Please do not be lured by Horizon/Aroostook Wind Energy offering quick money for the use of your land in order to erect a windmill! Do you really want our beautiful part of The Valley ruined by the sight and sound of hundreds of these monstrosities? If you sell away the rights to part of your land and have unforeseen regrets later, there will be no recourse to you. While wind energy, in theory, is a decent source of alternative energy, the plans being hatched for this project are totally out of place for the lifestyles most of us care about in our beloved St. John Valley. 
Please consider the following  ramifications before you turn your land over to a giant profit-making entity from Texas who is out for no one's good except its own:

1. "Sight pollution"--The views of our beautiful vistas will be forever tainted by these ugly windfarms.  Gigantic 480 foot tall towers will be bristling out of the ground everywhere, and the character of this area will never, ever be the same. Buildings to house the generator controls will also be more blots on the landscape. Though the company says that 90% of the high voltage transmission lines will be underground (if this is true), what about the other 10%?
Also, red warning lights and/or flashing strobe lights will need to be on every tower to warn aircraft away.

2. Lost tourism--Do you think people will want to come here to see windmills? This will drive tourists away in droves. These are not the rustic grain-grinding or water-pumping type of windmills seen in Holland. The negative financial impact to local businesses will be enormous and devastating over the long run.

3. Noise & vibrations--Anyone living in the vicinity of a windmill will have to put up with a constant loud "whoosh" of propellor blades slicing through the air, and a "thump" as each blade passes in front of the supporting structure, day and night. Is this what we want in our peaceful, pastoral settings? Though the company says its windmills are better than the ones in Mars Hill, how do we really know this is true? Speak to residents who live near the Mars Hill disaster, and hear what they have to say about noise. It's not positive.
There will also be a "strobe light" effect as the huge spinning blades pass in front of the sun.

4. Wildlife--The noise and air/ground vibrations generated by the windmills will send birds and other wildlife packing! Deer and other wildlife have hypersensitive hearing and can pick up faint ground vibrations, as all hunters are aware. So much for hunting. The overall negative environmental impact will far outweigh the "green power" aspect of this outrageous project.

5. Radio/TV/Communications interference--The Mars Hill windmills cause serious interference.  The chief engineer at Maine Public Radio in Presque Isle has indicated that those 28 windmills cause significant problems in their transmissions. Just wait to see what happens when there are hundreds of spinning generators around here.

6. Real estate values--Watch the value of your property plummet, when everywhere you look, you see these giant noisy, spinning propellers towering over the landscape.

7. Health concerns--High power electrical generation and transmission have many well documented adverse effects on the health and well being of persons who live near such facilities,
including thyroid disorders, brain tumors, and other heath problems, especially regarding children.

8. Power not being kept local--As with the Mars Hill debacle, do you really think that your electric bill will be significantly lowered by this project? The company says the power will be kept in Maine--well, Kittery is in Maine!

9. Dangerous mechanical and other equipment failures and hazards--Lightning strikes which could cause forest fires, towers falling over, broken propellor blades flying through the air, transmission line failures, aircraft accidentally hitting towers or blades, vandalism. Don't think these cannot happen-- 2 NASA space shuttles have blown up already, and these had the best engineers in the world certifying their safety.

10. Loss of rights to your own land--Once you sign away your rights to your own land, you may later find out that the company is doing things on it that you don't approve of, and you will have no say whatsoever in stopping it. This will also affect estates, wills, inheritances. You will be placing your heirs into the same circumstances.

11. Diminished overall quality of life--When I consider the sum total of all this, I believe that nothing good will come from it for the local residents. I believe there will be many unforeseen impacts and regrets, both by those who have opted for having windmills on their land, as well as the local populace. Please do not fall for false promises or sugarcoated, half-truth explanations.  Read the fine print on any contract, and have a competent lawyer explain exactly to you what the "legalese" really means before you forever give up the rights to your own land for this terrible idea. You may regret it later.

                                                                     Sincerely,
 
                                                                     Charles Zafonte, Fort Kent