First Wind to present plans

By Eileen M. Adams, Staff Writer
Published: Oct 12, 2009 12:00 am

RUMFORD – Several representatives from First Wind LLC plan to attend a public forum on a proposed wind farm for three Rumford mountains.

Karl Aromaa, a member of the Wind Farm Development Committee, said Matt Kearn of First Wind and several others will make a presentation on the proposal at 6 p.m. Oct. 13 at Mountain Valley High School.

Travis Small, a spokesman for First Wind, said tentative plans call for building between 14 and 15 turbines that would generate a total of about 40 megawatts of electricity.

Along with Kearn several contractors familiar with wind turbine construction as well as other associates of First Wind will also be in attendance.

Aromaa announced the forum recently. At that time, a panel of people largely opposed to local wind farm development were the sole participants. He had said that the community knew very little about the proposal and that he had hoped that both sides of the issue would be represented.

Among the other participants are Albert Aniel, Tom Powell, Steve Thurston, Lisa Linowes and J. Dwight.

First Wind LLC, located in Newton, Mass., has dozens of wind farm projects in various stages of planning or construction in the Northeast and West.

The Rumford project is tentatively planned for Black, North Twin and South Twin mountains.

eadams@sunjournal.com