Oakham Forms BEST Subcommittee to Coordinate Response to Battery Storage Proposal

OAKHAM — September 24, 2025 — Oakham launches new BEST subcommittee to fight proposed battery energy storage facility. The five-member body, drawing from the Planning Board, Conservation Commission, Select Board, and the public at large, held its inaugural meeting September 24 and elected town resident Matthew Broderick as chair by a vote of four to one abstention. The committee voted unanimously to request a Select Board-authorized executive session with town counsel Kopelman and Paige, who has been silent since receiving the town's file of agency correspondence in July. Planning Board member Phil Bass reported that three acoustic consulting proposals are in hand and that all sound output figures in the applicant's Epsilon petition for the 296-unit Tesla battery facility are redacted; the town has assembled estimates from comparable projects putting the combined output at roughly 120 decibels. A special town meeting on October 6 will consider transferring $75,000 from stabilization for legal costs, and the Energy Facilities Siting Board's own September 24 filing sets an October 30 deadline for intervener petitions — two weeks after the October 16 public hearing.