Okay, December 12, 2023 at 7 p.m. Please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance.
Thank you. Is there anyone in the audience this evening who is audio or video recording? If you would please raise your hand and indicate such audio or video recording.
I'm going to ask you not to read in this intersection please, so thank you, I appreciate it.
And I see in here none.
Thank you.
Sleckman's comments and announcements.
Mrs. Blanchard.
None at this time.
Mr. Ward.
Nothing at this time.
Mrs. Anderson.
Not right now, thank you.
And Mrs. LePoi?
Nothing other than a thank you for the interest in participating.
That's what we want about everything, so thank you for doing it for this.
I do need to make one comment, it was regarding the non-binding referendum vote that was taken
at the town meeting last night.
I saw on social media today some misinformation.
People are saying that with that vote, we have a solar moratorium in place that is incorrect.
The purpose of that question last night was to gauge interest from the town and from
the residents as to whether you would want us to pursue the process of requesting from
the state a temporary solar moratorium.
The referendum question did pass, so now it's back to the town to just see where we go
from there, but please know that that vote was informational only.
We do not have any sort of solar moratorium in place in the town, so I appreciate that.
Thank you very much.
Public comments and announcements on any issue that is not on the agenda tonight.
Anyone have anything to share?
Right this moment.
And I see and hear none.
Thank you very much.
Now the main attraction of the evening.
Before we open the public hearing, I just want to take a moment and review how I expect
that this hearing will go.
The board will move to open the hearing.
Once the hearing is open, the first people who will be invited to speak will be the representatives
of the solar project.
They'll be invited to come forward, make their presentation.
The board will ask questions.
The second people who will be invited to come up to speak will be the people from Mount
Grace Audubon Society.
You do the same, they will make their presentation.
The board will ask questions, comments.
And then I will open up to public comment in general.
There is a group that has requested to be on this evening.
I'm going to invite them to come up first as they have requested it.
From that point on, what I would like to ask you to do is anyone who would like to speak
to this issue, I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand and wait for me to call you
and then work your way up.
If you would just form a line down the center aisle and then when first one comes up, they
speak.
Once they're done, the next one can come right up and we can move this long as expeditiously
as possible at the same time giving everyone who wishes to speak that the chance to address
the board.
Please be succinct to the point. I am going to ask that you only come up to speak once.
It is a request.
And even if it's such that you'd like to speak and you come up and you say,
I agree with everybody else who spoke against this, that's fine too. Once the hearing is closed,
which will happen after all the public comment is completed, there will be no more public comment
at that point the board enters into their deliberation and then they will make a motion
and take a vote.
Once when that vote and that motion is made, whether you agree with it or disagree with
it, I'm going to ask you to please maintain order, I don't, I'm thinking all the time on
my chair, I've only had to gather one person and I like to keep it at one, so please
Please, regardless of how you feel about the board's decision, please maintain order.
Once the vote is taken, I am going to move for a five-minute recess.
At that time, any of those who are planning on staying for the rest of the meeting, I'm
going to ask you to please, promptly, exit the room because we still have additional items
on our agenda that we're going to need to get to before we get to go home.
So in that five-minute recess, I'm just going to ask you to quickly leave if in fact you're going to leave you are very welcome to stay.
I would love to see a fraction of this many people on a regular basis. We're not scary. It's not a scary place here. We're not scary people. I'd love to thank you for being here.
On that point, we are ready to open the public hearing, Mr. Ward.
Board, town of Wenzhenin Board of Selectment, Public Hearing, notice.
In accordance with the provisions of General Law, Chapter 61, Section 8, the Wenzhenin Board of Selectment will conduct a public hearing on Tuesday, December 12, 2023, at 7 p.m.
It will implement whether meeting will be held on Thursday, December 14, 2023, at 7 p.m.
Second floor auditorium, Wenzhenin Town Hall, 109 Front Street Wenzhenin, Massachusetts.
We're guiding the proposal to assign to a non-profit conservation organization the town's option to purchase certain parcels of the land in Winshonan and
Ashtonham, Massachusetts, the property arising under that certain chapter 61 notice of lean for forestry land data in December 3rd, 2014 recorded with the Wister South Registry of Deeds and
five, three, one, three, six, page 180.
The property is located off North Ashman Ham Road
in Winshon and Massachusetts, and off East Side Depot Road
in Ashman Ham, Massachusetts.
And is identified by the Winshon and Assessors
as parcels 0-0-6 town lot, 3-0-7, 3-0-8, and 3-0-9
cross-lots, 6-0-18, that's SD-LOT, 6-0-33, 6-0-59, 6-0-60, and 6-0-61-1-LOT, 6-0-88, 6-0-89,
and
9-0-269-0-279-0-49. Good day, Lieutenant-I-Law.
6-0-85, Syndicate Law.
6-0-79, Perly Law.
6-0-10, Wyman Law.
And 12-0-13, 12-0-14, 12-0-15, 12-0-77, 12-0-4,
and 12-0-708, and 12-0-101 be mislawed, and the property is further identified by the
Ashman-Hamm assessors as MAP-5-Lot-2, Nakhag-Tenny-Lot, and MAP-44-Lot-42, easterly portion
of Baldwin-Lot.
The property is owned by Winchin and Forest LLC, the owner.
The Board of Selectors will consider whether it will assign the town's option under General
Law Chapter 61 Section 8 to purchase the property to Massachusetts Audubon Society
in a Massachusetts non-profit conservation organization.
Any person interested or wishing to be heard on this matter, on the matter may appear
at the public hearing at the time and place designated above which in an Board of Selected Sign
Audrey Libreed Chair.
Thank you.
Do I have a motion to open the public hearing?
Excuse me. I'm so sorry, but we could not hear you and as you can see it's overflows so there are some of us that are in the hallway. Oh, okay, make sure to speak and use your, you know, we will do our best.
All right, so that everyone can hear you. Thank you so much.
Motion has been made to open the public hearing. Do I have a second?
Seconds. All in favor say aye.
Chair votes aye. The public living is open. So I'd like to invite you to the table first.
We have long road engine energy and company.
Good evening. Good evening.
You might want me to pull the mics a little bit closer to you
if you would just kind of try to keep them straight. And for the record please state your name
and tell us where you're from. My name is Cliff Sher. I'm a development director with long road energy.
And my name is Chad Allen with Long Road Energy Director of Development as well.
Chad thank you.
You're going to have to pull the mics closer because there are a lot of people that are involved.
Great.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Just for anyone who's going to speak tonight, if you hear your voice echo in the room like I'm hearing my voice echo right now,
then you're loud enough and you're close enough.
So if you don't heat like when I sit back here, I don't hear the echo. So just listen for your own echo.
All right, good evening. Good evening. My name is Cliff Sher.
I'm with long road energy and this is Chad Allen also with long road energy.
And I should ask, is there an opportunity to get a presentation up on the screen or is this? Yes. Okay.
Krista. Thank you. Oh, it was loading.
Thank you for making the time for us to talk with you this evening and for the attention
to this issue.
We are, as folks know, looking at developing a proposal that combines solar and conservation
and I'll share a little bit about that proposal and a little bit about long road energy.
and then I'll pass it off to my colleague, Chad, to take, say a few words as
well.
So we have a purchase and sale agreement in place with Winshundan
Forest LLC for 1,365 acres which is scheduled to exit the chapter 61 timber
management program in july of next year I'm sorry one second
my apologies go
ahead so we have a purchase and sale agreement in place with Winshund and
Forestry LLC related to a number of properties look with the majority of which
are within Winshund in but approximately 200 acres within Ashburnham and the
properties are currently managed timber properties. The reason why we are
purchasing them is with the goal of developing 50 megawatts of solar on the
properties and conserving a thousand acres of the properties. We have a we've
committed in writing to conserving a thousand acres of the properties and that
conservation, I'll talk more about in a little bit, but would I believe provide a significant
amount of value to the town and to the community and help to connect some neighboring properties
that are already in preservation as well.
The solar that we're looking to develop is it would be developed in eight pockets within
in the properties and would total approximately 50 megawatts over the course of a year that
each and every year that solar would be avoiding emissions from other sources of generation.
And the emissions that would be avoided would be equivalent to the amount sequestered by 44,000
acres of forest per year.
So, while we'd be using approximately a third of the total acreage,
The impact to carbon emissions is significant, and it would be a big step towards the Massachusetts
goals of having net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and the 2030 reduction goals as well.
On
the conservation, we'd also forecast revenues to the town totaling close to $20 million
over a 40-year time frame.
So it would provide significant income to the town each and every year of operations.
So after just hitting the highlights, I'll back up and share a little bit about long road
energy.
We're based in Boston, Massachusetts.
We've been in business since 2016, but with a core team that's been working together for 20 years,
including previously at a company called First Wind, a wind developer.
Since 2016, we've been developing renewable energy projects all across the country.
You can see on this map, there's a number of which in Maine, Chad has been involved in,
but there's projects everywhere from Virginia to California and states in between.
We've developed close to 5,000 megawatts of projects and own approximately just over 3,000 megawatts and we also operate projects as a service to others as well.
Well,
because we are long-term owner operators, we approach projects with that perspective
and of an owner and operator and look to make commitments that we know we can stand behind
as well as make sure that the projects are successful and able to support the communities
where our projects are located.
We
operate the projects both with staff in the areas as where the projects are located
and also out of a remote operation center just up the road in Scarborough, Maine.
So back to Winshenden and the thousand acres that we are committed to conserving.
As I mentioned, the sacred wood connects some of the neighboring parcels which are preserved already
and I should clarify, actually, we're committed to either conserving or
dedicating the land to the town.
You know, this is a public hearing and we'll be listening with our ears wide open
and taking notes so far as to what the preferences are of the community.
And but it sounds like the types of conservation that people are interested
in our programs that incorporate recreation, hiking, biking, hunting, and fishing.
But again, this is a process, typically our development process.
Well, even for this project, the development process would stretch for years.
We've got about a four-year process ahead of us.
If we're successful, we would start construction in 2027.
And we would work to continue to collaborate with the community throughout that development process.
I know one topic that's come up has been the location of the rail to trail.
Trail that's in the area and you know I can confirm that that actually is on the southern border of the properties that you can see on the screen here.
and stops at North Ashburn Ham Road,
but there's with 1,000 acres of conservation,
there's certainly plenty of room to extend those trails
into the conservation land.
That's the type of thing that we would certainly be open to
and support doing.
We have a history of working with environmental organizations,
both nonprofits, as well as state,
county and township organizations, I personally used to work for natural resources defense council.
So the reason why I work in renewable energy is for environmental reasons and because
of the concern about climate change and this proposal I think does has a lot of potential
to really maximize value as far as generating clean renewable electricity and making a significant
step towards helping Massachusetts reach its carbon emissions goals.
With that, I can hand it to you.
Chad, I'll jump to the next slide here.
Okay, sure. Just kidding. I'll take this one as well.
So you can see here the eight areas of interest that we are.
This is based on preliminary research, so our preliminary design work based on a wetland reconnaissance and the design and engineering that we've done to eight, done to date.
You can see the areas of interest or the areas that we've identified as having potential for solar development.
And those are the green areas, correct?
That's correct.
to the green areas on this map,
and within those areas, that's how we have arrived at the
forecast that we would be able to develop approximately 50 megawatts of solar capacity on the
properties. Now, I mentioned the progress towards the emissions goals that this development
would help with, there would also be significant revenue available to the town throughout the life of the project starting from the removal from the chapter 61 program.
There are rollback taxes that would go to the towns of Winshundin and Ashburnham, and that would be followed by property taxes during the development period while we're moving.
they are proposal through the permitting and interconnection and final design phases.
So that's the rollback taxes are $320,000 that would go to the towns of Winshund and
Ashfordham.
The property taxes are a rough forecast, but we expect to pay approximately $65,000 per
year while we're working on this project.
And then that would increase at the start of operations, one of the things that we'd
be working on during the development period is to get a pilot agreement in place.
We're estimating a payment rate of $7,500 per megawatt per year based on that.
That would be an additional $375,000 per year for that 50 megawatts of solar.
There's also in Massachusetts taxes, properties taxes that are paid on the property where solar farms are located, so we're estimating that's another $100,000 per year.
And the estimates are based on the, some of the tax rates that we've seen in Winchenden and for this that last category elsewhere in the state.
There's also potential for additional revenue to the town and additional local employment if the town wishes to operate the project.
So that's how we arrive at the, over the 40 year life, approximately $20 or close to $20 million in revenue to the town.
while at the same time generating clean renewable electricity and providing 1,000 acres of conservation land to the region.
The slide is a comparison of the tax income, the tax revenue I should say from between the two scenarios.
1,000 acres of conservation and solar, and the other, if the town were to assign all the properties into 100% conservation.
And it's worth noting, it doesn't show up on this map, but there are some of the lots that were mentioned, or along the famous road, which are further to the south.
and I believe some of those properties are zoned industrial, but they also are a part of this purchase in sale agreement.
So that's part of what the town would be deciding tonight if they were to assign those to Mass Audubon and Mount Grace as well.
So this
slide shows the tax income, tax revenue that I just walked through compared to
zero dollars in tax revenue if the land is 100% placed into conservation, do
you want
to speak to three quarters?
Sure.
So this is Chad Allen with Long Road, picking up where Cliff left off.
Can you hear me okay?
Great.
So this is a project that I was involved in in Maine that is larger than what's being considered here.
So this was 150 megawatts, so approximately three times larger than the project that we're talking about here tonight,
where we also employed a conservation approach to the project to help offset some of the impacts that the project generated as a result of being constructed.
This project encompassed a little over 600 acres under PV panels in approximately 900 acres of total developed area where we conserved 1900 acres to offset the project again through three different parcels.
And this is a process, at least in the state of Maine, where you work with the regulators
to identify parcels and specific habitat that those parcels provide and that meet the
criteria and the goals that both parties can agree to.
And I think this also can be an opportunity to talk a little bit about what it would mean
if long-road were allowed the opportunity to continue and what that conservation would
look like. And so that conservation comes in the form of a deed restriction on these properties.
So what we ultimately decide in working with a town, what that deed restriction should look like,
what can be done and what can't be done on that property, is cemented through a deed restriction
that stays with the land. So therefore, regardless of who owns it, ultimately you're restricted by
by what those covenants in that deed restriction state.
Furthermore, typically for us, when we do conserve properties, we do transfer title of those properties to a third party group.
And again, in the case here, in the letter of commitment that we've submitted that could either be to the town of Winchenden, or to a third party conservation group to manage those deed restrictions.
So, before we stop, I do want to take this opportunity.
There was a public hearing in Ashburnham last night and there were a lot of really good
comments and questions from the community there about the project and I thought I'd
take this opportunity perhaps to answer some of those questions here again tonight.
So, Cliff mentioned but I think it's worth reiterating that the decision here before you
tonight is not a guarantee or a green light to start construction.
This project still has many, many steps to go before we would have that opportunity
to actually build the project.
And so I'll iterate a couple of those key development activities.
So there's an interconnection study process.
So we will need to submit an application to National Grid, which will initiate a long series
of studies that the utility will undertake to ensure that this project can safely and reliably
interconnect to the grid. We still have a considerable amount of field work to be done, so those
would be field surveys and design work to refine those eight areas of interest that Cliff previously
indicated in a prior slide. And then finally, and perhaps most importantly, is a rigorous permitting
an approach, you know, through both local state and federal permits that will be required
for this project, and throughout each and every one of those there will be many opportunities
for the community, municipality, and other regulators to weigh in on the merits of the project
to ensure that it meets the requirements.
Other questions or concerns that were raised that I think I'd like to just take a few moments
Once if I could to go through, so there is a concern that we are going to clear cut all 1365 acres.
I hope that this presentation makes clear that our intention is not to do that.
That 1,000 acres of this current land will remain as is.
We talked a little bit about the conservation and how that process would work via deed restrictions.
and potentially write a transfer of title to either the town or a third party conservation group.
We heard concerns about invasive plants species as a result of the development.
Long road employees and would be part of the permitting process, a specific seed, a native seed, pollinator seed mix, that would be employed with this project to make sure that it works within the current environment that the project is located.
We heard concerns about stormwater discharge and impacts to local watersheds and resources. Massachusetts has a zero discharge policy for any stormwater
design. That policy is enforceable, that policy requires that us as the developer is liable
for meeting that statutory requirement. And so, we fully intend and are required by
law to comply with that.
We heard concerns about panel washing and leaching of potential
chemicals into the soil.
In the northeast, we are abounded by plenty of rain, and so the projects that long road
operates in the northeast, we do not wash.
There's plenty of rain to do that work for us.
And secondly, washing is a very expensive process, so we do everything we can to avoid having
to do that in those areas where rain is not so significant.
We heard concerns about impacts to animal species as a result of the fencing.
So the type of fencing that Long Road utilizes is relatively new in the industry.
It's called animal friendly fencing.
I'd be happy during the permitting process to explain what it is and provide specifications.
But it does allow for the passage and movement of small game and animals.
And then finally, you know, a general concern about a permanent loss of habitat as a result
of the up to 365 acres that this project would be.
I think we have to also recognize in addition to the emissions benefits that Cliff referenced,
this is a temporary change of the landscape.
So this project has an expected operating life of 40 years, at which time it would be decommissioned,
And through that decommissioning process, we have to restore the property where the project was.
And then in addition to that, while certainly different solar projects and particularly projects like this with small pods,
one does allow for mass movement of large animals.
And second, it creates new habitat for certain species.
So there's a lot of forest to meadow habitat that's created that is certainly beneficial to a lot of species, particularly bird species.
And with that, I do not have anything else tonight. Thank you very much for your time and attention.
You're welcome. Thank you.
I will open it up to the board for questions and comments.
That's Matt and Chair.
Mr. Ward.
Yeah, my concern is the potential deed to the town for the thousand acres for conservation.
How does that process work?
What are the requirements of that deed?
That would only be pursued if the town wished to pursue that.
So, you know, I think you've probably seen the letter that we've submitted the commitment
letter, but the details of any of that, you know, we'd be happy to put into a binding
agreement, including language addressed, sorry, to address the potential conservation
or the deed to the town. So it's not something that I've worked on previously, but it's definitely
something that were open to exploring with the town if that was preferred over the conservation
alternative. And again, this is something that would be done not from tomorrow, but it
would be a commitment to do that if we're successful in moving forward with the solar.
So prior to starting construction.
I guess that leads to my follow-up question if you're successful because the way I read the letter we get the deed, but if, along in the process, you're not successful in getting the solar farm up and running for some reason, whether it's not getting the right requirements or so on, that then the deed, we don't automatically get those thousand acres.
is we have to buy them back at the price $6 million or whatever it may be.
Yeah, if we're not successful, we would essentially give the town another rofer, another right
of first refusal to purchase the property.
So it would be kind of another bite at the apple.
And so there's not a missed opportunity, you know, to be a repeat of this, obviously our goal is to be successful, and we think that the project has a lot of merits and should be pursued, but we're prepared to make that commitment to offer that town, offer the town the right of first refusal if we're not successful.
Thank you.
Or we would have the right to assign, just as we are here this evening.
If it says, you know, approve to go forward at some point, if it doesn't happen, we would
be back here with, they would send us the first right of refusal.
We would decide if the town's going to buy it or if we're going to assign it to a third
party, just as we are this evening.
Anything else from the board?
Before I jump in.
Madam Chair.
Mrs. Anderson.
I was curious, what is the lifespan of a solar panel?
Typically, you want to take it?
So typically, the manufacturer provides what is called a guaranteed production curve.
So there is a natural degradation in the amount of power generated by a single module as time moves on.
And the manufacturers will guarantee what that curve looks like, and that is currently a 30 year guarantee.
Okay.
So at a 30 year guarantee, but you also said that the town has the potential of making 20 million over 40 years.
That's right, yeah. The panels are typically guaranteed. The production is guaranteed for 30 years.
but even at the end of that, if you do the math, the reduction in the amount of energy produced is not extremely significant.
There's the panel lifespan is typically 40 years and projects that I've developed in that at the end of 30 years, you're still able to produce, I think it's around 85% of the project's initial capacity.
So it continues to degrade over the next 10 years, but you still have an economical project.
So like our oil burners, efficiency in our homes, kind of that sort of concept, right?
I'm sorry.
I said like the oil burner in your residential homes, that sort of concept, right?
When you get it cleaned every year, they do an efficiency reading.
Well, I have some of the panels at home for my
mountains, but they cloud over over a couple of years.
And they're kind of lousy after a couple of years.
Yeah, the ones we use.
I mean, as Chad said, there's a warranty and a guarantee
from the manufacturer that they will continue to
generate in line with the curve that they provide
that has that's a warranty for 30 years.
then we would expect to get another 10 years of life out of them.
And could I also ask you, where are they manufactured?
Harry's Bergo Hyall.
Okay, so it is?
We utilize a company called First Solar, so it's a domestically manufactured product.
Okay, thank you.
Madam Chair.
Yes, Mr. Blinchard.
How do you plan on keeping the foliage down?
Are you planning on putting herbicides down to control any of the weeds growing around your panels?
Yeah,
we're typically either Mo. I've also worked on projects where we had sheep grazing
like to call it landscaping. It's not something that has those projects are typically selected
for that because there's shepherds in the area already. But yeah, there's higher contractor
to Mo and maintain the vegetation. We also plant that native seed mix that Chad mentioned
earlier, we typically include in that varieties that are slower growing so that they don't grow up
to block the sun from hitting the panels.
So you plan on no chemical herbicides?
I think in routine maintenance there might be like spot treatment, especially if there's,
you know, it's something that we look out for is making sure that there's not invasive species
and making sure that those are taken care of as immediately as they need to be.
So I can't say I'd have to explore that topic further, that's something that's important to the town.
It's certainly something that could be addressed in the permitting process as we would have a lot of opportunities for conversation on topics like that.
Yes, Mrs. LePoint.
So obviously it's not something you are for seeing, but what happens if for some reason before this really gets up off the ground or even at the very beginning long road goes bankrupt or something happens and the company is no longer than what does this look like?
If
it's before the project is built, the town would have a contract for a rougher on the property.
We also would have a decommissioning plan in place, which typically involves the posting of a decommissioning bond,
which is money set aside so that prior to the end of life, typically prior to the end of the power contract,
But the, there's fun set aside for the removal of all the equipment.
If for some reason the developer, like ourselves, if we don't live up to our obligation to remove the equipment, there's fun set aside at a separate location, separate entity, I guess you could say.
Thank you.
What's the maintenance plan?
How often would the panels be checked?
I know there's some concern about chemical leaching from a broken panel or such like that.
How often would the field be checked?
It would be monitored remotely 24-7 and then we would have someone in the area that would
probably in the area weekly, you know driving around visiting the locations. The panels, even
if they're cracked, there's a laminate inside that protects the contents further. There's
also no liquid that's able to leach out of the panels. So yeah, it's something that's been
studied and it's not something to worry about with solar panels, but it is the maintenance
is something that's a concern for all of us because we want to keep the project operating
as efficiently as possible and also making sure the ground cover is in good condition as
well.
All right.
If I can go back to the revenue opportunity, the figures you showed tonight were different
from the figures that were provided to the board earlier on in this discussion.
What I have, it's similar to what you have in front of us, but it's an older copy.
Revenue from pilot agreement forecasted to be the 375 a year.
Additional revenue available through operations agreement estimated at 8750 per megawatt for
an additional 435 per year, more than 800 per year.
So I'm just curious, maybe it's there, but it's just worded different.
Well, it's worded different, and it's referred to as far as the additional revenue and
local employment opportunity.
That's possible if Winston operates the project.
That would be possible if we get an agreement in place with the town that meets the approval
of the Department of Energy Resources.
And so we'd want to make sure that that agreement doesn't just account for the cost,
or account for the revenue that the town would have, but also takes into account the costs.
So I think it would just require further discussion and even negotiations to make sure that the dollar amounts are right.
But we didn't, it's, you know, we've, it's something that we're definitely interested in working, working on with the town.
So, just waiting to see the answer.
When should an operates the project?
We get a higher percentage of the revenue.
There would be an additional amount on top of the, I mean, on the screen currently.
Okay.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Mr. Ward?
Yeah, I'm interested in that operation agreement.
How does that work?
What type of task are you looking at that the town plus we could take over?
So I think we're certainly open to exploring any and all.
So long road, as Cliff mentioned, we own and operate the majority of the...
So there's a scope of work and there's a cost associated with that, right? So there's a revenue component that you'd be paid for.
but there's also a cost to the town.
And I think the point here that Cliff was making and some of the changes you're seeing here is it really requires further discussion with the town.
It's a function of what your interests are, what your comforts are, what your willingness is for taking on certain scope.
We certainly have to talk about the various skill sets and training that would be required.
There was questions about right insurance and liabilities, so we'd be happy to explore all of that to come up with a plan that both parties are comfortable with.
Whatever that scope is, limited or expanded, and then ultimately take that to the state to see if they agree that that meets the statutory definition of a public entity component of the smart program.
So it would be a collaborative process.
Anything further from the board?
Questions, comments?
No.
Well, thank you very much, gentlemen.
Appreciate it very much.
Thank you.
I would like to invite to the table the Mount Grace Audubon Society representatives.
I think we've run out of space.
Thank you so much for having this public hearing tonight.
We're very glad to be here and thank you for getting that on the screen.
You're welcome and just for the record please your yes. I'm going to ask you to not to stand too far behind this place. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
My name is Sarah Wells. I'm the conservation director at Mount Grace
and I know that you've been talking with my colleague Erin Nelson up to this point but unfortunately he came down with COVID on Sunday night.
really, really wanted to be here. He's very invested in this project. So these
sons is regrets. We both share our gratitude for you all holding the
hearing tonight. We can appreciate it. It's been a very long week for you
already and it's only Tuesday. I'm also joined here tonight by Mass Audubon.
David Santamana, Senior Director of Land Conservation for Mass Audubon, again.
And we appreciate the the chair allowing us to also have Dr. Jonathan Thompson with
Thus tonight he is the senior ecologist at the Harvard Forest.
So he'll be sharing some brief remarks after David and
I talk about the opportunity in front of us tonight.
Mount Grace is headquartered over in Athbal.
We've been around for almost 40 years.
And we've been involved in a number of projects here in town.
We've helped protect Murdoch Farm, 19th Hill, and
most recently Sunset View Farm with Chuck and
Olivia Tarleton, who are over there in the corner.
And we very much value collaboration,
so we're grateful to be here in partnership
with Ms. Audubon tonight.
And folks in the room may already know this,
but just to recap, so we're all on the same page
about why we're here tonight,
the Winchent and Forest LLC property
is enrolled in the chapter 61 current use program.
It's proposed to be sold to Long Road
for commercial solar development. That would constitute a change in land use and that is what gives the town the chance to step in and to either match the purchase price and buy the land directly or to assign it to that, to sign that right to purchase to a conservation organization.
And most towns, especially in our part of the state, rarely get to use either of those
options because as we're all experiencing right now, the timeline is really short, and
it's usually very difficult to mobilize quickly enough to try to bring the funding together
to have a shot at meeting whatever offer is already on the table.
And that is what makes the opportunity tonight so unique.
Mass Audubon has the money. They have the $6 million to match the offer from
Long Road. That's not hypothetical or theoretical. They have that. And that's
something that David will speak to in greater detail later on. But I wanted to
reinforce up front how powerful that is because most towns especially in our
neck of the woods never have a shot, a realistic shot of coming to the table in
even thinking about using their right-of-first refusal
when there's a multi-million dollar price tag
attached to the project.
So tonight, we are asking that the board
assign the right-of-first refusal to Mass Audubon.
We made the same request to the Ashburnham select board
last night.
I think there were probably close to 100 people
who were in the Ashburnham town hall auditorium.
They seem to be overwhelmingly in support of the assignment.
The board decided to continue the hearing until next Tuesday.
And they asked that Mass Audubon provide proof of funds in the meantime.
David was able to do that this morning, and we have a copy of that for the board tonight for your records.
Thank you.
To us, this is really what community conservation is about, and we wouldn't be asking the board to make this choice if we didn't fully believe that it advances the goals of the town's existing master plan and open space and recreation plan.
And more importantly, we wouldn't be asking either town to make this choice if we didn't
have support from people who live in these communities.
We genuinely see this as a once in a generation conservation opportunity.
The property having fun scrolling with us, sorry, the property itself is roughly 1300 acres.
most of that is in Winshenden, and as far as we can tell, it's never been developed.
It's always been open, it's always been woods and streams, and we have a chance now to keep it that way.
Looking at the acreage alone, this is already an incredible conservation opportunity, but it's really about more than that.
It's about the role that this property plays in connecting the landscape.
And landscape connectivity is so critically important when we're talking about climate change
resilience, meaningful public access, and having room for animals to move around.
I also like to think of landscape connectivity as being a bit like a quilt.
You have to actually stitch the individual pieces together for that quilt to be useful.
And that's exactly what we're trying to do here.
stitch the landscape together through permanent conservation so we can keep
all of it together and intact and open for public access forever.
This is a map
that shows something called Biomap. Biomap is the most important tool we have in
Massachusetts for showing where the most important habitat is in Massachusetts and
hopefully you can see by all of the green on this map that there is a ton of
biomass on this property. Most of that is because this property is contributing to something
called forest core. That means that this property is part of a really, really, really big
block of unbroken, unfragmented, intact forest. The other key thing to note is that some
of the headwaters of the Miller's River are on this parcel, and portions of the Miller's
river flow through some of these parcels.
So whatever happens on this property will have downstream impacts for both communities.
I've talked a bit about connectivity already, and I want to emphasize here in the last
map that this property is important for local connectivity, but it's also important for
regional connectivity.
It really anchors this corridor of unbroken forested land that extends way up into New Hampshire.
And we don't think that that unbroken corridor should be broken or solar.
We need solar, that's the fact.
But we need that solar to be appropriately cited.
And thankfully in Massachusetts we have government agencies, nonprofit institutions and academic
institutions who are all working together to address this question of how Massachusetts can
meet its energy needs and be a leader in renewable energy.
And the point is made repeatedly that converting farmland and forestland for solar is not the
answer.
The scale of the proposed solar development here is simply incompatible with what we're
trying to protect on this very special property. Having 400 acres of roads and fencing and panels
will break the landscape connectivity that we are trying to protect. And I can completely
understand if we're just looking at the numbers and the terms of the number of acres, that the
The idea of only developing 400 acres and then potentially conserving the balance
up to 1,000 acres, of course that sounds really compelling, but the problem here is that
that strategy doesn't actually help us with the goal of this whole project, which is landscape
connectivity.
In fact, it threatens the very heart of what we're trying to do, which is to keep this landscape
intact.
It's a little bit like if we were partnering with the developer to try to save a really
iconic special multi-generation family farm, except the developer said that they needed
to be able to keep the farmhouse and the barn and the farmfields.
We could conserve the rest, but at that point, no matter what that acreage was,
how would we be meaningfully conserving the farm?
And in this case, how could we conserve an unfragmented, connected landscape if there are going to be 400 acres of pockets of solar that are puncturing that landscape?
That's why we're hoping that the board will support a full conservation outcome tonight.
And I'd also like to note that the term deed restriction was used earlier.
Here this might be a terminology, difference in Massachusetts, but in our state deed restrictions are not perpetual.
They last 30 years, they can be renewed twice after that, but after 90 years they're done.
So that's, if that's what in fact the tool that Long Road was referring to, that's not permanent conservation.
So I wanted to share that.
Otherwise, again, we hope you'll support full conservation and
to sign the right to Mass Audubon and David will now speak to what that would look like
should you choose to do that.
Great. Sarah, thank you so much for that great introduction. She's a tough act to follow.
I did want to thank the board and all the folks in the public who are here this evening, especially
in the matter of the fact that you had town meeting last night, so that's a double header for you folks.
I'll keep my remarks very brief, acknowledging that there are a lot of folks in the room
that I don't want to be here heard.
I just will say very briefly that Mass Audubon is really thrilled to be here with the
opportunity to make this offer to the town and to Mount Grays to be a facilitator for
the protection of this property.
I have a letter here from our President David O'Neill that does affirm that we in fact have
the capacity to complete this transaction as a Chapter 61 statute requires.
I'll say a few words about Mass Audubon.
I don't want to presume that everyone knows about it, but we are one of the oldest land protection organizations in the country we were found in 1896.
We provide our first actuary in 1916.
We've protected about 40,000 acres of land across the state to date and our anxious to do more.
We have about 66 sanctuaries that are open for public visitation, including in near geography.
the what's used at Meadow is kind of one of our anchor properties, Cheshire Pond, and
like Wampanoag and Gardner and Ashburn Ham sort of round out our local portfolio.
I would note that I was taking a look at the online version of your local paper the other
day and I noted that there was a toy town truckers group I think that was actually headed down
to our flat rock sanctuary in Fitchburg.
So we really loved that folks are using our properties.
In this instance, our role is really to act as a bridge to the permanent protection of the property.
It is not our goal to own the property for the long term.
We really engaged in this because we heard both from Matt Grace, from the local perspective and from our partners at the State,
Mass Fish and Game, and the Department of Conservation and Recreation that they really had a goal and an ambition to protect this property,
add it to the existing basic protective land, and they asked us if we could act on an interim basis to hold that property
until they had the funding available.
And so that's what we're, again, frankly, very fortunate
to be here in the position to do.
I think I'll leave it at that.
I would like to introduce John Thompson.
And just mentioned that, sorry, he left me John. In addition to our land protection and sanctuary operations, we do have a very active advocacy operation. And one of the things that our advocates are really digging into at the moment is all about climate change, climate change, carbon, et cetera. We became very concerned about the large scale conversion of forest land to solar a couple of years ago, and joined together with Mr. Harbor for us to look
to put together a study to validate the impacts and opportunities to create solar
Massachusetts and I just like to go down the chance to do a quick overview of that.
Thank you.
Yeah, I really appreciate you letting me.
So just pull the mic a little bit closer to you please.
So please don't move the mic. I was scared.
I was just wanted to thank the board and thank everybody for coming out.
I am the research director and senior ecologist at the Harvard Forest.
But maybe more relevantly, I'm the lead author of the land sector report for the state's decarbonization pathway, and I'm also the co lead author of the growing solar protecting nature report that came out in October that we wrote in partnership with mass autobahn so to the extent I can be useful to the board and to the town, it's in thinking about the impacts both to the landscape and to the climate mitigation potential.
of both forests and solar that I've spent a lot of time studying.
I think it's important to note that Mass Audubon, Mount Grace, myself, Harvard, Forest see
a need for green energy for solar and meeting the 27 gigawatt requirement of the decarbonization
pathway is critical when we started doing the analyses that are behind the growing solar,
protecting nature report, I'll be frank, I didn't know how the results would come out.
Like there was an estimate that we might need to lose up to 100,000 acres of forest to build out the amount of solar.
And indeed, that's the trend the state has been on, the solar is fast becoming the largest cause of deforestation in the state.
But then we went through a really careful analysis of citing solar in the state.
And we showed, and you all can look it up at GrowingSolarProtectingNature.com, that we
can meet our clean energy goals without sacrificing our natural and working lands.
It's not, it's a false choice to think that we have to do both.
And there are many solar projects that I think the three of us would stand behind.
But this isn't one of them.
This is a large, intact, connected forest ecosystem that would be perforated by the solar
development and the impacts of that extend well beyond the 400 acres that would be developed.
Not just in the loss of connectivity and movement, but in the changes in micro-medialogical
conditions, the changes in migration routes, it cascades into the remaining forests.
So the issue just isn't simply about the footprint.
I'd also like to remind folks because I think it's easy to, when we're thinking about
forests and we're thinking about solar, we think about, well, they both have carbon
benefits and this is true. But they're different, right? The carbon benefits provided by solar
are equivalent to the amount of emissions reduction somewhere else and that's great, right?
And so the statistics we saw tonight are assuming that the emissions that are displaced by the solar are the same emissions today, but that's not true in 40 years, the emissions displaced would be much lower, right, as we move towards the decarbonization pathway.
way. The function of forest are twofold. One in all the carbon that is stored in the
forest, the build up of the carbon there, and in the sequestration. And while there's
some novel technologies out there to remove carbon from the atmosphere, photosynthesis, trees
is still really the only way we have to do this at scale. And the only way to meet the net
That zero obligations of the state are to be able to capture carbon out of the atmosphere,
which is not something solar can do and it's something only for us can do.
And so between the point of keeping the landscape intact and the climate benefits of
forest, this just isn't a project that I could support personally.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I will open it up to the board for questions, comments.
Madam Chair.
I
think if you could clear up that Mass Audubon only wants to temporarily hold this property and that you would also like to partner with Mass Fish and Game in which it is spring's wildlife and I'd like somebody to explain to me what that will look like because while we would support Audubon, I'm not sure I would support maybe Mass Fish and Game.
I'll just say that we want to be strategic about land that we acquire and manage for
the long term.
It's very resource-intensive to take care of property the way that we want to, so we
are more and more working on land protection projects in an assisted basis in this
housing of that category where we're facilitating the acquisition of property or protection of
property by another entity.
That's exactly what's proposed here.
The fact of the matter is that the state is the entity that has the funds to permanently acquire the property.
We have it available on an interim basis, but we need to recapture those funds in order to reinvest them in the next project.
So given the existing investment that the state has both fishing game and conservation and recreation in protected land in the immediate geography,
They make, to us, frankly, the most sense as the permanent hold of their property.
And we have a high level of confidence and comfort in their ability to manage those properties both from a habitat in a natural resource respected, but also for public access.
Other questions, comments from the board?
Madam Chair, go ahead.
Mr. Ward?
Yeah, a quick question about this mass target to meet in Ezio, greenhouse gas, CO2 emissions by 2050.
50? Do you think that's realistic?
I'm not going to defer to John.
It's going to be hard.
I think it's necessary.
And I've seen, I mean, it's a difficult question to answer.
Some days I think, yeah, we've got to do this and we're going to do it.
And some days I'm frustrated and I think this will never happen.
But that's all I work at.
Yeah, because I'm just reading in the paper this week
Emissions for 2023 are going to be at an all-time record high of CO2
So whatever we're doing right now, it's not working. My issue is and this is maybe this is something you can't answer
But I've read so many studies
from
Solar companies and from mass
Autobahn. I do a search and it seems like I can't get somebody in the middle who
will just not be tied to solar or to Autobahn. But I've gone through about 20
or 30 of these studies. And one of them says, for mass to meet clean energy goal, the
state needs to build 25 to 35 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2050. Currently, we
We only have about three gigawatts installed.
To meet the 2050 goal, we need to triple a quadruple, the rate of which we are adding solar.
That's all accurate.
I don't know if that was from the Harvard study, it might have been another study.
I mean, all those numbers resonate, those could have been pulled from our study.
The build out, particularly over the past few years, has slowed due to the interconnects studies.
And so a lot of the utility scale solar has slowed while the state works out where the interconnect goes.
And right now, that's the largest bottleneck to bringing more solar online.
Like I said, I would love, and I see the need to triple and quadruple the pace.
And I think that there are a lot of areas that we can put solar that will help us hit that 27,
which is in the 25 to 35 that you just cited.
When we worked it out, we found 27 gigawatts doable through building on,
not building in unfragmented forest land, but doing it on rooftops,
doing it on already developed lands, landfill sites that there are a lot of,
there is certainly enough area several times over to get to the 2025 to 30.
That's out there.
We need to incentivize putting, citing it in the right locations and we need to do it now.
And not move forward and like sacrifice our other natural and working lands to get there.
I think we can do it.
Thank you.
Anything else from the board?
Madam Chair.
Yes, Mrs. Appoint.
Do you guys envision any other pockets in that proposed 1300 acres that would potentially work as opposed to the eight or so pockets that are highlighted in green right now by long road?
We haven't done an annal. We haven't had frankly the chance to be on the site to do that kind of analysis, but our goal is to protect the entirety of the site.
No, I get that.
Okay.
Thank you.
I'm just timing. Let's look at should the ward vote to assign the right-of-risk refusal?
I understand that we have until January 4th, the town has until January 4th to notify the landowner and record the notice of assignment with the registry of deeds.
And then there would be, it would be on you to do the purchase and sale, meet me at the 90 day or whatever the requirement is, is that doable on your rent?
Yes, absolutely.
Okay.
I think that was the only question or anything else further from the board.
All right. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
I'm going to now open the public comment section of the hearing.
As I stated, we had a group who requested to be heard this evening, so I invite them
up first.
Would you ready if you would please just make sure to introduce yourself.
Great.
Thank you.
Good evening.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak in the support task in front of you.
My name is Wendy Gendron.
I live at 18 Sunset Drive in the Far Hills Association in Ashburnham, Massachusetts.
So I am a certified lake manager and aquatic ecologist.
I'm a subject matter expert for many of the surrounding lake communities specializing in protection, rehabilitation, and management of lakes and aquatic systems.
I'm touched.
Okay, a little bit closer to you.
Yeah, you can move it forward.
It's the side where you're meant to go.
Is that good?
I think it's good.
Yes, thank you.
So I apologize that I'm going to read this.
I usually do not, but it is so important to us that I get to out all of my points tonight.
So please bear with me.
This decision before you is about protecting the diverse and fragile habitats within our backyard.
This is a decision of a lifetime as you heard Sarah say.
And the impact of your choice persists for decades.
This isn't just about renewable energy and income for the town.
It's about lasting cumulative impacts in an ever changing climate, the most effective
alternative to secure clean water, clean air, and biodiversity into the future is to
protect this critical space and perpetuity.
Just about every local, state, and federal agency recognizes the importance of rare and scarce
habitat.
While this track-up land appears to be a typical forest that is plentiful in New England,
It is anything but replaceable.
As you heard from Sarah, these 1300 plus acres are strategically located among an additional
1,500 acres of protected land, and it forms a natural connection between the town of
Asprinham, Winchington, and New Hampshire.
It is a vital, regional, connective space expanding over 83 square miles.
This designation by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the Nature Conservancy formalizes the importance
of habitat connections and acknowledges the significance to protect critical biodeverse areas.
It allows plants and animals to move and adapt to climate change and escape anthropogenic development.
Historically, plants and animals could shift their range freely, but because of human development this range has been greatly diminished, and has become fragmented over time, leaving smaller,
in smaller,
scattered, unconnected areas.
These fragmented habitats reduce the fitness of individual species creating genetic population isolation and reduces the overall biodiversity of which leads, which often leads to species extinction. It's analogous to impossible physical barriers between us, education, medical care, and our friends and families. Imagine what extended human isolation would cause if barriers could not be overcome. Just because the solar project proposes to set us
Besides some habitat, this is subject to change.
It's highly likely that the current plan will change multiple times before finalization.
Recall that the developers have stated that it could be up to four years before construction even starts.
Once built, the area will be fenced, causing additional fragmentation, inhibiting terrestrial wildlife movement.
Photovoltaic panels are known to cause bird mortality, affect migration corridors and negatively impact that activity.
The reduced forest canopy increases soil and stormwater runoff temperatures, which in turn increase wetland and waterway temperatures,
creating an environment ripe for harmful algal blooms.
The continued operation and maintenance of the proposed project will also stress the
environment, which has the potential to reduce water quality and introduction of non-native
invasive species, requiring aggressive vegetation management, including chronic use of herbicides.
Notice that the presenter did not deny the use of herbicides and could not quantify the
use of it in the future.
I strongly disagree that the raised fencing and seeding will be protective or equal to the habitat that currently exists.
The impact of land use change on these parcels also has monetary impacts and two separate economic studies, one in Maine and one in the Great Lakes region, home values near water bodies decreased as much as 15.8% following a decline in water quality.
Protecting this land will secure both habitat and economic value of the watershed and perpetuity.
If the solar fields become obsolete as technology changes, if the company defaults are fails to obtain permits,
this land will be available for residential development, which is even more serious,
which has even more serious deleterious impacts to the area.
including Lake Monomenac, Sunset Lake, and all of the downstream river ecosystem.
As Mount Grace and Mass Audipon has explained, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
to protect this high-value habitat, water quality, and wildlife quarters for generations
beyond us.
I am confident that you will make the correct decision and allow Mass Audipon and Mount
Grace the opportunity to protect this valuable, invaluable tract of land.
Thank you for listening, and thank you, Mount Grace and Mass Audubon.
Hi, my name is Fred Sellers, I'm the environmental director of the Far Hills Association.
And I'm here tonight representing the more than 330 home owners and
60 land owners surrounding Sunset Lake and Winchin and the Nashville ham.
We're concerned about the proposed development of a major new solar project in our lakes watershed.
clear-cutting and developing significant acreage in this unique and important forest
could have a significant adverse impact on the water quality ecology of
sunset lake Lake Monomenac in the Miller River. I want to share my personal
reflections as a recently retired environmental consultant who spent the bulk of
my 40-year career specializing in the citing and environmental permitting of
major energy projects nationwide including solar projects, fossil fuel projects,
wind, onshore and offshore, hydroelectric, and pretty much any way you can think of
to manufacture electricity.
A few points. The town cannot assume that the solar
project will be successfully developed. This project is really at its infancy,
faces a long and difficult permitting process. It makes it coming to fruition
far from certain. Most of my energy facility development clients maintain to
portfolio of future projects. These were not so much a development pipeline as a development
funnel. With many projects in the very early stages of development at the top, funneling
down to a smaller number that demonstrate our higher likelihood of success as progress
is made on key development milestones. As the projects funnel down, those with significant
permitting electrical interconnection or other development obstacles get left behind.
The project is really not much further along than was first introduced to you in November
of 2022, and would still be at the very, very top where part of any of my clients' development
fondles.
As part of the state permitting process, the developer is going to face some pretty strong
headwinds as the climate for solar projects itself is changing in Massachusetts.
As part of the state permitting process, the developer will need to demonstrate consistency
with state municipal plans and policies, which could prove problematic for the project
in a number of areas.
First of course, right here in Winchin, your open space and master plan to identify this area
is open space that should be protected.
In response to the loss of more than 5,000 acres of forest to solar development in Massachusetts
since 2010, the administration recently announced the Forests' Climate Solutions Initiative
to ensure Massachusetts Forests are managed to help meet the state's aggressive climate goals.
These initiatives are expected to create disincentives in the SMART program for clear-cutting forests and solar farms.
The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources strongly discourages locations
that result in significant loss of land and natural resources including forest land
and encourages citing solar projects and industrial and commercial districts
are on previously disturbed land.
Previously undeveloped projects may be ineligible for incentives for certain incentives
for large ground-mounted solar development if their characterizes valuable wildlife habitat
by the natural heritage program.
If the solar project is not approved, the developer would likely sell their land to another entity to recoup its investment.
The land is owned for residential development.
The town must consider the possibility of a large residential project as equally likely outcome to the solar project,
which obviously would have very, very different financial implications for the town.
So I urge you to assign your right-of-first refusal to Mass Audubon to protect this unique and extremely important forest resource.
Thank you.
Hi there, I'm Gina Gallitz-Gay.
I live on Melon Road in Winshenden.
That's the Tom Farm Road side of Melon Road.
There's only a few of those there.
I'm just a concerned citizen.
I don't have any environmental credentials,
Although I would love to, but I put together a few slides, a little bit different from
what everybody else is doing on the solar farms.
So I'm just going to quickly summarize the current solar farms in Winshenden, and that's
to the best of my googling, which my eyes are googling out of my head because I've looked
at so many photos.
I'm also going to attempt to depict the size of a 50 megawatt solar industrial complex as
it relates to downtown Winshenden.
So this is just a little bit different.
Okay, so these are the solar farms found on Google and Google Maps.
So, we've heard the numbers tossed around that we have eight.
It could be called nine solar farms because I think the ones on Lincoln Ave,
there's two of them, Lincoln 1 and 2.
We also have the one that everyone can see on Ashtray at the golf course.
That's the easiest one to see and drive by.
We have Winchin and Solar and Solar 2.
That is the former San Pit, I believe that's on River Street, that's about 11 acres.
We have the one at the landfill that we've seen for quite a few years, and West Street
has two solar, so right across the street from each other, they kind of mirror each other,
they're each about four acres.
Happy Hollow Road just came into commission in 2019.
That's the formal gravel pit, and I believe Gardner has a similar extension of that on
their side, and there's a small solar farm behind Clark's performance
horses on Route 12, which I think might be George Measier's old gravel pit unless
anybody can correct me. So when I looked at all the acreage of what we had
there, we have almost 130 acres of solar in this town, small-scale solar farms,
And I think five of them appear to be sighted on previously disturbed land.
We did a really good job with that.
The golf course, the sand pit, the landfill, and two other gravel pits.
I am not 100% sure on Lincoln Ave or on the West Street solar if they were clear cut for
solar intentionally.
So we have about 130 acres, and when you add up all those megawatts, we have over 30.
I think it approaches like 34 megawatts of solar already.
And I'm not throwing our neighbor towns under the bus, but we definitely beat them on
solar.
All right, Gardiner does have the wind generators, which is really nice, but if you look
on Google Earth, you'll see that we really have done a great job solar farming in
winch of them. So we might conclude that we are not NIMBY on solar. When people say NIMBY not
on your bet not in my backyard we are not. We have 130 acres of solar farms and we those existing
solar farms are sending to the grid over 30 megawatts of energy. And in conclusion also I said that we've
done a pretty good job citing the solar farms on previously disturbed land and minimize the land
clearing.
Okay.
The chapter 61 land. In full disclosure, my husband and I on a small
bit of chapter 61 land, so I know a little bit about it. So the 1100 acres in
Winchinon, how much of this land will be a solar complex? Well, there was wetlands
slated for 2023 and it is not finished, so we don't know exactly right now how much
of the 1100 acres would be solar. However, I do agree that long road in the 1127 proposal
estimated that 400 acres were going to be set aside for the 50 megawatt solar complex.
So 400 acres is more than three times all of our current solar farm land in Wenzhenen.
So if you added them all up and put them side by side, this is three times. You have to
Well, I think about that, right, for a second, and we own a little bit of land.
I can't even get my head around what 400 acres is.
So this is their map that they proposed in the November 27th speech and what you probably
have seen online, I'm sorry, those are the separate eight solar areas of interest in the
green.
And then just for what the heck, I googled tonset lake and that turns out to be 300 acres
as opposed to the 400 acres that Long Road is proposing, who would have guessed, right?
So what is 400 acres? I have no idea. I mean, who can really visualize what 400 acres
is? I cannot imagine what it is. One thing I did look up though was the Clark Memorial.
We all pretty much know what the Clark Memorial is, right? So I went on to MassGIS and I'm
to MassGIS which is the map view that you can get for free on Mass.gov and it's a really
great little website you can peek at all your neighbor's properties, tax values, but
anyway, the Clark Memorial Law is eight and a quarter acres.
So we're talking, you know, the go up central street, you got summer street on one side and
then you got summer drive with a CACS and then you got to go up to Beltax.
That's the Clark Memorial Lot, so that includes not just the building and the old skating rink and the tennis courts
You know includes the track and that kind of berm of land that runs up the side
So that's eight and a quarter acres
So I just did there's a look a quick look of what the Massachusetts
Mass GIS property map is anybody can look at this you can go online and click on it
So I just wanted to show you where I got my information so I'm not just making this stuff up and I clicked on the Clark Memorial and their right is it's really tiny but it says eight and a quarter acres.
I'm trying to, you know, give you some real information here.
Okay, so what is 400 acres? Well, 400 acres divided by eight and a quarter acres for a Clark Memorial is 48 and a half Clark Memorial lots.
That's big, right?
48 and a half Clark Memorial Lots.
There it is.
Wow.
What I did, and there's my 62-year-old shaky hand,
drawing around the Clark Memorial Lot,
and then I caught...
Happy to 48 times, and I just put them in together in this big lot. And I just covered
Winshonan. I know the solar is not going right in the downtown Winshonan, but I wanted
something that we could all relate to. What is this going to look like size-wise? And
then of course, I had to put solar panels on them, because that would be a big solar
farmer Winshonan.
I need to see things. I need to, you know, it's hard for me to understand
and this without getting a good visual.
But now we know the long road is really broken up solar.
They're not proposing a big grid like this.
So what if we broke those up
and just threw them all over Winshonan
and made eight small solar farms all over Winshonan?
Can you imagine, now we try to think
about animals smart-grading around?
Can you imagine trying to get to Walmart
through this mess here?
Yeah.
OK, so what can I say?
In conclusion, Winshonan is historically
not against solar. We've done a good job with it and we should pat ourselves on the back
with it. I don't want to say our fair share but we've done a good amount and we've cited
it on previously disturbed land. The proposed 50 megawatt solar complex is very, very big
and it's going to dwarf all of our current solar farms together. If we develop this, it's
going to be the largest in Massachusetts right now and the current largest one is I think
So one thing I just want to say that's not on here besides Will Winchendon be known as Toytown or Solartown is
I'm guessing that this will not be not be the last industrial solar complex that will be proposed in Winchendon
Just because this is one I'm guessing there's others, right? We have a lot of relatively inexpensive land
However, in this particular instance, we have a path forward for conservation funded, not
by Winchenden, but out of concern and generosity of Mass Audubon.
So we need to decide, do we want to be toy town or solar town?
Thank you.
I
don't have any.
I don't have any pretty.
Yes.
Sorry.
No, I am.
No, it's all yours.
Oh, it's online.
Okay.
I'm E. Lamarose and I'm not sure I can follow that act very well, but I have been working
with Lynch and in for over 30 years as a volunteer in many different things, including developing
some of the plans that we talked about tonight.
And I know that I've already submitted some written testimony to all of the board members.
So and people have already talked about the consistency with the master plan and the open
space plan, it's also the hazard mitigation plan, and the town has put a lot of money and
time into developing these plans.
And the plans, as you know, are called for protecting and not developing the land that
long row wants.
We repeatedly said that we wanted to partner with the same conservation organizations that
are sitting here tonight, and as we can see with so many people here tonight, I don't think
I think anything has changed in terms of how the town's people feel about this.
And the fact that we have Massabah Audubon sitting here with a check to buy it is a stroke of luck that we're never going to get again.
But some people see that there might be and there might be some money in the long road deal for the town and that's okay.
And especially if you have the responsibility that the Board of Sleckman has, you need to look at all angles.
And the master plan itself does say that we need economic development, and it even mentions the possibility of putting solar on suitable sites.
I think the question is, what Lyme Road considers suitable isn't necessarily what Winchening considers suitable.
And that's important because the master plan also says that there's a need to balance commercial projects
with the need to protect winshenen from development that its citizens don't find desirable.
So I'm asking the board to really think this one through and not be too quickly seduced by the $20 million that's on long road slides tonight.
As we know from Mr. Sellers' presentation here earlier this project isn't at all certain.
There are many hoops for long road to jump through and if they do succeed it'll be several years down the road.
But let's say this succeed, how meaningful is this money that they say they'll bring in.
So let's look at the numbers, bear with me, but a minute, because this is important,
and I hope that I've made it as simple as I can.
I looked at three numbers.
First of all, I looked at the population of Winchin, which is $10,000, not $10,000, but 10,000
people according to the census.
The second number I looked at, I actually got originally from the meeting on November 27th
from when the Board of Vossessors made their presentation on taxes.
And that is how much tax collection do we need to make a winch in over 2024 to fill our needs?
And that number was $14 million.
That's on the town website too if you would like to check that out.
So if we divide the $14 million that we need by the 10,000 people that we have,
then that comes down to $1,400 a piece.
So, one way or another, towns people are going to be contributing $1,400 on average per person
per year.
Now, that's not per tax bill, because we do taxes by property, but not by headcount.
But, so, Long Road's original presentation in November said that they would be basically
guaranteeing from the pilot agreement $375,000 a year in the pilot agreement.
Now, tonight, they said they would be able to, they think the town will be able to get $20 million over 40 years.
If you do the math on that, it's $500,000 a year instead of $375.
So, my numbers will be a little bit different, I'll adjust them later.
But the, and we don't know if that number is adjusted for inflation, whatever.
Anyway, but let's take the $375,000 that they're going to bring in to the town and divide that by $10,000.
people. That comes down to $37.50 a person. Now $37.50 a person doesn't really give you
enough money to take your family to McDonald's anymore.
So I'm pretty sure that most people
that are in this room and I think most people in time would rather skip one family meal at
McDonald's a year and see this property preserved. And if you look at it from the $500,000
the $375,000, all right, that brings up to $50 a year.
Maybe you could take your, you know, maybe you could take your family up to McDonald's for $50 for $50 for once a year.
But none of long-roads plans have talked about bringing in enough money to really make it justifiable,
I think, to be able to change people's minds, to express themselves here and win to them.
So, as other people have said, if it turns out long road can't get this project permitted
for whatever reason, they're going to want their money back and that's reasonable.
They're a business and because as you've heard it's residential, they're likely going
to find a residential developer who will build some house lots or build some homes which means
more houses and more tax burden to the town.
If we let Mass Audubon get the land, there is no risk, absolutely no risk of increasing
the tax burden to the town.
So if we go back to the town's plans, all of those plans, as we said, and I think everyone
most people here tonight feel this specific land should stay as open space.
I think it should take a pretty high bar for a board member to justify going against those
intentions. To me, $37.50 is too low a bar. The property should stay in the open space forever,
and I think it's no exaggeration to say that whether this will ever happen or not is really
in the board's hands and your hands tonight. And I know that's a lot of responsibility,
but when you look at it this way, I don't think it should be a very tough decision.
Just listen to the people that are in the audience and the people in town that has spoken over the
course of the years. So, thank you for consideration and I'd be happy to answer any questions.
Then I'm quite done. Sorry, sir.
Hi, I'm MJ Gallett, Melon Road. Just like my sister-in-law, I also have propaganda chapter 61, and we do have solar as well.
So, I'm taking it from the angle of preserving, preserving maintenance history, community and values.
For thousands of years, the land for this industrial solar installation has been one of
forests, waterways, wildlife, and unique ecosystems.
All host to thousands of living organisms.
Wincheden has a legacy of being a responsible steward of the land and natural resources.
In reading our master plan and open space plan, it identified a detailed and rich history
of our town and the value it has placed on the land.
Winsiden has and we hope will always be a special place to enjoy our natural world.
In reading the Facebook posts and comments made this week in last night's town meeting,
our open space is a key reason many residents have located in state and town.
The rural and natural field of Winsiden is of utmost importance to our identity as a community.
Winsiden values its open space and all it offers including protection of water, protection
The collection of critical habitat in the organisms, animals, plants, trees, and endangered species that live there.
It offers us numerous recreational opportunities, including fishing, boating, farming,
foraging, hunting, biking, snowmobiles, ATVs, hiking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, bird-watching,
and I'm sure I missed a couple.
In our open space plan, the plan summary on page five noted, open space and
Recreation resources are essential to incidence quality of life and also to attracting the visitors and new business that will bring new vitality to the local economy.
In addition, reasons for open space planning include protection of biodiversity and prevention of habitat fragmentation, protection of future water supplies to help prevent global warming.
A key objective in the Open Space Seven-Year Action Plan was identifying and targeting future
land acquisitions and easements to accomplish the plan's goals.
The lands this industrial solar installation has targeted is one such identified area.
The Open Space Plan even identified the organizations to work with to attain this important goal and
And it included Mass Audubon and Mount Grace Land Trust who are here offering us a way to make this happen.
I just want to reiterate that Mass Audubon does have the $6 million necessary to meet the price tag to free us from this industrial solar installation.
There's no doubt about their commitment to this land and the town of Winchenden in seeing this land preserved in perpetuity.
This is the town's people of Winchenden have made their voices heard numerous times over the years.
This is not our first trip to the rodeo.
Winchenden has a rich David and Goliath history and fighting for our community in the land that provides for us.
Many of us remember and were involved in the controversies including the airport proposal,
BFI landfill, drag strip, kindomorghum pipeline, and now this industrial solar installation.
What do these projects all have in common?
They all wanted to take and exploit our most valuable commodity, our open space and resources.
The land being targeted has been managed as a force for decades and has been open to the public for passive recreation,
allowing local residents to feel freely hike and hunt this property with no restricted access.
Recently, no trespassing signs have been posted, so it has been made clear that the public's
recreational access will be significantly limited if this land is not conserved through
Mass Audubon.
As recently speaking with a friend who lives in town and she mentioned, the more frequent
sightings of wildlife in the streets of Winshund and including bears.
The fracturing of this open space will more than likely see more animals making the away
into town.
This tract of land is also a major corridor between critical habitat and recreational areas that span into New Hampshire and beyond.
To maintain this corridor could be critical to species today and in the future.
I feel extremely fortunate to live where I live.
To step out my door and hike and snowshoe freely through the forest of Winchenden, to me that is true freedom.
I really do not want to see that change for anybody in this community.
This industrial solar installation could have a major impact on availability of space that has been freely traversed for decades.
We have to realize that Mass Audubon is offering the town of Winchden a $6 million gift of this land with no strings attached.
Through this gift, we have the opportunity to meet some of our open space objectives without burdening the town with legal or financial responsibility to maintain this conservation land.
I ask the board to think hard about this decision, what will your legacy be?
Will the town again be responsible stewards of our land, or are we only
Any about the money, as a lane identified, $37.50 per person per year at this time. Are we going to turn away this $6 million gift to the community, or listen to the people of Winchington? Once we give up the right of first refusal, this company will take and do whatever they want to do with this land. As Evie Higgins posted on Facebook the other day, we may be a poor town.
but we are strong. The people of Wenzhen have come together to oppose this
industrial solar installation in our valuable open space. It would be nice to
know how many of us in this room believe this land should be entrusted to
mass Audubon as the response will stew it before the end of the evening. Thank you.
Thank
you.
What I may suggest, you're welcome to come up and make yourself
comfortable or just just pick up I think the court may be long enough you can just pick up a mic
So I'm new to the town my name's Peter Holsey. I've been living here for a
second. I'm sorry Peter one second. Please quiet down
Thank you very much. I'm a little closer to the mic. I'm new to the town my name's Peter Holsey
I've been here about six or seven years when I was looking for a house
I was looking at Fitchburg, Clinton, you know a whole bunch of places I was really cheap
and I didn't want to live.
I stumbled across Wincherton, I found that I had a lot of open land, a lot of woods,
where I could ride my dirt bike, enjoy myself, so I bought a nice parcel of land out here.
What I've noticed is I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but both parties,
whether it was the mass bond or the solar company, both said we're going to take the land
and we're going to sell it off to a third party.
We're here to put in the project. Once the project is done, we're going to wash our hands.
They say we're going to have liability in charge for you and everything else.
But they don't talk about if the solar panels crack and we get a flood like they just had in Lemmonster,
that wash out the whole city, and that may interest to get into our drinking water.
From what I've read in the geological surveys, a lot of wells around here do contain uranium in it.
So, if we lose our drinking water, you're not drilling into the ground to get more drinking water.
So, that's a major concern that everybody should have when they're looking at all these mitigations
and they're going to take out a bond for, give you a $700 check.
Well, your house is no longer occupiable for lack of water.
The mass auto bond, it sounds like a great deal, but we lose out on all that revenue.
This town has a tradition in farming trees and being able to do lumber.
There's no reason why the town cannot own the land and use the lumber again to make money and revenue by leasing out the power sales of land to do selective cutting.
That way we get the best of both worlds, and you can't tell me that you don't have the money because I sat in a meeting for appropriations where we're paying gardener to be able to take care of the people that have drug addictions.
and the town without even blinking an eye raised their hand to sign up $5 million a year to be able to bring that in the town and
then they voted that we never get the vote on that again.
So one time purchase of $6 million where we can give out the permits and everything else and generate revenue for the town
sounds a hell of a lot better than putting it in a third party trust.
And that's how I feel about what's going on here.
Thank you.
Good
evening, my name is David Whitaker, excuse me, and I am the Vice Chair of the Winshon and Conservation Commission in an avid outdoisman.
First off, I'd like to say that this Mount Grace purchased has not come before the board for a vote yet, the board of conservation, just because it's in between.
We meet Thursday, I can speak on equivocally, it will be to support the Mount Grace purchase for the board.
The other thing I would like to say that protecting the headwaters of the pillars is crucial.
The whole area out there, if you look at their patchwork or where they want to put the solar panels and what land they want us to use,
they're just patching around where the wetlands are.
Winchlandin has one of the most strict wetlands bylaws in the state.
The state has just a 50-foot buffer zone. Winchlandin has a 100-foot buffer zone, so they have to stay 100 feet away.
So you think of all the wetlands are out there, every little stream, that's the headwater
of the Miller's Rivers.
There was a question about partnership with Mass Fish and Wildlife, Mass Auto Bond,
and Mount Grace.
And I'll give you a good example of a very good project that happened in a neighboring town.
Most of you know it as the furlough school of the Temple of the Developmental Center.
When that flows down, all three of these partners got together and protected all that land.
And it now is on the mass auto bond mass fish and wildlife and mount race and we can do the same thing
And I support Mount Grayson. I hope that you will also
I'm here for my kids tonight. I say would you yeah my name's James Carbel. I live on home in road
I have bought the Hollingsworth the trust land that's now the witchdened
It's the witch in the wildlife management area and I was walking in the sense that I could transfer to
mass wildlife. So this is going to be an additional parcel to the land over in that area.
Secondly, I have kids six, four, and two. I don't think I could look at my eye tonight,
and let a solar company come in and develop this land. Mainly because, just because they sell
solar bands doesn't make, it could be oil. It's an energy company. All right. What's not
being discussed is what they're making per year. Like we're going to think about 21 cents
a kilowatt hour is the going rate in Massachusetts. They're going to be making about ten million dollars a
year in this town. So we need to think about that when we make the decision moving forward. I don't know,
I'm just kind of amped up a little bit, but I'm trying to say this in the program, like Chief said.
Yeah. It's because the kids kind of fired up and I think we need to do the right decision for our kids
and our kids kids because every person in this room won't be alive when that goes back into
reclamation. My kids will. We won. So, thank you. Thank you, sir.
I just wanted to
sit down to be honest and while I waited for her to finish speaking. So my name is
Michelle Peterson. My name is Michelle Peterson and I live on Alger Street. I've
learned through this process because I've done, been doing a ton of Googling searches
about the environment and all that and I've become to realize that I'm a tree
But I'm actually not going to sit here and talk about the huge environmental impact that the deforestation could have on 400 plus acres.
As I am sure most sitting in the room have concerns with.
Do you know that Lake Denison Recreational Area is 121 acres.
This solar farm will be three times that size.
However, I decided on a different approach.
Being a realtor, I wanted to reach the research, the impact on the real estate market in states that have the large solar farms.
There are many different statistics on the internet with different percentages of real estate decline.
However, one study shows the sales of 1.8 million homes with a mile of average size solar farm and found a decreased value of 1.5% on the properties around the solar farm.
Six states in the survey that account for over 50% of having larger scale solar farms
in the United States are in Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, California, Connecticut,
and guess who else Massachusetts.
They together show an average decline of 2.3%.
North Carolina has a solar farmer 400 acres in the Charlotte region.
They show a housing value decline in that region of 5.8%.
New Jersey's largest farm is 600 acres in Piles Grove Township.
They had a 5.6 decline in property value in that area.
Minnesota's largest farm is on 3,497 acres,
and they have had an average decline of 4%.
This proposed dollar farm here in Winshon will be the largest massachusetts and will have
the potential of a 5% decline or more on our real estate property values.
The average home sale in Winshon is $348,000.
If a decline of 5% were to happen, each home will lose on average $17,425 in value.
Who's going to make up that difference for all of us?
Even if the talent agreed to give a credit to each of the 450 or so homes homeowners with the proposed $800,000 that they might read online, but now today I learned they're saying five.
It would take 87 years for that $197 yearly credit to make up the difference for us.
I do not believe a tax credit to homeowners is even on the table.
We will not benefit personally from having the solar farm as we do not benefit from the other solar farms in the area.
It is really hard to measure the exact impact impact on our property values but the question is,
do we even really want to take the risk and find out?
We live here because we love our forests, lakes, and rivers.
People move here because they love the solitude.
Why would we want to compromise this by allowing companies to come in and devastate our lands?
Most buyers looking to move from the cities to more tranquil towns will look elsewhere,
causing our town to lose tax revenue.
I don't think we want to be known as that town with the largest solar farms,
But a town with gorgeous views, many areas for hiking, hunting, and fishing.
I have one quote to leave you with, the American Forest by John Muir.
God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, and avalanches.
But he cannot save them from fools.
Only Uncle Sam can do that.
You select men and women are our Uncle Sam.
Please give the first right refusal to Mass Audubon in Mount Grace.
Thank you.
My name is Molly Blasco.
I know many of you.
I live on Lincoln Ave in Winchinon.
And I had a question for a previous person who spoke about like what the borders of that beautiful infograph that they made of the Handmade Solar Farm was.
But honestly, I think they got their point across.
so I disregarded that but then I was standing in line and I honestly forgot that
this meeting was happening. I told myself for weeks. Don't forget and I drove home.
I drove home from standing on my feet moving 4,000 pounds of produce single
handed lead today. So this was really important and I found a parking space amongst
all the amazing people here and I walked over here so I know I don't live far but
it still was a hike. So I want to say first that these people like that showed up
tonight, I've been to many town meetings, I haven't seen you in a little bit, so I apologize,
but it's not really been this full for like the entire time that I've lived here, which
is four years and being heavily involved in the community. Even when we have our candidates
night, there's no reflection on you and the important work you do, but this really matters
to the community, and it takes a lot to get people to come out anywhere, and you all know
that you sit here in Stara Emptiness. So like I know that you know that this is really important
and out of all of the advocacy work that I've gotten the opportunity to do in the community
after doing super like a large amount of community evaluations and assessments of what matters
and what the hopes and dreams of Winchin and R, right? You guys helped us get an amazing grant
for the community heart and soul to hear what people's hopes and dreams were.
We analyzed all of those community advocates and all the people in our community and
heard voices from all different backgrounds to make sure we were being equitable.
I don't know if someone already spoke to this so I apologize, but we heard the number
one resource that was and the theme was the community that's here and the wilderness
and wildlife resources that are in this community.
that is the number one thing we go to, even when you're driving down the street and you see the
banners of the kids saying and residents painting pictures of what matters most of them in this
community, what their hopes and dreams are for Winshonan, what their favorite thing is in Winshonan,
they drew pictures of farmlands and landscapes and the trees and the wildlife nature that we have here.
So I think that also speaks volumes. It is something that is important to all of us and it's
something that we appreciate.
Even Mr. Towne Interim Town Manager.
I've seen you, sir, when you're walk into a meeting,
and you always have gloves and trash bag with you,
picking up trash along the streets,
carrying about the community you just became part of,
you care about the environment.
I know everyone here does, I've, yeah.
Note to Town Hall staff.
Change the sign in front of Bill McKinney
from Interim Town Manager to Town Manager.
Okay, sorry, I apologize.
Apologies, congratulations.
I'm very happy to have you. So, um, I have seen, you know, him walking, and it's not something he, like, both about, I've literally actively seen him as I was driving to the same meeting hiking along the road and picking up trash in our town. Like these things matter to us. We care about our community. We care about the wildlife. And so putting another solar farm there, where we know that it's going to be ecologically devastating. There is no question. We heard from many experts. We know the reports.
It took hundreds and hundreds of years for those trees to grow.
We cannot undo this once we do it.
You can't.
It would take hundreds and hundreds of years that I don't even think we have left at this
point with the environmental devastation we have.
So I would just like to support preserving the land and stuff with it.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Good evening.
My name is Stephanie Ashman.
I live on Sunset Lake at Nashville and Ham.
I am currently an administrator of a group that studies, shares, and spreads information
and awareness of Native American Indigenous stone structures and sacred spaces in New
England.
Not only am I concerned of the ramifications of destroying the environment, wildlife, etc.
There's another factor that only a few of you may have knowledge about.
Well, there are hundreds of Native American indigenous stone structures within the area
of land we are speaking of this evening.
History needs to be protected as well.
These sacred ceremonial spaces have the right to be protected.
Once I discovered of the solar farm plan, I spent over 10 hours in the woods of Lingenton
focusing specifically on long-road energy's map,
noting where the solar panels are actually going to be constructed.
I have discovered over 200 stone structures,
animal effigies, indigenous culturally modified marker trees,
ceremonial stone walls, but also two extremely large
prayer mounds which may contain burials underneath.
In addition, numerous smaller prayer amounts, and many more, which I didn't have time to track that far.
All of these structures are in close proximity of each other, which defines the space as sacred to our indigenous history and people.
I took the time to put the photos on the USB, but it only scratches the surface of what is yet to be discovered within these spaces that are up for sale.
The space I focused on is within the larger northernmost section in Winchenton directly in the middle where the panels are proposed to go.
So,
the Mass Heritage Landscape Inventory Program has already reported in the Wingenden Reconnaissance Report in, I believe, 2006, that the Historical Commission's inventory of archaeological assets is at least 450 historic spots in Wingenden, and this was back then.
There were six documented ancient Native American sites dating back to the late Woodland
period, 1,450 BP, stated by them, quote, due to known information about other regions
as well as a parent Native American activity in Winchenton.
It is assumed that there is significantly more archeological potential.
I may add there's a reason why there's a reason why solar farms are supposed to be built.
I think it's 1.2 miles away from residential homes.
Their current studies and correlations between behavioral problems during child development,
which makes sense considering they consist of cadmium, aluminum and other heavy metals.
being a special teacher for over 27 years of seeing the emotional impact this has on families, children, and school systems.
For myself, it's a no-brainer to allow Mount Grace Mass Audubon to continue to protect our land, which when it's gone, we will never get back.
It seems completely counterproductive to log, invade natural spaces to build these farms when we have abandoned parking lots.
Once we have buildings, et cetera, where there would be much less impact on our environment,
please consider this detrimental ramifications.
Thanks for your time.
Thank you.
Yep.
Absolutely.
Hello.
My name is Beth Engelm and I live on Wind.
Wind second.
If not quite in the audience, please.
So we can hear.
Thank you.
Go ahead.
My name is Beth Engelm.
I live on Windsor Road.
The farm, my farm that I steward called New Day Farm is in Mount Grays Conservation Restriction Land.
I will speak of their ability to maintain land and to be in a very,
very positive engagement is of the highest quality.
So I'm talking in support of the Mount Grays Audubon purchase of this land at this time.
So, I also, last night, I gave a quote, and the quote is from one of our American heroes
of the environmental movement named Dwendal Berry, and he says, you can't save the land
apart from the people, or the people apart from the land.
If this we
do not know what we're doing.
I farm. I'm going to have a just something I'll say. I do not call these solar farms.
They are not farms. They are collectors. They do nothing to cool the earth. I farm in a way that sustainable for 30 years.
Our land has only become more productive, more alive with things that we don't even know.
And more importantly, when you cut down a tree, you only see a little tiny piece of that
on the surface.
We have no idea of what is going on under the earth.
what we can't see. In addition, we made a huge human mistake. One of the largest five
ecological disasters in the world when we sent all these people out to farm the prairies
and told them, no problem, kill the buffalo, cut the root 15 foot roots in prairie grasses
And then there was a drought, it's called the dust bowl.
Millions and tons of soil blew away.
What will happen to that 400 acres?
And my fear, when I just heard tonight, is that there really is an ulterior motive
and it's to actually sell the land for development.
There are lots of people right now who are very wealthy billionaires
who are buying up land all over the United States and it's not for the people anymore.
It becomes private wealth.
So I highly recommend that we, this wonderful board, please, let's work together and
put this land so it's safe.
Thank you.
My name is Mike Jevenucci.
I move closer to the mic, please.
My name is Mike Jevenucci.
I moved to Winchenton in 2020 and I live on River Street, I just wanted to make it
aware that they talk about end of life in 2050 for these solar panels.
The International Renewable Energy Agency is estimating just in the US alone 10 million
tons of waste, that's if the panel reaches its term, and they're estimating 7.5
million before its term, so 17.5 million tons of solar panel waste. Globally it's 78 million.
Now we all know to your question to Long Road about where these panels were made. We all know
that things made in the U.S. are great, right? Well, one thing they failed to tell you about the
manufacturer for solar, they use rigid film modulus to make their solar panels and is produced
with cadium. I hope I say this right. Cadium tell your ride is their semi-conductor. So
there's a lot of people on the Winchenden's residential page that think that these panels
are made with silicon, copper, aluminum. That's not true. The company that they're using
is using an extremely hazardous material and if something does happen to those panels
and those do leak into our waterways, we're all going to be affected by it.
And I think just by seeing all these people in the room here, I think most of us all agree
that Mount Grace should be the winner of this property.
I only see a raise a hand. How many want to see my grace take a problem?
That's it. Thank you so much for your time.
Okay. Thank you.
Good evening.
Hello. A little closer to the mic.
I'm Emma Sylvia. I've lived on Oak Street for most of my life.
Before I pose my question, I have a little bit of clarification.
Carbon sequestration is how we will meet the requirements that we need to as a town,
a state, and we're quietly a country to slow and or stop climate change or global warming
if that's what you would prefer.
Forests are one of the largest ways that we sequester carbon currently.
And I would like to know what the carbon sequestration potential of the plants that
long road will be replacing our forests with is.
So,
how much carbon will they store versus what our forests are storing already?
My guess is it's not going to be comparable.
Thank you very much, Ellen.
Hello and good evening.
Good evening.
I'm Emma Ellsworth.
I'm the Executive Director at Mount Grace, but I'm actually here to read a letter from
our former commissioner, a fishing game, Ron Amadon.
He's unable to join us this evening, but he sent me along in his place.
So good evening members of the Slack Board and fellow community members.
I'm sorry that I'm not able to deliver these comments with you in person tonight.
Unfortunately, this meeting conflicts with another club meeting.
I'm appealing to all of you as the retired commissioner of fishing game for
Massachusetts, but also as a resident of Templeton and an avid hunter and
Angler, who has grown up in these woods and fishing on our region's precious lakes and rivers.
I am also a conservationist.
I'm active with the Athel Bird and Nature Club, our local chapter of trout unlimited, ducks unlimited.
I'm the chairman of the Mill Glen Pond Trust, chairman of the board of the Snowbound Club,
and I'm on the Worcester County League, the chair of the Worcester County League land committee,
and the Otter River Sportsman Club Land Committee.
I care a lot about our region, about conservation,
and about keeping land open and accessible
for all residents.
And all of these various roles,
I've come to appreciate that open space
land is a unique commodity.
Once developed, built upon, it's gone forever.
In Massachusetts in particular,
We have a very discreet amount of available land remaining.
This land is necessary for our climate resilience, for our wildlife, for recreation.
The particular 1300 acres under consideration with the solar development proposal is integral
to one of the most intact wildlife quarters in our state.
The developers are advertising that they will still protect the vast majority of the land
they are purchasing. So we could think about this as 800 more acres conserved. In reality,
if you were that fisher, moose, or bobcat on the landscape, this is only acres lost.
If you are the dog walker, hunter, birder, who spends time wandering those woods, enjoying
During each nook and cranny, this is only acres lost.
If you're the person boating, fishing, or swimming on one of the adjoining lakes, you
are depending on those healthy forests to keep that water clean.
This is only a threat to the waters and activity
We know that these solar guys are promising our area a ton of money. Money that we desperately need. But they are making promises at a cost we simply cannot afford. My grandkids need us to make the right decision tonight. They need us to keep that land open. So they can enjoy the wildlife, the fresh water, the clean air, just like I have. I grew up romping these hills. And I want to make sure that this is the right place.
I want to be able to pass on these same joyous opportunities for the next generations.
We don't get to make this decision twice.
If there is anything I've learned in my many years in service to our magnificent outdoor spaces,
it is that once we lose land, we don't get it back.
Thank you very much for your time this evening, Ronnie Imodon.
Very quickly, I just want to point out because he's snuck in unbeknownst to us.
But we do have David O'Neill, the President of Mass Audubon, in the doorway, so thank you very much.
Thank you.
It's past my bedtime.
You can make this past.
Yes.
It's close to the mic.
Sorry.
Jennifer LaFernia, the Audubon West Street, and actually the two projects on West Street,
and the ones out by Robbins Road North, a previous person had asked.
those were on previously undeveloped land.
So we are experiencing wildlife interferement.
Anyways, sorry.
So I'm asking you, Mrs. Moderator, or for a long, long road
project through you.
What happens after the project, after the 40 years?
I guess I'm ignorant in that thinking
not these solar projects were permanent or long longer sustaining than 40 years. Also my
next question is would the land need a period of decontamination or arrest before it could
be used for another purpose and who's in charge of clearing or disclosing of the used
Thank you very good questions.
Chair Adder, Cliff, could one of you answer those questions, please?
I don't know if you heard all of them.
I think I heard maybe one and a half of them.
If her questions focused on the decommissioning aspect.
We as the owner and operator of the project would be responsible for returning the land to its original condition.
It's a very low impact installation. We're not building a shopping mall or a restaurant.
It's just pilings that are taken out of the ground.
And that's the foundation of that the solar panel rests on.
So it's just steel pilings that are taken out of the ground.
We'd be responsible for removing that and returning the land to its original condition.
and we'd be open to placing that in conservation at that time as well.
I don't know if that addressed all the questions, but I...
Jennifer?
No, there's not soil testing.
There's no liquid chemicals on the site.
There's nothing that leaks out of the panels.
There's misinformation on the internet about cadmium teleride.
It's a very stable compound, and I know because the company has a very developed recycling
program, they have to work really hard to get the panels to break down enough to get
the components out to recycle them and reuse it again.
So as far as the land itself, there's no reclamation process that needs to be done per
say, if it's a amount of going back in, would the, when you say return the land to
the original, um, original state, uh, plant trees, what, what, what, what would that
encompass? So could that be part of the discussion? It, uh, would be part of the
discussion, you know, it's typically, um, I mean, it's, it's a meadow throughout the
time that it's a solar farm project. So it's a meadow while it's generating
electricity. And we're, you know, keeping it mode and maintain to keeping, keep
trees from growing up on it, but, yeah, once it's, once it's decommissioned and taken out
of operations, yeah, we could certainly look at planting trees and incorporating that into
the decommissioning process, and it's important to note that, you know, I know-
I'm assuming you want to-
Could you quiet down, please?
And you'd ask your audience to quiet down, please.
Thank you.
Go ahead, sorry.
I know there's been some confusion about, you know, the number of 400 acres were actually committed to conserving 1,000 acres, so the actual footprint of the solar farm project would be 365 or less, and I definitely appreciate everyone coming out and sharing their thoughts on the proposal and their passion on the topic.
I mean, I wish I lived in a place where people were this involved in local government but the presentation on acreage got me to do some Googling and it looks like the number of acres in Winshundan is 27,648.
So I thought that was kind of interesting because within that 27,648 were committing to conserve 1,000 acres.
and developing a small portion of that.
And if there's areas of concern within the footprint
that we've shared, those are areas of interest
where it would definitely regularly
and would collaborate with the community on that layout
and would be open to feedback on that.
I know there's areas, but just wanted
to share that because this is typically the real estate parts part of the process is the
first step in the process and it's followed by a lengthy permitting process that we would
love to engage in and so that's all I wanted to say about that. Thank you very much.
Thanks.
Yes, absolutely.
Let's go ahead.
I'm sorry.
That's okay.
Hi, I'm Bob Rezesk and I have a question.
So regarding this solar, right, aside from the financial gains I just saying that's going
to be coming back to the town,
is us as a community going to be able to tap into that solar?
I mean, the energy produced by the field?
Yeah, is this an opportunity as a community, are we able to tap in as my question?
I mean, it'll, the electricity will go on to the grid, but
we'll enter into contracts with, it hasn't been determined yet.
We'd definitely be interested in entering into contracts with whether it's,
you know, it might have to, it might be more than just lynchened in, because the 50 megawatts,
You know, I understand is more than Winston's load, but we'd be excited to enter into a contract with Winston for the power.
You know, I know it's just a question of scale.
You know, the revenue that you mentioned I think is easily a few percent percent.
I think it's around 3 percent or so of the annual budget of the town.
So, you know, while if you split that up by each individual person, it doesn't sound
like a big amount, but it's money that's going into the town's budget and avoiding tax
increases.
So there's definitely a number of ways that the project would benefit, and we would look
to, if there's an opportunity to enter into a power purchase agreement with the town
on that's definitely something we've been doing.
The reason why I asked that question is because I don't know.
I have not heard anybody say that they have participated
in any of the solar farms around in the area.
I have experienced it.
And I will tell you, it was a complete nightmare.
I'm sorry, but it was.
I'm being honest.
I had to decide a contract which, no problem, I thought I was going into a good thing.
I thought this was a good deal.
I thought I was going to save all this money on my electric bill, all this good stuff, right?
In the end, my bill tripled.
It tripled.
I appreciate that import, thank you.
But we're kind of talking, that's kind of a theoretical problem.
But I just want to share that because if the solar came in and they were able to, if they contracted with a company say like community solar, right, that's a good one, right, that's a big one, right, if they contracted with that and people
will tap into that and they get involved, the same thing can happen, I'm just saying take a look at that.
Thank you.
All right, I appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
I could just clarify that community solar is a program that is native to Massachusetts.
It's not something that we don't sell to residential customers, so it's a very different business model.
Yes, thank you.
Hi, my name is Travis Drudy.
I live on Lake Monomenac with my family.
I've got three young kids, 369.
The Drudy family has been paying taxes in this town for 70 years.
One of the first camps on Monomenac.
We couldn't be more against the solar in that piece of wood
It's an ecologically sensitive area. I know a lot about the the species and the resources out there
There's a reason why Mount Grace wants to spend that money to protect it
They want to spend the money to benefit a few people the landowner is gonna make out in the solar company. We are not going to
to the tax money that we get is not going to make a difference.
The detriment to the groundwater in there, to the rare species, I'm not sure if they
know there's rare species in there because that's going to be a problem permitting.
It would be devastating to that area, habitat fragmentation, that is a prime example of it,
that is the worst thing that you can do to a piece of wood, and we're talking long road
energy.
I guess long road is is that 40 years holopanels that's not a long road
That that piece of wood has been through a long road with native Americans
Said living off the land since the beginning of time. There's families in here
The forage they hunt they feed their families every year off of that land
These the guys from you know, I love Boston Boston, you know, great
But they don't pay taxes in this town. They don't drink the water in this town
they don't swim in this town, they don't hunt in this town, and the other ones are going
to make out. It disgusts me to see farms and woods turned in the solar fields.
It's
a short-term thinking. The highly aggressive net zero plane is unrealistic. It's not going
to happen. This solar farm would not make a difference in it. I'm telling you right now
was not going to make a difference but it will to the future of this town. There's no
sort of remediation that will bring back the land that's there or the water and that's
a fact.
Between Mount Grace and Mass Wildlife, you will definitely get that money. There's
no guarantees with lawn road 40-ish old panels. That's all I have to say. Thank you.
My name is Rodney
Brow. I live on school street. My family's been in town for well over a hundred years.
I moved back ten years ago in 2013. My property sits if you were to draw a line from the solar panel farms on Lincoln Ave.
It's the ones on West Street right between them. Since those sites were built and went online, I've noticed a marked difference in the amount of wildlife crossing my property.
So, game cameras being out on the land and it has definitely declined and changed.
One of the things I'd like to also bring to your attention a little bit of history.
The town denuded its forests once.
Through the 1700s and the 1800s, when we were running all the factories in town, thanks
to the foresight of some of the benefactors, it was reinforced it seems kind of a slap in the face to those families that are still in town that are descended from to turn around.
And cut all the forest back up again to, I don't remember his name, from Long Road, 27,000 acres. Roughly, if you divide that 370 acres, that's 1.3% in the land. So, that's just as one. And, there's a reason why all these companies from Boston and inside of 128 are coming here.
They're taking our land, they're taking our resources, and they're taking the money, and they're walking away.
They don't live here, they don't have kids in the school here, like the gentleman that was here,
they're not hunting, they're not fishing, they're not drinking the water.
The land means nothing to them other than profit.
And quite frankly, I think the town spoke quite clearly yesterday that everybody's sick of it.
So you're here to do what's best for the town, the town has told you what's best for the town.
There's really only one way you should be voting on this tonight.
And that's to transfer and conserve the property.
Thank you sir.
Good evening.
My name is Adam Sherwin.
I live in town here.
My wife grew up here.
here. Real quick, I mean, you can look around the room and you can see your decision is
already here. It's already been made or it should have been. All I can say is I hope
you make the right one. Maul Grace and Mass Audemont have got our best interest in their
thoughts and hopefully you do too. Thank you very much for your time.
Thank you, sir.
Hello. Hi, Jim. I'm Jill Sackett. I live on Lake Monomenac. I am here
I was serving on the Master Plan Committee, and I'm now chair of the Master Plan Implementation Committee, among other hats in town.
Thank you for having the public meeting tonight.
I'm glad that you're trying to collect the will of the people and explore this topic with everyone.
I'd like to say that you already have the will of the people expressed to you in the body of the Master Plan.
And, everybody else here who hasn't read it, I really encourage you to go and read the town's master plan, particularly the land use chapter that talks to a lot of the things that are relevant here tonight.
We're hearing a lot of concern tonight about the land, so the sentiments are already expressed in the master plan.
If we don't follow, I think this recommendation to consider this particular piece of land, this very precious, important piece of land, to a conservation agency,
I'm just saying what are we saying about the importance of the master plan and what's been expressed in there in the land use chapter?
What are we saying to the volunteers that spent six years refining and building and taking public input to build that master plan.
What are we saying to the current volunteers that are sitting on the master plan implementation committee that have been trying to execute this for the first time ever.
We have an implementation committee that's actually trying to execute a plan that this town has paid for and worked on.
And what are we saying to all the volunteers on the boards and the committees, some of whom I've met with here to talk about the elements of the master plan and try to get some progress on it.
There's a real opportunity here to tell the town that you support their will that has been expressed in the master plan, particularly if I only use chapter, there's a real opportunity to put your stamp on that and show your support and
show that we're going to support the master plan and it will become an active
master plan and not shelf wear. Thank you thank you.
Good evening. Hi my name is Liz
Wilson. I live on Tucker Street here in Winchendon but I am also the Finance and
Administration Manager at Mount Grace and I am on their leadership team and I want
to kind of not speak as somebody from Mount Grace but as a resident in this
This moment to say that part of the reason I went to work from out grades five years ago
was because I have family here, I have a son here, I have another son on the way, and
I want this place to be a place that he can recognize, and that I can show him, that I
can lead my children through these places, these special forests, these rivers, that I can
make sure that he's going to have drinking water and supplies, that I don't have to worry about
it just becoming endless solar fields.
Mt. Grace is not just here in support of members of the community, but is a part of this community.
Our entire staff comes from this region in this area and cares very deeply about it.
They would not be here tonight if they did not, and we would not be advocating for this if we thought that the conservation solution proposed by long road was reasonable.
I don't, as a resident, believe that what they're proposing makes sense.
I very firmly hope that you will put that trust in Mass Audubon and that you will give them the right of first refusal.
Thank you.
Good
evening.
Good evening.
Thank you for the opportunity.
You're most welcome.
My name is Ken Gendron.
I live 18 Sunset Drive in Ashburnham.
A little closer.
Sorry, I did the same thing to everybody.
For the last 27 years I've been on the engineering consulting industry
and most of my time, these developments are in my clients.
So I know what most of these types of developers have been my clients.
So I've been sitting here usually on their side trying to say,
hey, this is why we want to do this project.
Why I'm speaking is I want to get some context to the town to understand,
yes, they may have the right of frist refusal to buy the property,
but the cost five years from now may be a lot different than what they are today.
For context of the folks in the, when these sites go through this process there's a
due diligence period which requires initial site civil design, my initial geotechnical design,
initial environmental permitting, all to surveys, all of that.
That's going to be roughly in a project size somewhere north of $2.5 million.
So you've got a $6 million purchase price for the property.
Then they're going to invest somewhere between $2.5 to that, put you around the $8 million mark.
Now, say this project doesn't fall through and they're going to come back and say to you,
okay, Town, you know how the writer first refusal for what is $8.5 million for five years from now,
doing some quick numbers or whatever, you're probably looking at something between $12.5 million.
The way I see it, the Town's won the lottery for $6 million in the form of the Autobahn sitting behind me.
You win the lottery once in your life, you're not going to win it twice and you're not going to win it for twice the amount they had down the road.
So you need to be cognizant of the fact of what is the actual purchase price going to be for the rights for the town right to do that.
And six years from now or four years from now, if this doesn't happen, given the significant obstacles it has to go through.
Thank you very much.
Good evening.
My name is Russ Gawlin.
A little closer.
Hello?
Yes.
My name is Russ Gawlin.
I live on Melon Road.
And I want to thank half the people on my road for being here tonight.
I served two terms on the planning board a long time ago, and about 20 years ago I also worked on an earlier version of the master plan, so planning is important to me and I hope we do it for a reason.
Now I don't know if you're aware, but there is a town committee called the Open Space Preservation and or Survey Revolving Fund Advisory Committee.
And I was appointed by the Board of Selectmen since 2010, I've renewed my term, but I'm
the only member on the Board, it's supposed to be five of us, and our job is to advise
the Board of Selectmen on right or first refusal for chapter 6 and 61 change of use.
I can't speak for the committee, I guess.
Well, you can, you're the only one on it.
I'm the only one on it.
And we have never had a meeting, and so Paul Kaczynski died, he was the chair.
So I don't want to be redundant.
So there are only a couple things that I haven't heard tonight is, one is that the soils
in our area are very thin and very young, like since glaciation is, you know, 9 to 15,000
years, and it's only this thick.
So, if we're going to have these eight areas totaling about 400 acres, you'll have to be connected by access roads.
And all the solar areas need to be dug up to put in posts.
There's an awful lot of soil disturbance that nobody's mentioned yet.
And that kind of bothers me because our soils are pretty fragile.
So no one's mentioned that yet.
And I'm the person who is responsible for putting this New York Times article in your
packets.
It's fun.
Thank you.
Yep.
Yeah.
Which deals with trees being better at fighting climate change than replacing fossil fuels
with solar.
Really?
I mean, we need to do both.
and I'm not opposed to solar.
I also want to say that having been on planning boards,
and I understand support of selectmen must make compromises
and sort of thread the needle on a lot of these decisions
in trying to figure out what benefits the town the most.
And so it's not easy to do.
And I worked on developments that I probably would have
preferred not to have done, but there are compromises, and that's what we do.
So having heard all the testimony tonight, as a member of the advisory committee,
I would advise you to go with the Mass Audemont and Mount Grace proposal to assign me.
Madam Chair, I would say we should give the gentleman a piece of paper and he can take
many of your names and that committee could be followed by the end of the night.
That would be wonderful, yes.
Sir.
Hi, my name is Benjamin Cleardier.
I live over on Webster Street.
My whole thing is what this solar thing is, we have a Hillview business park that is pretty
much on bordering that, that was already cleared for a solar farm already. Why are we utilizing
that property instead of trying to cut down 400 acres of forest that is ecologically more than
what it is up on, he'll be a business park. And not only that, but we have a river that
runs right down the center of our town with dams that need fixing and stuff. Why don't
we look into utilizing those and trying to convert some of those into hydroelectric dams,
So that way there we're minimizing our footprint on the earth and we're using what's already there.
Being an out of avid outdoorsman and whatnot hiker and stuff, I would like to see more of that stuff happening more than seeing solar farms being built.
I'm not against the whole green energy thing. I just think there's better ways of doing it and more ways of
conserving our land than what we're doing currently.
Thank you.
Is there anyone who wishes to speak this evening on this issue?
I'm looking around very carefully. I don't see anyone else in line. Madam Chair. Yes, Mrs. Anderson.
I'd like to make a motion to close the public hearing.
Second. Thank you, May 2nd, to close the public hearing. All in favor say aye.
Aye.
And the Chair votes aye.
The public hearing is now closed.
So I will turn it to the board for questions, comments, discussions.
Madam Chair.
Mr. Ward.
I may as well be the first to go.
First of all, I'll never be able to look at the clock memorial.
The same again, thanks for that.
This is probably for me been one of the most tormenting decisions I've had to make, because
as a selectman I do have to look at revenue. It is important. We don't have enough revenue
in this town, but I also have to look at the other side. So I've been over this one and
And I've been a supporter of both sides about three times this week and really what brought
me back to making a decision, somebody in this audience once said, what is your crime
My criteria for making a decision, while my criteria as a selectman, has always been the history of the town. That's my number one, and so I have three histories of winch in on my book show, which I look at about every two weeks. And the master plan, 2020. And as a lifelong resident, I have to go with my gut on what's best for the town. So when I look at the history, I found that
We've had several villages in this town.
We've cleared land to make villages.
We've had mills all over town.
And yet, when I looked at the 2020 master plan,
I was amazed to find that in 2020,
we still had 72% of forests in Winshundan.
Think about that.
We did all that clearing and we still had 72%.
So the founders of this town
We're stewards of the of the land they were
So that I've been forward. What did we do in the past? How do we what what was our reaction?
Looking at the master plan it does give you a choice. I mean it does have that we need to look at
Saving the land, but it also has a preface in there for select men
People who make decisions we do have to weigh
the tax burden on the homeowners and so on. So that's why as selectmen we have to
go back and forth and that's why it's been a living nightmare for the last
couple weeks. But bottom line I have to look at it as a lifelong resident. I've
been in residence in 1946 so when I go with my gut and people who know me know I was
I was out there fighting for the senior center because we didn't want to destroy it.
I was out there fighting for the library to be renovated because I didn't want to destroy it.
I was out there on the God Park committee to restore that because I don't believe in getting rid of what works in town.
I can't get rid of the trees so I will support Mass Audubon on this issue.
Any further, anything further from the board, questions, comments?
Madam Chair.
Mr. Zanderson.
I think unlike Mr. Ward, I was elected to serve the people of Winchinon.
So it's not really about what I want at all.
It's really about what the people, and to be their representative.
And so that's what I intend to do.
Thank you.
Madam Chair.
Mrs. Appointe.
So, Lake Rick said, it's been a long month.
It's been a very long month.
And mostly because of this, it's not a light decision.
Coming in here tonight, I do, I support the Long Road Project.
However, we are elected to hear you and to really consider what you say and to do what's in your room.
best interest in and we hear you. I came in tonight. I was going to vote that we just
let things go, but I will vote to assign our right tonight.
Madam Chair. Mrs. Blanchard.
I also would like to vote to support the Autobahn. I would
also like to thank the community
for coming out so strongly tonight. You were heard tonight. Thank you.
There are pros and cons to being chair.
First and foremost, I appreciate the recognition that we do have to look at both sides of the
story.
We have a fiduciary responsibility.
The last four or five days I've put post out there on Facebook, you know kind of poking
and the bruise a little bit to get to hear from you,
and not one person took me to task.
And I, well, one person did.
But that's OK.
That is absolutely OK.
With the financial responsibility that the board has,
speaking for myself, I don't know where she is.
back in the mid-90s, my family put 150 acres of land into conservation through Mount Grace.
So I worked with Mount Grace before.
Thank you.
So I'm big on conservation, dammit.
I won't say I regret this, but the next time that we're looking at the budget, and
we're wishing we could come up with some money, but that being said,
I move that the board assign the town's right of First Refusal, arising under that certain notice of intent to sell, given by Wingenen Forest, LLC, date of September 5th, 2023 to Massachusetts Audubon Society, Incorporated, a non-profit cooperation pursuant to General Law Chapter 61, Section 8, upon the terms contained in that certain assignment, and acceptance of right-averse
First refusal, dated December 12, 2023.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, please, let us do our work.
Let us do our work.
Second.
Thank you.
It's been made and seconded.
Any further discussion?
Oh, in favor say aye.
Aye.
And the chair votes aye.
More for five minute recess.
Okay.
But we have a five minute recess.
Thank you.
So I'm
going to call back to order this meeting of the Winch and Board of Selectmen at 957.
Moving on, we have no boards and committees, department meeting reports tonight, no appointments, resignations, permit license applications.
We have before us the 2024 Annual License Renewals.
Thank you very much Deb for the memo.
Well, it was very helpful and for putting the, you know, these are online math.
Yes.
I appreciate it because I'd like to thank Deb for all the work on this.
There was a lot of chasing back and forth as we do every year, so I appreciate all the
efforts.
Yes, absolutely.
So I noted, so rescuating, cruising 20, rescuonies, cruising 12 will not be renewing.
3 light 3 have not responded. The carriage house restaurant which you know is closed.
Lady get nutrition which I'm not sure if they're still open even now and then the PJ's
slushed shop stop.
Of all the licenses we have a few that has
amount standing documents. A little bit blurry, look at these splits like new auto parts
since CNS Pizza, Camelot Farms is back on the list, it has not been just a quick renewal.
So what my thought is, typically what we'll do is do a three month renewal for the businesses
that have outstanding issues to get them a chance to get all the paperwork in and permits
and stuff like that. My only concern on that is CNUS Pizza, because it's an inspection issue.
Do you know if the board would want to do it just like a 30 day and then get a follow-up on that?
What if the board just wants to go straight 90 day?
So I'll just open up the board on any of these outstanding issues.
Yes.
Madam Chair. Yes. Given that it is December I think a 90 days in order because there's holidays in in breaks in between and we would have to expect our town employees to get there within 30 days. Agreed. Okay.
So the
ones that we would give 90-day licenses to, correct me if I'm wrong, would be Bolspit Brewery. Look at these splits, like new auto parts, CNS pizza and Camelot farms. Those five, we just issue for 90-day. I think we just received all the information on Bolspit, so they are current. Perfect. All right, so we can take Bolspit off that list.
so it would just be the four. Madam Chair. Yes. Is anybody or how many people are
living at Camelot Farms right now? I think we go to this every year and every
year, every 30 you know he has to come before the board. I was gonna suggest we
don't renew it but I don't want to make anybody homeless is my question. No it's
exactly the same thought. Which is why I would go to this every year. So what I would
I would like to do, I'd like, you know, the comment here, we knew it licensed for three months and the owner must attend the March meeting and satisfied usually out of the country or his representative, the manager with a viable plan to move forward.
I don't know how we would find out how many people are actually at that location right
now, but at the same time, like you said, give them notice, if you will.
So that being said, just to renew, it would be 90 days for lickety splits like new auto,
CNS pizza, and can't a lot of funds.
Madam Chair?
Yes, Mrs. Lisa.
I would like to make a motion for that 90 day notice.
I move the board of select will approve the renewal of the 2024 licenses as presented
this evening with the exception of the 90-day notices as mentioned previously and also to
Execute the Renewal Certification 2024 form for the alcoholic beverages control commission.
Second.
Any further discussion?
Seeing and hearing none, all in favor say aye.
Aye.
In the chair votes aye.
No.
And one no.
So it is four to one.
While
we're on the licenses, typically in the past acting we are the local licensing authority.
We extend the hours of operation for New Year's Eve, the section 12, which is the on-premise pouring liquor license.
To extend the hours until 2 a.m. is it the board's pleasure to do the same this year?
I'll make a motion to extend,
I'll extend the hours
of establishments on New Year's Eve to be open until 2 p.m. on New Year's Eve only.
2 a.m. on New Year's Day.
It says New Year's Eve, would it be days out of technicality two in the morning?
I do it this day.
Yeah.
Oh, I meant it to say day.
Second.
Thank you, Maiden.
Second.
I like that.
Because day is day.
Yeah, midnight.
It turns day.
But we've always said New Year's Eve.
It's really late.
Motion has been made in seconded.
Any further discussion?
All in favor say aye.
Chair votes aye.
Thank you very much.
New business, as we know, we did reach an agreement.
And as of November 28th, I think, 29th, 28th, I think.
Some were around there.
You know, Bill and I executed his contract, so
And it was per the agreement that the board had made an executive session.
So I would like this evening is just a vote ratifying the agreement with ratifying the vote to hire Mr. McKinney as the town manager.
Mr. Ward.
Just a point on page five it says chair of the select board, and that's the only point that that's popped up.
It's been board of select control in the town said no to select board.
Okay.
So I've checked on page five.
Thank you.
I guess I'm interchangeably.
But your point is taken.
Madam Chair.
Mrs. Anderson.
I'd like to make a motion to ratify the town manager's contract.
Can I have a second?
Any further discussion?
Can I ask a question?
Yes.
Is it going to be posted on the website?
It should be, if it isn't already.
Yes.
We're just waiting for legal to sign it and return.
Right.
It's going to be uploaded still.
But it had to be ratified, so just to make sure,
because people will be interested.
Perfect.
That's okay, come to the mic, please.
Yeah, I was just wondering because back in November, when you made this decision and talked about it,
I don't know if it's part of the contract or if it's part of something else that you were saying that you recognize that Mr.
McKinney has a non-traditional background, and that there are areas in the town manager position that you need to make sure he learns.
You know, I do you were talking about this like a town manager boot camp or something, but you said as part of your negotiations
You would put in some performance expectations highlighting the areas that you feel he needs to focus on before it's coming.
So that's going to happen.
Oh, yes.
Oh, no, no, I just wanted to.
No, I appreciate it.
No, thank you.
Yeah. You're welcome, Jane.
So it's been made a seconded.
Yeah.
All right.
Chair votes aye.
7.2.
This was brought to me by the town manager's office.
They had a request for flying a flag by a private organization on town-owned flag poles.
So I wanted to bring this before the board, so on town-owned flag poles or hang a flag at
town hall.
On any of the town-owned flag balls.
And who is the private organization?
It's a pro-life organization.
I know they wanted to fly a pro-life flag.
And so we have no specific policy.
So I was hoping that we could adopt policy.
To hang a flag on our poles.
Did you look at it in the drop box?
I did not.
A suggested policy is keeping its own governmental interests.
Yeah, it's always been just the U.S. flag or the state flag, okay?
Yeah.
But it would be good to have a formal policy here.
Absolutely.
Just clearing that.
Right.
Okay.
Any questions or comments on this?
No, I would just take out.
I like this because I think we should only have these flags up.
But I would take out a official flag of the town of Winchland, we don't have it.
It's hanging in the Boston State House, I found it.
Really?
Yes, sir.
Oh, we'll have to get one and get it off from right here.
I did, I found it.
Took me a long time because they got them all hanging down
in their issue.
It's not alphabetical, is it?
I think it's...
It is not alphabetical.
There's only three of us going to be bonding.
The date it was founded.
Oh, my God.
And we're like up on the third floor.
Yeah.
Looking out the window.
Okay, that's cool.
But I would like to adopt this with the changes for when she did.
and just the way it is.
You don't want it to say Clarksburg?
I don't want it to say Clarksburg.
No.
And this policy would go into where?
The Board of Selecting Policy.
Board of Selecting Policy is a procedure, yes.
This would be part of our policy.
Yeah, we just adopted on the state.
OK.
Yep.
And I would just like to point out what flags we're talking about.
I would like to do that, yes.
Thank you.
The official flag of the United States of America, the official flag of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
I guess the official flag of the town of Winshund in, if there is such a thing.
There is at the state house.
The official flags of the various branches of military services of the United States of America
and or the official MIA POW flag.
Those flags would be the only ones allowed on town flag poles.
That's perfect.
Thank you.
Is that a motion, Mr. Moore?
Yes, a motion.
It sounded like a second, made and seconded to adopt the policy.
any further discussion?
All in favor say aye.
Chair votes aye.
Thank you for that.
No all business.
No time managers report this evening.
We have two sets of minutes.
I did go over them earlier.
The first is October 10, 2023.
I'll
give you a moment to look at them
or when you're everyone's ready.
I'll take a motion.
Madam Chair.
Mr. Ward.
I move to approve the Board of Selectman meetings from minutes from August, October 10, 2023 as presented this evening.
Second.
Thank you, any further discussion?
All in favor say aye.
Aye.
And the Chair votes aye.
Then we have October 23, 2023.
Madam Chair.
Mr. Ward.
I move to approve the Board of Selectman minutes meeting of October 23, 2023.
20-23 has presented this evening.
Second.
Thank you, any further discussion?
All in favor say aye.
Aye.
Chair votes aye.
One last question.
Are we going to our next official meeting is Christmas.
So are we going to move it to the following Tuesday?
What is the Board's pleasure as far as another meeting in December?
I will like me to be out of town, but if there's a quorum,
and I miss it, that's fine.
I prefer we wait till after the new year.
I'm not going to be able to attend to that new year.
All right,
so I would say we will not hold an official meeting until our next meeting, which would be January 9th, 2024, in the event that something comes up and we need to, we will certainly call a meeting and address anything that needs to be done.
All right, motion to adjourn.
Second.
Any further discussion?
All in favor say aye.
Aye.
Chair votes aye.
We're adjourned at 10-11.