Monhegan has become the latest island to explore wind power.
At the Monhegan Plantation Annual Meeting, held April 9, voters approved a feasibility study, taking the first step in the pursuit of wind power.
On the evening of April 9, 33 registered voters packed into the Monhegan Plantation schoolhouse for the Annual Town Meeting. Along with the usual warrant articles, this year’s Town Meeting saw votes on two issues central to the survival of the small island community, sustainable energy and year-round housing.
Like many island communities, residents of Monhegan Island have to pay many times more for electricity than people who live on the mainland. Ever since the Monhegan Plantation Power District (MPPD) first installed the island-wide diesel generated power system, MPPD has been searching for ways to incorporate renewable energy. As stated by MPPD in a handout distributed at Town Meeting, “We cannot simply keep going with only diesel and charging high prices while polluting the environment.”
The Monhegan Plantation Power District needs to complete a feasibility assessment to ensure that the concerns of the Monhegan community are addressed, particularly the proposed turbine’s impact on birds. The MPPD estimates the total cost would be between $56,000 and $61,000, though as of Town Meeting less than half of the funding still needed to be secured. According to the MPPD, “due to its commitment to supporting year-round island communities and renewable energy, the Island Institute has generously offered to cover half of our feasibility costs.”
At Town Meeting, the Monhegan Plantation Power District asked the Plantation to appropriate $15,000 from a special projects fund. “The balance of what MPPD needs to contribute to Phase One will come from their own resources and from anticipated fund raising this summer,” says MPPD trustee, Billy Boynton.
The Monhegan Plantation Power District plans to conduct a series of public meetings to inform the community about the results of the current feasibility studies leading up to a vote on whether the community should move forward to the second phase of the project. The next phase would involve more fundraising to create a specific engineering plan, addressing the specific details of how a wind turbine would work within the current power system in place on Monhegan.
One major challenge to implementing wind power is that the greatest potential for generating wind power exists in the winter when there is the most wind but also the lowest demand for electricity. MPPD trustee Billy Boynton explains, “There is a problem in winter of producing too much energy…Unfortunately demand and wind are opposite fields…We have to be innovative with the excess power that will be generated in the winter.”
One idea that has been proposed is to use excess energy in the winter to power a series of electric heaters in buildings, allowing people to rely less on expensive propane, coal, or other fuel sources, cutting back on home heating costs. However, it is yet to be known how feasible that plan actually is until the second phase moves forward.
Another key issue addressed at Town Meeting was affordable housing. The Monhegan Island Sustainable Community Association (MISCA) provides members of the year-round community with affordable housing options. Creating these options is often challenging due to the small number of available houses and lots of land on the island. At Town Meeting, Monhegan voters agreed to allow the Plantation to transfer a 20,000-square foot lot, part of which had been donated to the Plantation by the island’s land trust, Monhegan Associates, to MISCA “with the understanding that this lot will provide a house-site for a year-round resident of Monhegan,” according to the Town Meeting warrant.
This new lot will join an adjacent lot that was given to MISCA by the Monhegan Plantation in 2008 for the same purpose. According to MISCA President, Richard Farrell, “the Land Use Regulation Commission that oversees zoning for Maine’s Unorganized Territories recently worked with MISCA to revise zoning regulations for affordable housing. Under the new guidelines, organizations like MISCA can apply to build affordable housing on lots as small as 20,000 square feet.” MISCA will have to meet stringent sewage disposal standards in order to build on these two lots where a minimum lot size regulation would have mandated that only one house could be built. This allowance enables MISCA to build two new affordable and energy-efficient houses for year-round Monhegan residents.
The Plantation reported that over the course of 2008 it spent a total of $721,045, compared to $396,770 in 2007. That increase was mostly due to the wharf renovation project. The largest expenditures for 2008 were in the areas of education, solid waste, Lincoln County taxes, and roads.
Another issue that received a lot of attention was solid waste removal. “The cost of transporting solid waste off of the island and other logistical challenges add considerable time and expense to the cost of disposal that mainland communities are faced with,” according to island resident, Jes Stevens.
When the article for solid waste expenditures came up at Town Meeting, some people inquired about the garbage and recycling removal for the upcoming summer season. Matthew Schweier, a member of the Solid Waste Committee, explained that the committee was still researching options and hoped to have a plan by the May Assessors’ meeting. The Solid Waste Committee is hoping that the new options will help keep solid waste disposal costs within budget for 2009.
There are a few changes, however, that have already been agreed upon by the committee. In order to cut costs, the Plantation will no longer accept construction debris. Instead, individuals will be directed to make arrangements with the Monhegan Boat Line to have construction debris removed. In addition, the Plantation will not continue to offer curbside pick up for garbage and recycling as had been implemented during the summer of 2008. Instead, residents and businesses will transport their solid waste to a central location yet to be determined.
The voters also supported the budget of the Monhegan School, usually the largest of Plantation expenditures. The process of voting on the school budget has become significantly more complicated since statewide school consolidation legislature passed last year. Monhegan voters now have to vote on ten different school-related articles and then are asked to return for another vote ten days later to officially pass the budget. “This is a prime example of how an efficient island governance process has been made more complicated and time-consuming due to the school consolidation legislation,” commented Jes Stevens, a school committee member.
During the past year, the Monhegan Plantation began major renovations to the town wharf with the aid of a Community Development Block Grant. At Town Meeting, voters elected to fund the final portion of this important project. Voters also decided to donate money to the helicopter rescue service, LifeFlight. This was in addition to the usual vote to donate to St. George Ambulance. Island resident Susan McDonough explained, “We, the taxpayers of Monhegan, are grateful to both LifeFlight and St. George Ambulance for their excellent service to our community during medical emergencies. We hope to show a small amount of that gratitude annually with our tax dollars to let them know they are very appreciated in our remote island community with no on-island rescue or medical services.”
The voters of Monhegan elected Matthew Schweier as the Third Assessor, Marjorie McKeon as Plantation Clerk and Collector of Taxes, and Mathew Thomson as a trustee of the Monhegan Plantation Power District. Richard Shea was voted onto the school committee, taking the seat vacated by Jackie Boegel, who received applause for her 15 plus years of dedicated service to the school.
–Andy Whitaker is the Island Institute’s Fellow on Monhegan.