressman replied that the town could borrow some funds to start design and procurement or could wait to see the result of the suit. My preference is to wait until the legal hurdles are cleared before proceeding further.
Click here to read on!

Special Town Meeting blog

Special town meeting started on time, 205 members present
A quorum, a good start
The moderator has decided to take the articles in reverse order Article 3 first- acceptance of MGL chapter 32B section 18
Article passes unanimously- 244 town meeting members present 7:10PM

Now on to Article 2 - Zoning bylaw- Padanaram Village Business District

Some questions about the specifics of the article

Article vote called and passes 243 in favor and one opposed

On to article 3 authorizing a bond to design and construct two wind turbines of $9.5 million

Moderator is laying down some ground rules, the decision before the TM is whether or not to authorize the funding

Moderator will allow the opponents to present a power point presentation of their concerns

First the Alternative Energy Committee will presnt the project

Dr. Ron DiPippo is speaking and showing a Power Point presentation

My battery is dying and I am going to have to log off. Click here to read on!

The state budget process

I tried to explain the state budget process in a post a few days ago. It turns out that the state website has an excellent presentation of the process. The link to that chart is here
I think the Commonwealth does a great job ...

... of using information technology and its website to keep residents informed. It is rare that you cannot find something about what you are looking for on the Commonwealth's website.
The Governor's budget will be available at this link tomorrow.
Click here to read on!

Dias not running for re-election

Select Board member, Nat Dias, announced at last night's meeting that she would not seek another term on the board. Chairman Joe Michaud and Ms. Dias are the two members whose seats are up for the April 6th election. Mr. David Gonsalves of Fieldstone Lane has taken out papers to run for Ms. Dias' seat.
Mr. Michaud has taken out papers to run for re-election and has also announced his intention to run for State Representative from the 9th Bristol District. That seat is held by Mr. John Quinn who is resigning to run for Bristol County Sheriff against the incumbent, Mr. Tom Hodgson.
Nomination papers for town office, such as Select Board, must be taken out by Friday, February 12th, and must be returned by Tuesday, February 16th. A minimum of 50 registered voters of the town must sign the nomination papers.
In every town election, one third of the representative Town Meeting members from each precinct are elected. There are 39 members from each precinct, so 13 are elected each year. The dates for Town Meeting members nomination papers are the same as the above but only 20 voter signatures are needed. However, the 20 voters must reside in the precinct where the nomination is sought.

And here is the rest.
Click here to read on!

Special Town Meeting tomorrow.

The Special Town Meeting is tomorrow night at the High School on Bakerville Road. If you are a Town Meeting member please try to attend. It is important that we get a quorum.
The start time is 7PM. The warrant can be found at this link.

See you there.
Click here to read on!

Don't give up yet

As I pointed out in this post, the alternative to health care reform is bankruptcy. The US spends over twice as much per capita as other nations on health care and the rate of increase easily outstrips inflation. Blue Mass Group has a post here about a possible way forward
I think that there are areas of agreement ...

... that can be reached and that this reform is too important to drop. So call your Congressman and let us keep moving forward.
Click here to read on!

Commonwealth election law wiped out?

David over at Blue Mass Group points out that in overturning the McCain Feingold Act limiting corporate funding of election campaigns, the US Supreme Court would appear to have thrown out the Massachusetts law which also forbade corporate contributions. David notes,

To be clear: this law is still on the books, and there has been no court decision invalidating it nor (as far as I know) statement from the Attorney General's Office or OCPF that they no longer think it's enforceable. So, for now, the prohibition remains in place. But I can't see how the law can survive a simple challenge.

My take on the Supreme Court decision is that the court took on a non problem and created a real one. I don't think anyone would argue ...

... that corporations suffered from a lack of influence with our elected officials. This ruling creates even more influence. That said, Glenn Greenwald points out that the court's decision got the law right. His post here extends his argument

Kevin Drum has a bit more nuanced opinion of the ruling and wrote here,

In the end, I guess I think the court missed the obvious — and right — decision: recognizing that while nonprofit corporations created for the purpose of political advocacy can be fairly described as "organized groups of people" and treated as such, that doesn't require us to be willfully oblivious to the fact that big public companies are far more than that and can be treated differently. Exxon is not the Audubon Society and Google is not the NRA. There's no reason we have to pretend otherwise.

What do you think about corporations having expanded ability to influence political campaigns?
Click here to read on!

From Governor Patrick- 2011 Governor's budget local aid

Dear Local Official,

As we finalize our Fiscal Year 2011 budget proposal, I am pleased to inform you of my intention to propose funding local aid at more than $5.2 billion next fiscal year.
Despite the fiscal challenges the Commonwealth continues to face, I will propose taking another step forward in our commitment to education by funding Chapter 70 at the highest level in the history of the Commonwealth at $4.048 billion. Every district will be fully funded at foundation, all districts will be held harmless to ensure funding is not less than fiscal year 2010 levels, and all Chapter 70 amounts will be funded by the State, not with deferral stimulus funds.
On the non-school, municipal side, I will propose funding unrestricted general government aid at fiscal year 2010 level of $936 million. I will also propose level funding other key local aid accounts, including payment-in-lieu-of-taxes and regional school transportation.
Chapter 70 and Unrestricted General Government Aid numbers for each community is available at: http://www.mass.gov/Ador/docs/dls/mdmstuf/StateAid/MMA_Sec_3.xls
As is customary, our proposal for all Cherry Sheet accounts will be available when our budget proposal is filed on January 27th.
Through our Fiscal Year 2011 budget, additional filings and submissions to the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government, our Administration is also proposing a number of new tools to support local governments, including:

o A local pension funding relief initiative to help local systems address unprecedented asset losses in a fiscally responsible way. Communities could save up to $200 million statewide in the first year of the proposed new schedule.

o An optional Early Retirement Incentive program for cities and towns.

o A rate freeze on special education private placements that could save $3.2M .

o Relief from library “maintenance of effort” requirements and decertification rules

o Allowing regional school districts to share superintendents, providing savings and efficiencies.

o Allowing regional school districts greater access to stabilization funds.

o Allowing local government procurement from state energy resource contracts.

o $250K in a reserve account to study the adequacy of the Chapter 70 foundation budget and formula.

o A local aid study commission to evaluate local aid formulas.

We look forward to working with you during the budget process.

Sincerely,

Deval L. Patrick
Governor

The linked spreadsheet shows that the Governor is proposing ...

... to fund the Chapter 70 school aid and unrestricted state aid for Dartmouth at the FY2010 level, about $9.49 million in school aid and $2.22 million in local aid. Not good news.
This is only the beginning of the budget process. The Governor's budget will go to the House. The Ways and Means Committee will modify it, the House passes it, and that budget will go to the Senate. The Senate Budget Committee modifies the House budget and the Senate passes that. The final bills from the Senate and House are reconciled by conference and the two houses pass a final budget which the Governor has line item veto power to modify. Vetoed items can be overridden by the legislature and then the budget is final. Except ... the governor can then reduce some budgets under his 9C authority which has been necessary the past couple years.
Click here to read on!

Wind turbine opponent presentation

This is a link to the presentation put together by local residents who opppose funding the wind turbine project.
Much of the information that in this presentation is inaccurate or misleading in my opinion. I will prepare a more complete rebuttal and present it here when I have time.

Just a few quick points. You can see accurate photo simulations of the wind turbines at this link. The one in the presentation is grossly exaggerated.
The damaged two bladed turbine shown in the UK was experimental and even that was repaired and run for some time.

At the time however, there was a lot of controversy about this huge and very expensive machine, put up when the UK had very little experience with wind turbines. The Danish programme meanwhile had been focussing on small three bladed machines, rated at 200-300kW, and in the event they proved to be world beaters, and have subsequently been scaled up to 1.5MW. That’s still half the size of the Orkney machine- which has been widely seen as something of a white elephant. It did no doubt provide some general technical information and experience- though it didn’t operate for long before a crack in the blades forced its retirement. It was subsequently bought privately, repaired, and run for a while to provide power locally. But now the end has finally come.
However, the Burgar Hill site itself remains home to three NEG Micon wind turbines, currently being tested under the high wind speeds found on Orkney. Installed last April, the first two are rated at 1.5 and 2.0 megawatts and have now been joined by a newly installed 1.3MW machine. The BWEA noted that ‘the demolished turbine still sets the record for the most powerful onshore machine in the UK, and also exceeds the first offshore turbines in the UK at Blyth Offshore, rated at 2.0MW each’.

From the same article,

A survey of ‘Public Attitudes towards Wind farms in Scotland’ carried out by System Three Social Research, focusing on people living near Scotlands first four windfarms found that the closer people lived to windfarms the more positive was their attitude to them- a result that has emerged regularly in opinion surveys around the UK. 67% found ‘something they liked’ about the Scottish wind farms, rising to 73% amongst those living closest. Moreover, 74% found ‘nothing they disliked’ rising to 80% for those nearest.
Overall it seems that peoples worries prior to construction were often unfounded- for example 40% of the 430 or so respondents in the Scottish survey said they thought that there would be problems, but in the event only 9% reported any problems. Specifically, beforehand, 12% thought noise would be a problem, but afterwards only 1% reported any disturbance. But the survey found that the development companies had not been effective at consultation, outreach and communication with residents: 42% still only heard of the projects via the local papers, only 7% had obtained their information from the developer or local authority.

Click here to read on!

Whew! Quite a week! Town Meeting warrant and other things

Although I do not support his politics, I want to congratulate our new Senator Scott Brown. I hope that he will represent the Commonwealth well in the Senate. I believe that most of his constituents are pro-choice, in favor of equal marriage rights for everyone, against foreign wars, and want to see universal health care enacted. I don't think Senator Brown will advocate for any of those goals. But that is what the residents voted for so perhaps I am mistaken. If you look over the comments on this blog you can see why the parties can't work together. It is possible to have a difference of opinion on policy and not have to demonize the other side. I blame talk radio and the media for fostering this divisiveness. Just listen to Limbaugh or Back. They don't disagree with the president's policies, they attack his patriotism.
Awful, awful stuff.Makes for good entertainment but leaves no room to work together.

The Standard Times reported that my colleague on the Select Board, Mr. Michaud, is planning a run for the State House after running for Select Baord this spring. I have great respect for Mr. Michaud and think he would be a good state rep. Trouble is he would caucus with the tiny Republican contingent. That means that his point of view can be neglected by those with the levers of power, the House Speaker and Senate President. To bad it is that way but it is the reality of the situation.

We are fast approaching the Special Town Meeting that will vote on funding wind turbines, a Padanaram Village bylaw, and adopting a section of Massachusetts General Law that requires retirees to join Medicare. The warrant for the meeting is at this link. There is a presentation from the residents who oppose the turbines circulating and I will post it here when I have a chance.

On February 4th, the selection process for a new Police Chief will be drawing to a close with Select Board interviews of a few finalists. A recruitment firm, Municipal Resources, has been winnowing down the applicants ...

... from the more than 50 who applied. The remaining candidates will be narrowed down through an assessment that will take place the day before with Municipal Resources. I don't know when the Select Board will make their choice. My preference would be to do it that day or by the following Monday, February 8th, at the latest.

The search for a new Director of Budget and Finance is also nearing completion and the field has been narrowed to a few candidates by that committee. The candidates for that job should be coming before the Select Board soon as well.
Click here to read on!

Fairness to taxpayers

Here's why we should tax the big banks


Too big to fail, should be too big to exist. Time for regulatory reform.
Click here to read on!

Wind turbines popping up everywhere

The Fall River Herald News reports here that Tiverton is considering a wind turbine near Rt 24

I think that we will soon find wind turbines a common sight around the area.
Click here to read on!

How to judge Tuesday results early

hoyapaul over at Blue Mass Group has done an interesting town by town analysis in this post in order to be able to judge the early Senate race results on Tuesday. Be interesting to see how his predictions work out against the actual results.

Get out and vote on Tuesday.
Click here to read on!

Brown's campaign staff get no health care benefits

Here is the link

Is that how you want to be treated?
Click here to read on!

Scott Brown loves those bankers

The Wall Street Journal reports that Scott Brown opposes taxing the big banks. The Brown campaign said,

“Scott Brown is opposed to higher taxes, especially in the midst of a severe recession. Raising taxes will kill jobs. Martha Coakley’s tax-raising policies will make it harder to get our economy back on the right track.”

Having wrecked our economy by gaming assets prices while carting off huge fees and bonuses, we are to believe that banks have the best interest of the economy in mind. Look at the great job that the banks and Wall Street have done in providing jobs. 10% unemployment!
The taxpayers have bailed out the financial sector to prevent a depression and President Obama wants to tax them ...

... to get our money back over time. I say that is fair and should be done. The New York Times article about the proposed tax is here.
Click here to read on!

Dueling op ed letters

Select Board Chair Joe Michaud had an op ed letter in the Standard Times where he rebutted an earlier letter from Canadian wind turbine opponent, William Palmer. Michaud noted that even using Mr. Palmer's data, the likelihood of a failure of a wind turbine is remote,

"Using the same probability factors that Palmer uses in opposition to his country's project, we could expect our two turbines to have a catastrophic event once every 323 years."

Mr. Palmer's letter can be found at this link. Mr. Palmer feels the Select Board did not properly assess the detriments to wind power installations. In fact, the Select Board was aware of comments that Mr. Palmer made to an Ontario wind farm application ...

... through a submittal to the public hearing on the permit. You'll note that Mr. Michaud knew the data from Palmer's comment even though it was not included in his op ed letter. The Ontario authorities rejected Mr. Palmer's assessment in the Ontario installation. Mr. Palmer has been advanced as an expert by opponents of the Dartmouth wind project. While a professional engineer, Mr. Palmer's area of expertise is nuclear power, not wind power.
You can read the Ontario comments from Palmer here I will accept Mr. Palmer's calculation regarding the frequency of wind turbine failures. However, his analysis of the likelihood of failure in multiple turbines is flawed. The events are independent. That is an important distinction. Multiple installations do not increase the likelihood of an individual turbine failure. Palmer takes the low probablility of an individual failure (1 in 775 years) and divides it by the number of turbines. That is not statistically valid.
Here is an example. If the probability of a tire blowout for one tire is 1 in 100,000 miles, then what is the probability for your car? By his reckoning it is 100,000 miles divided by 4 since you have four tires or 1 every 25,000 miles. If you have two cars, by his method, the likelihood is 100,000 divided by 8 or 12,500 miles. Do you see the error? The probability remains 1 in 100,000 miles for each tire. It is not lessened by the number of tires. That is because the events in question are independent. Another example would be two fair coins, Fair meaning an equal chance of heads or tails. You flip one and get heads, what is the probability of getting heads when the second coin is flipped? It is 1 in 2. The same as the first coin. The events are independent.
Click here to read on!

Democrats caucus on February 13th

Email from Democratic Committee Chairman Raymond M. Medeiros, Jr.

DEMOCRATS TO HOLD CAUCUS IN DARTMOUTH

Registered Democrats in Dartmouth will be holding a caucus at the Dartmouth Town Hall, 400 Slocum Rd. Dartmouth MA, 02747 on Saturday February 13th at 2:00pm to elect 20 delegates and 4 alternates to the 2010 Massachusetts Democratic Convention. Delegates will be equally divided between men and women.

The convention will be held Friday,June 4th and Saturday June5th at the DCU Center in Worcester. At that time, Democrats from across the state will gather to endorse statewide candidates.

The caucus is open to all registered Democrats in Dartmouth. All ballots will be written and secret. Those not elected as Delegate and/or alternate, ...


... who meet the qualifications, may apply to be add-on delegates in the following categories: youth, minority, and disabled.

Discrimination on the basis of race,sex,color,creed,national origin, disability, religion, ethnic identity, sexual orientation or economic status in the conduct of the caucus is strictly prohibited. Challenges to the delegates selection process can be filed with the Massachusetts Democratic Party, 56 Roland Street, Suite 203,Boston, MA 02129 no later than ten days after the caucus date.

For Caucus information please contact Chair Raymond M. Medeiros, Jr. at 1-774-328-2400.
Click here to read on!

Time for Town Charter and bylaw reviews

Our Town Charter provides for periodic review of itself and for review of our town bylaws.
Here is the charter section on review

SECTION 6-7: PERIODIC REVIEW, CHARTER AND BY-LAWS
(a) Charter Review - At least once in every ten years, beginning in 2010, and thereafter in each year ending in a zero, a special committee to consist of nine members shall be established for the purpose of reviewing this charter and to make a report, with recommendations, to the town meeting concerning any proposed amendments which said committee may determine to be necessary or desirable. The committee shall consist of nine members who shall be chosen as follows: the select board, the finance committee and the school committee shall each designate two persons, the planning board shall designate one person, and two persons shall be appointed by the town moderator. Persons appointed by the said agencies may, but need not, be members of the agency by which they are designated. The committee shall meet to organize forthwith following the final adjournment of the annual town meeting.

The bylaw review provision calls for ...

... the appointment of a five member committee. Here is that section of the charter.

(b) By-Law Review - The select board shall at five year intervals, in by a special committee appointed for that purpose, a proposed revision or recodification of all by-laws of the town which shall be presented to the town meeting for reenactment at the annual town meeting in the year following the year in which the said committee is appointed. The by-law review committee shall consist of the town clerk who shall serve by virtue of office, two representative town meeting members appointed by the town moderator and two persons appointed by the select board. The said committee in its final, or in an interim report, shall include recommendations for such substantive change in town by-laws as it deems necessary or advisable. The review of town by-laws shall be in conjunction with the town counsel, or, by special counsel retained for that purpose. Subsequent to enactment by the town meeting, copies of the revised by-laws shall be forwarded to the attorney general of the commonwealth for approval, and they shall be otherwise published, all as required by general laws. Copies of the revised by-laws shall be made available for distribution to the public at a charge not to exceed the actual cost, per copy, of reproduction.

I think that the Executive Administrator should be one of the two appointments by the Select Board. Some member of the Select Board could also be appointed or it could be anyone else. I have a couple of people that I think would be good candidates and I will contact them to see if they are interested. If you are interested in serving on either committee, you can contact the Select Board office or the Town Meeting moderator, Mr. Sharek (EMail - stevesharek@comcast.net)
The scope of the charter review is limited in the arrangement set out in our charter as I posted here. Any proposed changes from the charter committee require approval by 2/3 vote of Town Meeting and a majority of voters in a general election. See MGL chapter 43B sections 1 through 12
Click here to read on!

Massachusetts Senate race even .. or is it?

David at Blue Mass Group reviews recent polls on the special election to replace Senator Kennedy in this post. Depending on how you break out the likely voters, the race is either tied or Ms. Coakley is way ahead. Special elections are hard to predict because you don't know what the turnout is likely to be.
Representative Brown is a George W. Bush Republican, pro-torture, in favor of lax regulation and tax cuts, and against health care reform. I don't think he represents ...

... the views of the majority of Massachusetts voters. The danger is that a motivated minority will show up at the polls and elect him. That would be an unfortunate memorial for the late Ted Kennedy. Get out and vote in this election on Tuesday, January 19th.
Click here to read on!

Finance Committee recommends funding for wind turbines.

Last night, the Finance Committee gave a thumbs up to the wind turbine project bonding in their recommendation to the Special Town Meeting on January 26th. Finance Committee member, Mr. Walker , reports

"the finance committe voted unanimously to recommend the turbine article to town meeting based on favorable economics and overall environmental benefits."

In other news on the project, the town has received word that the FAA will not allow the 100 meter height ...

... at the north tower site. The maximum allowed height according to the FAA will have to be 86 meters at the hub or a high accuracy survey meeting 2C standards would be needed to permit an 89.5 meter height.
The ALternative Energy Committee has this report regarding the impact on the finances of the project. ·

The two turbines, if built on 328-foot towers, will conservatively produce 8,016,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, more than enough to cover the 5,429,000 kilowatt-hours used by the DPW. Moreover, they will supply about 49% of the entire electricity demand of all Town public buildings. Using 295-foot towers, they will produce 7,472,000 kilowatt-hours. Turbines will be built as tall as allowed by the Federal Aviation Administration and the Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission.

Click here to read on!

Massachusetts showing signs of recovery

The economy of Massachusett is showing some signs that it is coming out of recession. David over at Blue Mass Group has this post about the improving job market and a recovery in state revenue. The Commonwealth is outpacing the rest of the country on the road to recovery. I know it doesn't feel like that to most people but this is the worst economic downturn in decades.
One reason for that recovery may be that Massachusetts has a skilled and educated work force and a good quality of life for citizens here in the Bay State. CNBC ranked our state as 8th in the nation a place to do business. One statistic that caught my attention ...

... was that our workforce produces a higher per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) than the other seven states ranked above us. CNBC didn't rank the states on that basis but only New York workers produced more value per capita.
Looking at the criteria for workforce, it seems to me that states who have a more unionized workforce were not given high marks. I think that is not correct and may have worked against Massachusetts' ranking.
The worst place to do business according to CNBC, Alaska, don't cha know!

Click here to read on!

Standard Times website going subscriber only

I got a notice with my newspaper today that the Standard Times will restrict access to the content on their website, SouthCoast Today.com, to subscribers starting on January 12th. Actually they will eventually charge even their print subscribers a small fee, 39 cents a week, to view the content. It has been my practice to link to news stories on the Standard Times website. I will discontinue that practice once the site becomes subscriber only.
Print newspapers are having a tough time ...

... right now and papers, large and small, are going out of business. There are many reasons for that and I won't go into the whole discussion.
I have my doubts about the choice being made by the Standard Times but it is their content and they have every right to make it a subscriber only feature.
I will continue to have a link on my blog to the Standard Times site but you will need to have a login to access information.
Click here to read on!

Bristol Sheriff in the news

There were a couple of news stories about the Bristol County Sheriff, Mr. Hodgson today.
The Herald News reports that Sheriff Hodgson has been ordered to repay the $5 daily fees that he collected from inmates during the 2002-2004 period. The Supreme Judicial Court ruled the sheriff was not authorized to assess the inmate fees.
The Chronicle reports that Representative Quinn has filed a Public Records Act complaint with the Secretary of State's Public Records Division charging that the Sheriff had failed to comply with his request for records. The act, MGL chapter 66, section 10, requires a response ...

... to a public records request within ten days. Mr. Quinn said in the story that other state and county agencies had responded with in the time frame of the statute and only the Bristol Sheriff had not. I was not able to locate the Chronicle article online, sorry, no link.
Click here to read on!

Wind Turbine Special Permit

I have uploaded the wind turbine Special Permit findings here. This is NOT an official copy. Go to the Select Board office to get an official copy if you need one.

Nothing else here.
Click here to read on!

Special Town Meeting warrant approved for Jan 26th

Last night, the Select Board approved the warrant for a Special Town Meeting to be held Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. in the Dartmouth High School Auditorium (155 Bakerville Road). The warrant has three articles, a bond authorization to procure and construct two wind turbines, a Padanaram business district zoning bylaw, and the acceptance of a section of Massachusetts General Law which allows the town to have retirees apply for Medicare coverage. I will post the warrant to this blog ...

... when I have the final copy.
These three issues are imporatnat matters for the town and I urge Town Meeting members to make every effort to attend on the 26th.
Click here to read on!

Select Board approves special permit for wind turbines

The Select Board voted unanimously last night to approve a special permit for the construction of two wind turbines on town land off Chase Road. Information on the project can be found here on the town website. I will post the entire findings and conditions to this blog ...

... when I receive the final wording from the Town Counsel.
Click here to read on!

Town will hold H1N1 vaccine clinic on Dec. 7

The town will be holding a clinic to provide H1N1 flu vaccine to residents from 7PM to 8PM< on Thursday December 7th. No pre-registration is needed. Just come in and get the vaccination.
Some people have preregistered and will get the vaccine before 7PM Thursday. Any others can be vaccinated on a first come-first served basis after 7PM Thursday. There is no charge for the vaccination.
You can help keep things moving at the clinic by downloading the form for the nasal vaccine or the form for the injectable vaccine, print it and fill it out and bring it with you.
Additional information on the clinic is on the town website at this link. The Standard Times article about the clinic can be found here.

The H1N1 flu is still around and is still a serious health risk to many. I encourage residents to become vaccinated. Thank you to the Dartmouth Board of Health, Southcoast Emergency Medical Services, Southcoast Hospitals Group, Community Nurse & Hospice Care, and the Greater New Bedford Medical Reserve Corps volunteers for manning the clinic.
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New Bedford Woods Hole ferry service

The Fall River Herald News has a story about a new ferry service that is running from New Bedford to Woods Hole. Here are the details from the article,

Each weekday, a ferry will leave New Bedford’s State Pier at 6:30 a.m. and 3:35 p.m. Another ferry will run from Woods Hole’s Steamship Authority port at 7:35 a.m. and 4:40 p.m. One-way tickets are $9.

Travel time is about an hour. I've spent an hour ...

...trying to get into a rotary on the Cape. The travel times are quite limited as you can see, but perhaps more runs will be added in the future. I can see folks from the island using the link to get to New Bedford.
What do you think about prospects of the new service? Tell us in comments.
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