Towers

What a difference a few miles makes! On Vinalhaven the Fox Islands Winds project is well underway. The big, 120-foot blades have started to arrive in Rockland, the final concrete for foundations will be poured next week - all in all, a well-thought-out, collaborative endeavor that shows the best of private and public partnership.

Across the bay on the mainland, the Maine Supreme Court has just ruled that the town of Lincolnville, after 4 years of litigation, must allow a 195-foot cell phone tower to be built at the base of Bald Rock. Bald Rock, of course, affords one of the finest views on the entire coast, which, for most of its hikers, will now be marred for the sake of a few phone customers.

The towers on Vinalhaven, taller at 250 feet and three in number, are carefully situated to be least obtrusive; the tower in Lincolnville singly achieves maximal obnoxiousness. Will the owner of the land on which it is to be built come to his senses and remove the blight of steel from forest and sea? Not unless there's a Supreme Court of Beauty.