Amid reviews, First Wind opens office

LINCOLN – Anyone who wants to see First Wind of Massachusetts’ plan to build a $130 million 40-turbine wind farm, or question company officials about it, just needs to go to the courthouse on Main Street, company officials said Monday.

First Wind has opened an office in the basement of 52 Main St. to act as its local headquarters for its Stetson Mountain wind farm and its proposed Rollins Mountain project for Burlington, Lee, Lincoln and Winn, said Ryan Chaytors, a senior development associate at First Wind.

“We are going to use that office as we have been using Lincoln, as the hub of our development efforts for [the] past year or two,” Chaytors said Monday. “We have not had a space we could call home. We will use it as a development office while we go through the Rollins project.”

A local motel and a former car sales lot on West Broadway had served as First Wind’s offices whenever project workers were in town. The sales lot is home to companies employed by First Wind to build connection lines between Stetson Mountain and the New England power grid.

Rollins Mountain project manager Brad Kites of Lincoln will helm the office, which opened Friday, as will an administrative assistant, who is due to begin work on Dec. 1, Chaytors said. Other First Wind officials will use it whenever they are in the area.

First Wind also operates a 28-turbine wind farm in Mars Hill and is finishing a 38-turbine farm on Stetson Mountain between Danforth and Springfield due to go on line before January. It has at least two other projects in development in Maine.

The Lincoln Planning Board, state Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are reviewing the Rollins Mountain project. The other towns that will share the Rollins Mountain project have yet to begin their reviews, Chaytors said.

No review dates in Burlington, Lee and Winn have been set, he said.

“The towns have different permitting. Some towns require no permits; others do,” Chaytors said. “Lincoln had the most comprehensive procedure, so we decided to do that one first.”

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