DIXFIELD — A recount of the Wind Energy Facility Ordinance vote June 9 will be held at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 23, in the Town Office conference room.
Town Manager Carlo Puiia said at Monday evening’s selectmen meeting that the Town Office would be closed during the recount, but the entrance would remain unlocked, since the recount is open to the public.
The referendum asked residents if they wished to repeal the current Wind Energy Facility Ordinance and replace it with the Planning Board’s original ordinance draft.
Ballot warden Theresa Hemingway said the vote was 377-372 in favor of repealing the current ordinance and replacing it with the Planning Board’s original draft.
It was the third vote in three years on the ordinance.
In November 2012, voters approved a wind ordinance drafted by Norine Clarke and Stephen Donahue, who served on the Board of Selectmen at the time.
In early 2013, selectmen voted to send the draft to the Planning Board and tasked them with amending some of the language.
The Planning Board brought its recommendations to selectmen, who made revisions and put it on the November 2014 ballot. Voters rejected it, 553-567.
The draft approved at the June 9 ballot contained the original recommendations that the Planning Board made, without the selectmen’s recommendations.
Patriot Renewables LLC of Quincy, Mass., approached Dixfield officials three years ago about constructing wind turbines on the Colonel Holman Mountain ridge. The town has been working on regulations to govern such developments.
In other business, the Board of Selectmen voted 4-0 to allow Public Works Director Randy Glover to purchase a $2,823 plow to replace an old one.
Glover said the town plow was “meant for parking lots and small dead-end roads,” but had been used to plow much larger roads during the previous winter.
“That plow is pretty worn down,” Glover said. “It would cost more to repair the plow than to just purchase a new one. You can do whatever you want, but I’d recommend getting a new one.”
Glover said the town could hold onto the old plow and sell it for scrap later.
mdaigle@sunmediagroup.net
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