Meetup of Barnstable leaders, offshore wind execs delayed, pending seating of new council

An anticipated, face-to-face dialogue between Barnstable town leaders and executives from Avangrid Renewables, tentatively planned Thursday, will be put off until a later date, yet to be determined.

Council President Matthew Levesque advises residents the meetup will not take place at the Barnstable Town Council Thursday meeting as he had suggested it might during a meeting called at the request of citizens late last month. With the recent Town Council election, he thinks it is important that the newly elected members be seated for the discussion.

"With so much turnover (in the Council), I just felt it was important to get questions answered from the new councilors, too," Levesque said Tuesday.

The newly constituted council will not be sworn in until Nov. 20, which is the procedure according to the town charter, Town Clerk Ann Quirk said Tuesday. Additionally, a separate swearing in for the precinct 9 councilor will be needed pending an expected ballot recount after the race for that seat resulted in just a one-vote margin between candidates Charlie Bloom and Michael Mecenas. Quirk said as of Tuesday morning she has not yet received back the recount petition, for which Mecenas must collect at least 10 signatures of registered voters.

Furthermore, it's anticipated a new meeting with Avangrid executives will have to wait until the council chooses its new officers. The council is scheduled to begin reorganization proceedings at the Dec. 7 meeting, when nominations will be taken for council president and vice president, Quirk said. Voting for the leadership positions will take place at the board's second meeting next month, on Dec. 21.

Likely to meet early in 2024

Levesque on Tuesday said the meetup will most likely happen at some point after the New Year.

A last month's community meeting, held in the auditorium at Barnstable High School, Levesque told those assembled that the council was planning to schedule a meeting with Avangrid executives to discuss issues and concerns related to the company's Park City Wind and Commonwealth Wind projects.

The Town Council scheduled the community meeting in response to a petition they received in September requesting an open meeting under section 8-9 of the town charter to discuss the projects. The petition — spearheaded by Centerville residents Bob Schulte, Sandy Jones, Joanne O'Connor, and Chuck Tuttle — was signed by 518 residents.

While representatives of Avangrid were present, including the company's Vice President of Development for Offshore Wind Ken Kimmell, they were not given the opportunity to address the audience. At the time, Levesque told the assembly the meeting was meant to be for the council to hear from residents about their concerns and to collect their input and questions ahead of a meeting with Avangrid.

What are community concerns?

Concerns have swirled around Avangrid's proposal to bring power transmission cables from its 804-megawatt Park City Wind and 1,232-megawatt Commonwealth Wind projects ashore in Barnstable — the projects are planned for lease areas in the shallow continental shelf waters south of Martha's Vineyard. The company is looking to bring cables ashore at Craigville Beach (Park City Wind) and Dowses Beach (Commonwealth Wind).

Deliberations related to the projects are presently on pause in Barnstable after the company recently announced plans to back off from its previously negotiated power purchase agreement with Connecticut utilities for Park City Wind. The company earlier this year similarly terminated its power purchase agreement with Massachusetts utilities and is now among developers bidding for a new contract under the state's fourth offshore wind procurement round.

A number of residents have raised questions about the appropriateness of landing so much power on public beaches and routing it through estuarine environments, historic residential areas and small business zones, instead of going with a more planned, consolidated approach and bringing them ashore at existing industrial or military sites.

Residents have also raised concerns about how the projects could affect property values for homes and businesses along the power cable route, how small businesses may be compensated by construction-related disruptions if the projects move forward, whether or not the town is getting enough monetary benefits as a host community and other issues.

The town's leaders have said they share many of the residents' concerns and questions, and their impending meetup with the executives is meant to air them out and get some answers.

Kimmell told the Times after last month's community meeting that the company is looking forward to a dialogue with the council, and also "setting the record straight" on some of the concerns and perceptions. For example, he pointed out, there are wind farms in Europe "where the landing is on a public beach," as is proposed in Barnstable.

Heather McCarron writes about climate change, environment, energy, science and the natural world, in addition to news and features in Barnstable and Brewster. Reach her at hmccarron@capecodonline.com, or follow her on X @HMcCarron_CCT

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Barnstable Council talk with offshore wind execs postponed. Here's why