Coos Conversations

Beware spam from Laidlaw Lackeys

Some of my colleagues from Citizens for a New Vision have gotten unsolicited (Spam) emails from Laidlaw supposedly answering questions about the biomass plant. If you get one of these, we would just caution you to take it with a very large bucketful of salt.

"Although the Laidlaw Project currently is in fifth position in the ISO-NE queue, it probably will be the first or second to come on line, behind the Noble project in Lost Nation" 

Of course there's no explanation as to how they are magically going to jump the queue, unless of course they're counting on Charlie Bass to waive his magic wand for them. 

REGIONAL BIOFUEL PLANTS AND LOCAL FOOD PRODUCTION

The announcement by North Country Renewable Energy LLC, the feelers sent out by Laidlaw, and the proximity to the existiing wood-chip power plants at Bethlehem and at Whitefield, means the biofuel revolution is at the doorstep of Coos County. But there is a second industry, one that can quite literally tap on site the waste steam and electrical output of bio-plants, that could be developed right alongside the new generation stations.

The industry I'm speaking of is environmentally controlled bulk-food production. In Europe there are several power stations that are linked with massive greenhouse banks, hothouses that grow wholesale tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, and other vegetables that can be grown in high density environments for the tables of consumers. In Winslow, Maine, a new 14-acre greenhouse system is now turning out great quantities of hothouse tomatoes and all the volume is being trucked to the big Maine distribution warehouses of Hannafords supermarket chain. That greenhouse complex got up and running using propane as the heat source, but the company is building a wood-chip cogeneration boiler to heat the greenhouses and provide 18-hours of artificial lighting to get maximum production from the vegetable plants growing inside the hothouses.

Coos County is about as far away from food growing regions of the United States as a county can be, yet Coos County once fed itself only four and five generations ago. Biofuel plants have the capacity to be the energy source for environmentally controlled food production right in Coos. At Winslow, Maine, the tomato growing greenhouses employ 150 people in a nonstop plant, tend, harvest and ship cycle. Won't Coos like to have those jobs? You bet.

I can imagine entrepreneurs wedding food production systems with the bio-plants to jump start the revitalization of agriculture in Coos County.
Such a hybrid business would be exciting in terms of energy and food production volume, and such hybrids would suddenly be job factories for the county. If you will allow me, I can imagine big greenhouse sysems in place tied to industries such as the Tillotson rubber manufacturing plant in Dixville, the furniture factory at Beecher Falls, Vermont, the electric stations at Bethlehem and Whitefield, one at the energy park in Groveton, and, if a generating station or cellulosic biofuel plant is constructed in Berlin, one in Coos' only city.

Creating such food-energy hybrid companies would ensure that Coos County is no longer at the end of the food and energy distribution chain in the United States. Suddenly the county would be at the head of chain, a much better place to be during uncertain times.

Submitted by Kim Robert Nilsen
The Cohos Trail Association
wilshy@worldpath.net      

Interesting comments we're getting

We've been getting some interesting comments on both this blog, and on the Citizens for  a New Vision site about the proposed Laidlaw biomass plant. Interestingly they all seem to be coming to investment types  like Jendrock Thomas  who clearly are trying to pump up Laidlaw's stock. If I were an investor, I'd want facts, not rumors and blind faith in everything the PR department says. But then again, risky ventures and penny stocks like Laidlaw are all about the movement of the stock price, not the fundamentals behind the company.  Their total lack of interest in facts and data makes you wonder if these folks used to be in the sub-prime mortgage game???

Ever wondered what Berlin would look like with no stacks at all?

Local photographer Marc Ducharme has taken what can arguably be called some of the best photographs of Berlin ever taken and he took some spectacular shots after last weekend. Thru the wonders of photo shop, he shows us what Berlin would look like with no stacks at all. Now isn't that prettier than a biomass plant?

 

Then he answered the biggest question we had which was: What would it look like with no stacks at all. Kind of pretty isn't it?

Link: Edit Page | Post | Citizens for a New Vision | Your Weblogs | TypePad.

Reflections on an historic day in Berlin, NH

As much as the folks in Berlin have made me feel incredibly welcome, today I felt like an intruder at a funeral. It was the end of an era that I had very little knowledge about. To me it was the beginning of the new century, and there were many in the crowd who saw it the same way. But there were just as many tears for what was.
The day felt like one big block party for the entire city. It seemed like almost everyone in town turned out to watch the historic moment. The explosions were scheduled for 9, but cars started lining the better viewing spots as early as 7 am. In the poring rain, people had parties on roof tops, thrashed thru the puckerbrush, mounted ladders and vans, and did whatever they needed to do to capture the historic moment. Some came because they were merely curious, others came to say farewell to the symbols of an industry that shaped their lives, their families and the town they call home.
The night before had been one long wake. Former mill workers and residents drove in from as far away as Connecticut to witness the demolition. They gathered at traditional watering holes like Fagins Pub and the Millyard, to reminisce, connect with friends, and trade stories. When I asked them why they were here, most of the them started with words like "My grandfather/father/uncle/mother worked in the mill and I wanted to witness the end of an era." All were excited about the prospect of a new Berlin, sans smell, and sans stacks. Which of course generated lots of questions and discussion about the proposed Laidlaw biomass plant.
At 8:50 Saturday morning, just when the downpour was at its worst, the first of three warning whistles was sounded. Then there was a one minute warning and finally a deafening BOOM, and the first of the stacks went down in spectacular display, falling neatly in a plume of dark dust. Unfortunately it was raining so hard most of my pictures are pretty awful, but with luck someone else will have better ones, given the hundreds of camera shutters that went off.

A few minutes later, there was a second warning siren, and the oldest of the four stacks, collapsed in an even bigger cloud of dust.

Then it was time for the last, newest and tallest of the three stacks. The warning came, the sirens sounded, the boom reverberated thru the valley. And nothing happened. By this time I had run 4 miles in the rain to get to the site, and was pretty thoroughly soaked, and frozen through and through. So after waiting about 20 minutes I started heading back to our office. I passed the VIP tent, where I ran into Mary Wagner, one of our star employees, who also happened to have worked in the mill as an engineer. Coming from a third generation mill family, and married to the former GM at the mill, there are few people anywhere who know more about that mill.

According to Mary, the inside scoop was that they hadn't put quite enough dynamite in that third stack, so they were adding more. Mind you, this enormous stack was already compromised, but the brave (or crazy) demolition experts headed down to the base to add more dynamite. An excavator was called in and there was a bunch of activity around the base for the next half hour or so.

By this time, as you can see, my camera was pretty wet and I was so cold my fingers could barely work the buttons. But nonetheless I was ready when the warning siren went off. Poised perfectly to capture the demise of this last and final stack. I was much closer this time, and the explosion was deafening. And the stack didn't move.

Now in merry old England, when the hangman's noose failed to kill the criminal, his or her sentence was commuted, figuring that god or fate had stepped in. I figured, fate was intervening in the life of this particular stack, so I headed into the office. I hadn't been there for more than ten minutes when we heard another roar and felt a rumble, only to look out the window and see that the stack was no longer there. Gravity had done its work.

But now this day had gone from merely a minor embarassment for North American Dismantling, to a real disaster. The demolition crew had apparently been cutting rebar on the base when the stack gave way, falling unexpectedly on power lines and sending debris flying. Not only were several of the demolition crew injured but the debris flew through nearby windows, damaged cars and sent a total of 7 people to the hospital.

I took one last picture of the now horizontal stack (unlike the other ones that had crumbled in to a pile of rubble, this one was still intact) and headed for a hot shower. On the way out of town I drove across the bridge just north of town, and was stunned by what a difference the loss of those three towers made to the skyline. I don't know what I was expecting, but I had no idea that it would make such a difference to Berlin cityscape. But then I thought of the first time I saw ground zero. As someone who was born in New York, I'd gotten used to the skyline with the distinctive twin towers of the World Trade Center, so I was shocked into a stunned and reverential silence when I first saw the skyline of New York without them. Today's events were minuscule compared to the events of Sept 2001. But everything is relative. To the 12,000 residents of Berlin, I'm guessing that September 15, 2007 will be a day that will be remembered for just as long. For more pictures check out my flickr set.

Best idea of the month...

The idea of raffling off the opportunity to blow up the Berlin Pulp Mill stacks is brilliant. if you haven't heard, Coos County Family Health Services is selling tickets for an opportunity to be one of three people to actually hit the button that blows us one of the three remaining smoke stacks that have dominated the Berlin skyline for decades.Now that is $5 well spent. And thanks to North American Dismantling for making it possible.

Why can't Berlin do this?

National Public radio did a great piece on the town of Chula Vista, California that is forcing lenders to care for abandoned property. Makes us wonder why Berlin couldn't do more to force property owners and lenders to clean up their messes?

The 21st Century version of the Graduate

Few of us who were around at the time will forget the scene from The Graduate where Dustin Hoffman is given that critical one-word piece of advice "Plastics."   I think the 21st century version of that is "NorthSource."   In other words stop sending jobs and work overseas that can be done much better and more efficiently in the  North Country.  For those of you who have  been following my saga with my HP Laptop, this is a prime example of where outsourcing falls apart. First of all the people on the other end of the live chat may understand English, but their written skills are horrible and very clearly don't understand half of what you tell them. They are taught standard responses and if you go outside those standard responses, their only answer is to send it in. Which is a problem for those of us who rely on technology to get our work done. In the past a couple of days without a lap top might be tolerable. But three weeks without a laptop is unacceptable and I clearly let the world know that.

Their response was to have  multiple people in multiple countries all contradicting each other AND contradicting the automated emails that are going out as well.
My suggestion to them is a support center located in Coos County - -where people are by nature incredibly helpful, smart and ultimately pragmatic. They understand your problems and they solve them. Mark Hurd are you listening?

Some really interesting details

Are provided by Berlin City Planner Pamela LaFlamme over on the Byte & Chew blog. This link to a presentation that was done last month in Groveton on transmission capacity in the North Country provides some insight into the transmission debate currently swirling around the Laidlaw Biomass plan. 

Not your father's Berlin anymore.

Just in case you thought that Berlin was all about manufacturing and industrial occupations (which is definitely the impression you would have gotten at the city council last night) there is alot more going on in Berlin than you'd ever guess. First of all there is the SureWoman blog which is rapidly becoming one of my standard respites to go to -- a peaceful rejuvenating island in a sea of TMI (Too Much Information). Then there's Osmosis, another business that adds to the North Country's reputation as "Spa Central"  -- a place to go and rejuvenate.
I realize the irony that we're talking about spa treatments and inspirational women just when the annual motorcycle fest: Thunder in the Mountains is about to start -- but just in case you need a break from all that excitement, you can pop into the newly reopened Royal Twin Movie Theater and take in either Shrek 3 or the Transfomers.