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Well as others pointed out we don't know the financial details. It's at the MOU stage. But I'm still not sure who we'd want to pay for the turbines besides the Town/Milton Hydro if all revenue ends up going to the Town/Milton Hydro.

That's like a solar power vendor knocking on my door asking me if I'd like solar panels on my roof and I said sure, as long as you (the vendor) pay for a percentage of it. Why would they? They're not going to get any of the revenue/reward. Obviously I'm going to try and negotiate the best price possible and do cost/reward analysis on it. But it's still me who is going to be paying for it. Based on it being a pilot project I'd try to use that to help negotiate the best price possible.

Even though Milton (town) owns Milton Hydro. Milton Hydro is still managed by their own executives, board of directors, etc (the town does have a presence on the Milton Hydro board of directors of course). I prefer it that way. I don't think the Town is well suited to managing a hydro company (owning a profitable one that focused on servicing the town's needs, yes, hands-on directly managing one, no).

There's nothing to stop the town from doing that if they wanted to and found a suitable location and found advertisers for it. But the wind-power may be a win-win situation for both Milton Hydro, Town, and green power (may...it's only a MOU...we don't have details yet).

Benefits could be..

(1) Positive example for the Town/residents (i.e. green power)
(2) Pilot gives Milton Hydro/Town experience and data on wind power. Positively impact Milton Hydro's future ability & expertise with wind power in Milton.
(3) Pilot may be financially beneficial to Milton Hydro (i.e. as a separate entity)
(4) Pilot should be financially beneficial to the Town (i.e. as a separate entity, as there would be no cost to the town's books)

Possible cons could be..

(1) Noise needs to be investigated to ensure it's not detrimental to local residents
(2) Not in Milton Hydro's long term inancial best interests? What is the financial analysis on this from Milton Hydro's perspective. With the report saying Milton Hydro is taking the lead in respect to management of the project, I have to assume they think it's in their best interests. "We" (residents) care about this because as we know Milton Hydro is owned by the town so it's financial health should be important to us.

From the above you can see I have the financial aspect as both a possible "pro" or "con" from Milton Hydro's perspective. This is because there's not enough detail yet to tell.

Based on the concept picture I don't think there are any significant cons from a visual perspective. It's in the front of the building, It's not that high, the parking lights are I think already higher? It should be visually eye pleasing.

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^ All you said is well and good but remember this Town is being run by incompetent imbeciles that want to pay $20K to a "consulting firm" to find out the best use of a building so I won't be surprised at the quality of revenue/reward analysis that must have been done...

That's why I'm happy that Milton Hydro is taking the lead on the project and not the town. So far they've been taking a business approach to most things and haven't fallen into bureaucratic quagmires.

But I wouldn't use the phrase "incompetent imbeciles" that's fairly harsh (even if I don't agree with some decisions).

Please remember people get the government they deserve

If a particular councillor is an "incompetent imbecile" what does that say for (us) the people who elected him/her?

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Ok, Am I missing something here?

That has got to be the dumbest memo every written.
There is no information in it.

The pilot project is to install the turbines? Do they need practice installing them? Why can't they practice installing it some where else? There is no mention anywhere about what they are trying to do? Are they trying to create energy to resell back to hydro? Are they trying to take part of the sports centre off grid and be self sustained?

There is no information on it at all.

It looks to me they are trying to sneak some billboards for advertising revenues onto the sports centre and self power it with the turbines? I would certainly hope that if someone is putting a billboard on a roof they will cover the maintenance and powering costs associated with it.

The turbines are not the issue here, the issue is do you want Derry Road to look like the Gardner Expressway with billboards? With the lack of additional information, that is what I can only assume what wants to be done here.

Do I make sense or did I have too many coffees today?

Matt

**Edit, are those TV screens hanging from the Pole like the ones at Esso at Main and JSP or is it a banner?

You are not alone.......I felt the same way...

OK, fine! But, we should make a basic IQ test mandatory...

Too many coffees

Just kidding (ducks)

Look at page 5, it has a image of what this might all look like. They don't look like big billboards. I didn't think they were even electrical/digital. It looks more like banners to me. But MOU's usually don't have highly detailed specs. That's why they are MOUs.

I would think they're trying for the benefits I layed out in my previous post.

But again more detail is needed before deciding if this is beneficial or not to nearby residents and the town. Signing an MOU does not contractually obligate us to having to complete the project. It is often used in cases where parties don't want to imply a legal commitment.

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When I see a report like that I wonder what the heck is going on??
There is no due diligence referenced in that report at all.

Is the town allowed to go into a contract with itself this easily? looks like a big conflict of interest here. Who is looking after Milton Hydro's interest? who is looking after the towns interest? Is someone robbing Peter to pay Paul here??
By that report it looks like it is harder to extend the parking on your street then to get something like this rammed through.

Matt

Due diligence is done after MOU's usually not before (usually before you sign a contract). So no there would not be references to due diligence being complete at this stage.

Yes, they are. Happens all the time. Company "A" owns Company "B". Company "A" enters into a contract with Company "B".

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Thanks Rick, I think I have my conspiracy theory hat on today.

I hope there is a lot more records in the back ground that we are not privy to. Having an MOU voted on based by a letter basicaly saying I think it is a good idea without justification seems weird. Almost like a judge saying guilty or not guilty then walking out of the courtroom.

Matt

It sounds like an interesting project. I don't know if I'd put them out front like they are in the picutre. Not to tie one issue to the other- but if it's successful and they add more, at 15% this could be a lot of money. And that money could be used to solve our local share issue with the hospital.

We've been crying about making our world a greener place, and producing power without using coal. Maybe it's time we did the brave thing and tried it for a while.

Matt, they look like banners to me, and banners is what is stated in the memo. Agreed that the memo is very vague. Certainly worth clarifying.

I also looked at the company website www.two-west.com. There's no information on the unit power generation, just dimensions so this is something relatively new they're marketting. It's actually a combination vertical turbine and solar unit. Neat.

http://www.two-west.com/vawt_twv40.php

Rick, questions I have about this installation are:

1) What is the power range for the proposed units being installed
-just for technical curiosity
2) Are they providing power directly to the Milton Sports Center or generally into the Milton Hydro grid or both?
-if they'll providing power to the MSC, that could help reduce operating costs which is a direct benefit to the town and residents unless Milton Hydro still "owns" the power and sells it to the town at the same price. On the other hand, it's power they don't have to purchase from OPG so the revenue goes into Milton Hydro, which is town-owned so it's still win-win really.
3) Is Milton Hydro looking at this as a pilot project for testing out ways of implementing distributed power generation?
-related to question above. If they are testing how to implement distributed power generation, it could pave the way for residents being able to install solar or wind generation units privately and sell excess power back to Milton Hydro

If I was on council I'd ask a few more questions to Staff on Monday before voting. I wouldn't want to base my council vote purely on that letter, so yes I agree with you. But I'm not on council

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Something to consider when putting wind turbines near residential areas. Low frequency noise pollution - Clinical medical studies are beginning to suggest that sounds that are audible to the human ear may not be the sole cause for concern - even that "infrasound" or "low frequency" noise pollution may represent the major portion of potential health hazards. Such "inaudible" noise pollution is apparently not being analysed by the wind driven turbine industry.

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/ ... ntoNewHome

http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen ... 66254.html

http://www.aandc.org/research/wind_comm ... ealth.html

This would be an interesting topic to discuss on council. As Rick stated before, nothing is binding by talking about it so the more information we get the better.

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Mike Cluett
Local/Regional Councillor
Wards 1,6,7 & 8

Website | Email mike@mikecluett.ca | Cell (647) 888-9032 | Facebook Page | | Twitter @Mike_Cluett