Must make most of wind opportunity

To the editor:
    In an editorial Feb. 2, 2010, the Bangor Daily News called on the legislature to further pursue requiring developers of the wind project to provide tangible benefits to host communities.
    I believe wind power can and should benefit communities where they are located. In the town of Oakfield, we are proud of the fact that we have negotiated a very good agreement with a wind power company that will generate revenue for the town and potentially reduce taxes for our residents.
    Large projects like this don’t come along every day in Oakfield, or in Maine for that matter. As an Oakfield resident I feel a responsibility to the young people of this town to make the most of this opportunity. In Oakfield, we’ve taken strong steps toward ensuring an excellent community benefits package, while thoroughly reviewing the proposed project and its benefits and challenges. It was important for us to educate ourselves before we entered into tax and community benefits discussions. As First Wind has sought to build a project in our community, we worked closely with them to create a process whereby municipal officials and residents alike could ask questions about the wind power and its impacts.
    First Wind has been very good to work with throughout the process. For our part, we did a lot of fact finding, had a balanced negotiation, and reached a good outcome. As part of our due diligence process, we created the Oakfield Wind Review Committee to review all aspects of the project and to involve the people of Oakfield in the process. Following extensive public input, the committee created a 45-page report with the recommendations for improvements to the project that the Oakfield Selectmen later approved.
    As our town moves toward having a wind project within our borders, we feel confident we’ve done our homework, and embarked upon a process that allows us to get the answers to our questions. Contrary to the Bangor Daily News’ portrayal of Maine town officials as under-informed local volunteers, we hired a prominent Maine law firm and with their help worked out what we feel is a fair deal. This project will bring our town significant revenues, create jobs, and allow town government to consider a tax cut at the same time making improvements to our town infrastructure with the increased tax revenue from the project.
    We think that when the wind project comes to our town, we’ll have a good community citizen in First Wind. We’ve worked hard to protect our town’s interest and educate ourselves about wind power and this project. We’d be happy to share our experience with other towns.
David Gordon
Oakfield