BARRINGTON — The Town Council will get a recommendation for a wind turbine builder at its Oct. 6 meeting, the chairman of the Committee for Renewable Energy for Barrington told the council Tuesday night.

David Baum said the committee is in talks with the developers of two of the five turbine proposals submitted to the town. A site at the end of Legion Way, next to Brickyard Pond, is widely regarded as the best location, although many neighbors are opposed.

Final approval will come from the council if it is convinced that the project is safe and economical.

Council President Jeffrey Brenner has said no decision will be made without a full public hearing after the Oct. 6 meeting.

“We’re converging on potential recommendations,” said Baum. “Two of the five proposals are reasonably close to our budget, but will require negotiations” with the builders. “We want to be sure we understand all the costs.”

So far, he said, “there are really no significant health and safety issues that have been found that cannot be overcome.”

The committee released a detailed health and safety report last month. When Councilwoman June Speakman asked if critics have successfully challenged any of the findings of that report, available at www.barringtonenergy.com, Baum’s response was: “Not that I’m aware of.”

Critics have charged, among other things, that the committee underrepresented the true height of the turbine in simulated photographs posted on the Web site. Those pictures can be found by clicking on the “Location” tab.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, Baum said the committee has now double-checked those photographs — using both geometric calculations and balloon tests that show the actual height — and found that the simulations were accurate.

Critics have also questioned, as Walter Adamowicz, of 5 Ferncliff Rd., did Tuesday night, whether the noise estimates derived by the committee are accurate.

He noted that much of the sound will travel across water, where there is nothing to dissipate it.

Baum said the calculations assume the noise is traveling across a perfectly-reflective surface.

His committee has said that the noise level 1,000 feet from the base of the turbine — farther than nearly all the homes in the area — would be equivalent to the sound made by a bubbling brook.

Ronald D. Russo told council members that he has visited Portsmouth Abbey and spent time 1,000 feet from that turbine.

“You can still hear the swish-swish sound” of the blades sweeping through the air, and after ten or fifteen minutes, “some people will say it’s annoying,” he said.

The original proposal, which has now fallen out of favor but remains on the table, calls for putting the turbine at the high school, where it would be about 190 feet from the school building.

At that distance from the Portsmouth Abbey facility, Russo said, if you stay there for five minutes, you can get enamored with the turning of the turbine. But after ten or fifteen minutes, “it becomes disturbing to you.”

He said one study cited by the committee’s health and safety report found that 51 percent of people reported being annoyed by the swishing sound of wind farms at noise levels close to what the nearest residents are expected to hear when outdoors.

Critics have also charged that the town is rushing into the project because a turbine deal has to be signed by year’s end, otherwise it may lose a no-interest IRS loan that will finance most of the $2.4 million cost.

Tuesday night, Baum said the IRS might extend that deadline.

The objectors have noted that the committee is relying on wind estimates rather than making long-term wind measurements in town, and that the underlying geology has not been assessed for either site.

“We understand that, in these types of decisions, you could get perfect information if you took a lifetime,” said Baum. “We’ve got very good information at this point.”

gemery@projo.com