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FALMOUTH, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — After years of being described by town residents as a "nuisance," two massive wind turbines in Falmouth are inching closer to being removed. The turbines, officially called Wind 1 and Wind 2, are placed at the town's wastewater treatment plant. Nearby residents have complained of excessive noise and other health effects, filing hundreds of complaints.
The Falmouth Select Board said it plans on issuing requests for proposals by mid-December to have them dismantled.
Voters approved $2.5-million in last year’s town meeting to be spent on dismantling the turbines. The turbines were installed a little over a decade ago. The first turbine shut down operations in 2015, and the second turbine was ordered to shut down by a Superior Court judge in 2017, both after numerous lawsuits by neighbors.
At the latest select board meeting, special counsel Christopher Morog said although the actual removal of the turbines shouldn’t take that long, the town is giving the winning bidder a four-month window to complete the work.
"If a company who is bringing a crane to the Cape or the Islands can hook this up together with it, hopefully we'll get a better bid," he said.
Morog said the extra time will give the potential contractors a chance to take down both wind turbines at once.
The town is compiling a list of bidders in the region with assistance from engineering firm Weston & Sampson.
WBZ's Tim Dunn (@ConsiderMeDunn) reports:
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