Published on July 27, 2009

BARTON — After months of bargaining, and in the face of considerable opposition, Vermont Wind has finally won a promise from the village trustees that they will grant permits for 132 pieces of 16 wind towers to pass through the south end of the village and up Duck Pond Road on their way to Sheffield.

Approval came after Vermont Wind finally agreed to a demand the company resisted for months — a $1-million bond to cover any damage to village roads and utilities it might leave behind.

But whether the trustees have finally laid a difficult issue to rest or — in the words of Trustee Ellis Merchant — “just kicked the hornets’ nest,” remains to be seen.

In last-minute negotiations Monday night the trustees sought, and got, the power to bar construction workers from driving their cars and pickups to the wind farm site from Barton Village.  Instead, workers would have to approach the project from the other end of Duck Pond Road, which connects with Route 122 in Sheffield.

Before they exercise that power, the trustees agreed to conduct an informal survey of Barton’s retail stores, gas stations and restaurants.

The problem, as Vermont Wind representative Jim Goodman told the trustees Monday, is that “you’re going to miss half a million dollars of retail sales.”

Negotiations have long since eliminated heavy truck traffic — except for the turbines themselves — from the Barton end of Duck Pond Road.

Loads of gravel and cement will be told to approach the site from Sheffield, and the big trucks that haul the turbine pieces through Barton will leave the site through Sheffield.

While the oversize, overweight trucks carrying turbine parts could squeeze through the “tubes” that carry Duck Pond Road under Interstate 91 toward Sheffield, Vermont Wind told the trustees at earlier meetings, the tolerances were so close that the transportation company feared a load would get wedged into one of the big culverts.

All that remained unresolved, as of Monday night, was the route that the project’s employees and contractors would take to work.

Vermont Wind’s representatives said the company would make an earnest effort to route their workers through Sheffield, if the trustees insisted.  But they clearly had doubts about the wisdom of such a policy.

Some workers would be renting homes in the area for six to nine months, said Josh Bagnato.  And Barton, he suggested, might lose out on the money they have to spend.

“To us it doesn’t really matter,” he said.  The question, he said later, is whether a logger from Barton hired to clear land for the project has to drive to Sheffield to go to work.

“That’s the penalty they have to pay,” said Mr. Merchant, who said he worried about the people who had moved to Duck Pond Road in search of seclusion.  “They’re going to lose a lot their reason for being on that road,” he said earlier in Monday’s discussion.

“It almost seems un-American,” said Vermont Wind’s Mr. Goodman.

“Is it un-American for a kid out walking a dog to get hit?” demanded Village Supervisor Brian Hanson.  A resident of Duck Pond Road, Mr. Hanson has struggled to maintain a neutral position in the course of the long negotiations.

Finally, the trustees voted 3-0 to approve a five-page transportation plan with this amendment:

“Vermont Wind will also instruct all contractors to not use Duck Pond Road in Barton Village for any construction vehicles.”

The trustees’ clear understanding was that this language could be dropped at their discretion, and that the term “construction vehicles” included cars and pickup trucks used to get to work.

The permits themselves won’t be granted until Vermont Wind selects a transportation company and is ready to move the turbines.

The terms approved by the trustees Monday night give Vermont Wind the right to move the 132 loads through the village in an eight-week period between September 1, 2009, and November 30, 2010.  There are many exclusions and limitations, including from December 1 to May 15, weekends, holidays and the Barton fair.

The last, and most vocal opponent at Monday’s meeting was the person who — by Vermont Wind’s own estimate — will be most affected by the project.

Denise Valley lives next to the corner of Lake Street and Duck Pond Road, and shares a driveway with the house on the corner lot, which the wind company will buy.  The biggest loads, coming north into the village from Lyndon, will need to cut that corner to make the left turn onto Duck Pond Road.

Ms. Valley wanted the company’s assurance that the project would not affect her ability to come and go.  And, she insisted, the matter should be settled before the trustees agreed to grant a permit.

But Mr. Merchant, the most stubborn negotiator of the three trustees, made it clear that he had finally come to the end of the process.

“We shouldn’t have the right to stop a business,” he said.  “I feel they have done everything we need done to protect that road.”

Vermont Wind has agreed to repave Duck Pond Road to a higher standard than it is now, Mr. Merchant noted.

“We can’t say no.”

“Why can’t you say no?” asked JoAnn Stefanski, an opponent of the wind project.

“I believe in my heart I’ve done everything I can possibly ask these people to do,” Mr. Merchant replied.  “We’ve even had people from outside the village sit in to discuss this problem,” he said, referring to residents of the long stretch of Duck Pond Road that lies in the town of Barton.

“And all it is is an overweight permit,” Mr. Merchant concluded.

Mr. Bagnato said he would contact Ms. Valley soon to arrange a meeting where her concerns could be discussed in detail.

“The goal is to be a good neighbor,” Vermont Wind attorney Geoffrey Hand told Ms. Valley.

“Sometimes good neighbors turn out not to be good neighbors,” Ms. Valley replied.