Peru voters to decide on wind, recall ordinances 

PERU – Voters will have three ordinances to consider on Election Day, including one that would regulate industrial wind energy facilities in town.

The purpose of the wind power ordinance is to “protect the health, safety, and general welfare” of Peru citizens by “establishing reasonable and uniform regulations for the development of industrial wind energy facilities.”

The move to pass an ordinance began after EDP Renewables North America LLC, of Houston, Texas, announced it was considering building 25 to 35 turbines in Peru. The company received a permit in October 2011 to place a meteorological test tower off Black Mountain Road near the Sumner town line.

Since then, the town’s Industrial Wind Energy Facility Ordinance Committee has drafted an ordinance that would regulate wind-power construction.

The ballot also has an ordinance that would allow residents to recall an elected municipal official, with the exception of school board members, if they have failed to carry out their duties. Another ordinance would allow the electronic sign on the side of the Peru Fire Station on Route 108 to display different messages in a way that would not distract drivers.

According to the recall ordinance, which Town Clerk Vera Parent said was “drafted by a group of concerned citizens, and spearheaded by residents Tammy and Edward Ferland,” if residents believe that a municipal official has failed to “appropriately carry out duties and responsibilities of the office,” engaged in disreputable conduct or been convicted of a crime or felony, they can begin the process of recalling the official.

The ordinance states that while the residents of Peru are attempting to recall or remove the incumbent, the incumbent “shall continue to perform the duties of the office until the results of the election are certified unless he or she has submitted a written resignation to the selectmen.” It also states that if the result of the recall election is a tie, the recall will be defeated.

Parent said the language in the ordinance “is not boilerplate.”

“The citizens who drafted the article chose details from recall ordinances that other towns wrote and made their own ordinance for Peru with them,” Parent said.

The ballot contains two additional questions. One asks voters if the town should keep the position of secretary to the Board of Selectmen full time and appointed, while the other asks if Peru should take $5,000 from surplus to complete the roof and entry door projects at the Town Office.

Voters at the town meeting in June opted to raise $30,000 and take another $30,000 from surplus to pay for construction on the Town Office roof and entry door, Parent said. The bids for the project came in above the amount raised. The $5,000 would cover the additional costs of construction.

Parent said that even if residents decide not to allow the town to take $5,000 from surplus, construction will continue. The $5,000 would have to come from somewhere else because “the bill still has to be paid.”