DIXFIELD — The Planning Board will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 3, at the Ludden Memorial Library for a special workshop to review the Wind Energy Facility Ordinance that voters rejected in June.
Patriot Renewables LLC of Quincy, Mass., approached Dixfield officials five years ago about constructing wind turbines on the Colonel Holman Mountain ridge.
The town’s original ordinance passed in November 2012 and a revised ordinance was rejected in November 2014 by a vote of 553-567. In February, selectmen voted to put the Planning Board’s original draft on the June 9 ballot, where residents defeated it by a 359-390 vote.
Following the defeat of the ordinance, the Board of Selectmen voted to put the most recent draft of the ordinance back in front of the Planning Board to make amendments to the ordinance.
During the Aug. 19 Planning Board meeting, much of the focus was on the sound limits presented within the defeated ordinance. It stated that no wind energy facility unit or system should generate sound levels exceeding 35 decibels from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., or 45 decibels from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Selectman Dana Whittemore, who attended the Aug. 19 Planning Board meeting, said that he wanted Tom Carroll, project coordinator for Patriot Renewables, to attend the Sept. 3 workshop so the Planning Board and Carroll could negotiate sound limits.
Planning Board Chairman Rick Davis said he would contact Carroll to see if he could attend.
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