By Tammie Mulvey
Houlton Rotarian
The Houlton Rotary Club welcomed Brad Kites of First Wind as its guest speaker during its Feb. 25 meeting. Kites is a project manager for First Wind and is currently managing the Oakfield project.
Kites has close to 30 years experience in heavy industrial and commercial project engineering, contracting, construction and maintenance. He worked for Loring Air Force Base, Great Northern Paper, and University of Maine System prior to coming to First Wind. He has been with First Wind for 4.5 years and was the project manager for Stetson II and Rollins project.
Contributed photo/Michael Clark
GUEST SPEAKER — The Houlton Rotary Club welcomed Brad Kites from First Wind as its guest speaker Feb. 25. Pictured are, from left, Ryan Bushey, Rotary president; Kites; and Rotarian Jim Brown
Kites explained that these projects are extremely logistically complex. He tried to explain some of the details and did a good job. However, at least for me, it was way out of my comprehension. He discussed how large the wind turbines are, and what it takes to put them up. All the prep work is huge. It takes many years of planning, both locally and throughout the state to ensure everything is being done not only correctly but beneficially to all involved. There are a tremendous amount of regulations, permits, and contracts that must be done before any groundwork can begin. They currently anticipate the Oakfield project’s commercial start date for 2015.
The Oakfield project is the largest they have built. The rotors on the turbines alone are 180 feet long each, which means the trucks to haul them need to be 210-feet. All information regarding the site is public through the permit process. The life expectancy for one of the turbines is 20 years. The agreements have added in the cost of decommissioning the turbines if or when it is needed. They try to have minimal impact on the town in which they are constructing, however they know that you can not come through town without having an impact. They try to make it a positive impact.
They will be looking to improve on the roads they are traveling, especially the main one, which is South Oakfield Rd. As I stated earlier this is a very complex project. For more information you can visit their website at firstwind.com.
The Houlton Rotary Club has a diverse group of speakers and presenters. We try to stay informed on community events and needs ongoing. We are looking forward to seeing what the next speaker is bringing to the table. If you are interested in learning more about what we do or coming to a meeting, you can visit our website at houltonrotary.org or our facebook page Rotary Club of Houlton.
We meet every Monday at noon, at Watson Hall. Many community members supported our recent trip to the Dominican Republic, and we thank you for that. If you are interested in attending our presentation for this great trip, it will be on Monday March 18th. Please contact a local Rotarian a week in advance if you would like to come and learn more.
