Hoosac Wind Neighbors Complain of Turbine Noise

FLORIDA, Mass. — The stories they tell are similar — constant headaches, ringing ears, pounding hearts, sleepless nights.

The cause of their concern can be seen sweeping the sky outside their windows.

On a cold Tuesday afternoon, George Berne pointed to the wind turbines towering over the trees a few thousand feet from his home on Moores Road, just over the border in Monroe.

"When they first put them in and started them up I didn't even know they would be heard by me, or even seen by me," said Berne, who is deaf and wears hearing aids. "We're right in the epicenter of this whole deal."

After a few seconds of listening, the hum of the turbines could be discerned over the whoosh of the wind.

Berne said the amplitude of the noise depends on the strength of the wind and its direction The wildlife has disappeared around his home, he said, and the humming and strobe-light effect of the blades wakes his grandchildren.

The 28.5-megawatt Hoosac Wind Power went online in mid-December after years of delays by a small contingent of neighbors and environmentalists who appealed the wetlands permitting for Iberdrola Renewables. The state's largest wind farm was heralded by Gov. Deval Patrick last December as shaping the future of energy.

Nineteen turbines standing some 340 feet tall were built on Bakke Mountain and Crum Hill, largely with the support of Florida and Monroe, which saw advantages to hosting a leading energy-generation farm that would provide jobs and tax dollars.

But neighbors who hadn't opposed the plans — or thought much about them — say their lives have been disrupted since the turbines started turning.

"We heard about the windmill project," said Mark Laveriere, who lives down the road from Berne. "Anything's a good idea, you have to give it a chance.

"This problem has become so apparent to me that I'm trying to reach out to my neighbors and the people of the town," said Farineny, who's urging residents encountering problems with the turbines to contact the state Department of Environmental Protection. "If it's not done now, I'm very concerned that DEP will brush this stuff under the rug."

Despite ambitious plans for wind energy, Falmouth voters will decide whether to remove two municipal turbines; in New York, Iberdrola is being sued by 60 residents over noise pollution.

"At our Hoosac wind farm, we give serious consideration to all concerns regarding its operation," wrote Paul Copleman, communications manager for Iberdrola Renewables, in an email. "As a long-term community partner, we remain committed to working closely, as we have throughout the multi-year development and construction of the project, with the communities and individuals in and around the project."

Residents are specifically asking for noise monitoring, saying the turbines frequently exceed the state's 10-decibel limit and the guidelines don't take into account persistent low-frequency noise. Farineny said the state used a model for noise but never determined the actual ambient background in the wooded, low-density residential area.

State officials say they have received complaints about the noise and are working with Iberdrola.

"MassDEP has been tracking complaints from residents in the area and we have been in contact with the company about those complaints," wrote Edmund J. Coletta Jr., director of the DEP's Office of Public Affairs. "Mass DEP requested, and the company recently submitted, a plan for performing noise monitoring. We are working with the company to ensure the plan will evaluate conditions around the turbines."

Coletta said he couldn't speak further on the issue but did add that the plan should be finalized "shortly" and the company will begin monitoring.  

Copleman said sound "is a complex issue."

"We designed the project to be in compliance with all applicable regulations and we have an obligation to operate the project in accordance with those regulations," he wrote. "We have been made aware of concerns regarding sound from some of the project neighbors and we have been in communication with the Massachusetts DEP to discuss an appropriate sound monitoring plan."

Some experts are calling the effects "wind turbine syndrome," a condition that disrupts lives through sleeplessness, depression, headaches, dizziness, nausea and more. Others see communication and shared annoyance as the main culprit, not turbines. An expert study by the Department of Public Health released last year says there is limited or insufficient evidence on whether turbines are directly responsible for causing health problems, but considers noise could play a role.

For some of the turbines' neighbors, the syndrome is very real. They came to the hilltowns to get away from big-city noise, to find peace and quiet.

"You just can't get away from them, they're constantly going," said Rosalyn Mullette, 75, who had looked forward to spending her golden years with her husband in the home his father built. "We're concerned about the future and being able to stay in this home."

New Eagle Street Shop Has the Perfect Toppers

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
11:14AM / Saturday, August 01, 2026

Tip Top Hats sells Patricia Welch's handmade designs and more commercial products at lower prices. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city has a millinery for the first time in more than 40 years. 

Patricia Welch, who has more than 60 years of hatmaking experience, recently opened Tip Top Hats at 16 Eagle St.

Welch said she has always been fascinated by hats and has seen many fashion trends. She's particularly interested in the mod movement.

"It's just something that I have a facility for and have been doing for so long, it's kind of second nature," she said. "It's over 60 years since I’ve been making hats, not all the time, but on and off for a long, long time. So I had a lot of life experience to draw from. I've seen many, many fashions come and go. Being a child of the '60s, I was heavily influenced by the mod movement, fashion movement, and it has stuck with me all these years."

Welch previously owned a shop in Gloucester before moving to New York in the late 1990s. Her work has been featured in juried shows and she's done design consulting.

While she worked in engineering and exhibiting designs, she always made her hats. It all started when she was 13 years old and had to solve a problem.

"I used to go riding on motorcycles with no hat on, no helmet, and your hair would get terribly knotted up," Welch said. "So the first time I made a hat, it was kind of a little bonnet of cotton that just tied under my chin, and it was just to keep my hair from getting tied in knots by the wind."

She came across the "for rent" sign on storefront in May and made a decision she would like to occupy it. She opened on July 1 during First Friday.  She said it was a great way for her to get out of retirement.

"Kind of impulsive, but you know I'm not young, and tired of being retired, basically," Welch said. "So this is a wonderful, fun experience, and I think it'll bring more to Eagle Street."

Millinery shops were a mainstay of women's and men's fashion well into the 1960s. At one time, North Adams had three or four independent millinery shops plus departments in some of its stores, like Roberts Co. and the Boston Store.

They began closing down in the 1960s because of owners' retirements or deaths, dislocation because of urban renewal, and changing fashions. The last ones were the Style Shoppe and Hollywood Millinery (then Hollywood Fashions) in the early 1980s. 

Welch has hats made from straw, fake fur, wool, leather, and more. Her designs can take hours to complete.

"I start by having an idea in mind for the style that I want to work on, and then I'll pull from my textiles and make a selection that would all work nicely together, so that I can I can make a particular style using various textiles from the same group, so it becomes a collection rather than just a random bunch of hats," she said.

She wants to have something for everyone, and since her one-of-a-kind hats can be pricey, she has  commercially hats that are moderately priced.

"Typically in finishing a hat, there's handwork, which is why they become more expensive. Because some hats I spend well, literally hours on," she said.