Thoreau – Concord's
DNA

The Concord Campaign

for Quality Governance

The Solar case – 2010

Beginning in 2009, Concord's Town Manager, without initially involving other relevant actors, himself began to commit to a utility-scale solar project for the town. The narrative below details how this at first deeply angered some who are responsible for the town's electricity supply.

Ultimately, this effective fait accompli led the town to vote for and to try to negotiate a contract (the Tioga project, named for the would-be contractor).

Now – over two years later – that Article 64 from the 2010 Town Meeting has fallen of its own weight. The project was declared officially dead in mid-December 2011.

— In these pages, we of course advised from the outset, with exhaustive data, that the project was ill-conceived. —

An antecedent site (accessible also bottom of the navbar) details the runup, in this tale, to the time of the 2010 Town Meeting. Here below, we inspect events the rest of that year.

For 2010 there are five installments in the narrative, to assess that solar case.

1. Begin at the 'Report card' – Installment #1.
2. Proceed on to 'Evidence from the trenches' – Installment #2.
3. Then 'Where we are,' Oct 25 – installment #3.
4. 'When do we believe Town officials?'– Installment #4.
5. Email to Selectmen, dated Dec 6 – Installment #5.