PERRY – Now that an Oklahoma developer of liquefied natural gas facilities has told residents of a second Washington County town that $1 million per year could be theirs if they allow the developer to build there, residents of the first town to get the offer are wondering whether the developer will stick to his word.

The promise of $1 million paid annually to the town of Perry to offset the potential impacts of an LNG facility sited at the Passamaquoddy reservation at Pleasant Point was held out in March by the tribe and Quoddy Bay LLC, the out-of-state developer who is planning the facility.

The promise was put on paper on March 21 in a “binding obligation” signed by all the parties, including the three Perry selectmen.

Now some residents in Perry want to know: Will the Perry agreement be honored? And how will Quoddy Bay’s new promise of $1 million annually for Robbinston be handled?

“We haven’t heard anything, not one thing,” said Dick Adams, one of the Perry selectmen whose signatures appear below those of Melvin Francis, the Passamaquoddy chief at Pleasant Point, and Donald Smith, the president of Quoddy Bay.

“All I know is the next town above us, Robbinston, is the hottest item on the ticket now. … I haven’t heard from Donald Smith since Split Rock came up.”

Smith and his company had made the $1 million annual offer in concert with the tribe one week in advance of a referendum March 28 in Perry about whether to build an LNG terminal on tribal land. Perry residents rejected the project when it was positioned for Gleason Cove, land that the tribe had annexed from Perry 18 years earlier.

The developer has since shifted plans to locate the facility instead at Split Rock, another tribal point on the reservation.

As far as Quoddy Bay’s public relations firm is concerned, the contract is void.

“The offer was made in lieu of property taxes on that facility,” Dennis Bailey of Savvy Inc. said in a written statement Friday.

“That proposal was rejected by Perry voters and has since been abandoned. The latest proposal is for an LNG facility at Split Rock and does not involve land other than that controlled by the Passamaquoddy Tribe.”

Pressed on the point that the contract’s worthiness is not contingent on Perry’s approval of the LNG project, Bailey declined more questions. “You have our statement,” he said.

Francis, the Pleasant Point governor, could not be reached for comment Friday.

Now Quoddy Bay has put forward a second promise of $1 million annually, this time to the town of Robbinston. While Split Rock would host the LNG import terminal, Robbinston would be the site of companion storage tanks for Quoddy Bay.

Gary Guisinger is the Perry resident who went back to read the fine print in Quoddy Bay’s binding obligation.

“To some of us, the offer of $1 million was just a blatant bribe,” Guisinger said last week. “But the [Washington County] district attorney said that it was being offered as an impact fee.

“If that’s true, they still owe us $1 million. If not, then the paper was worthless to begin with.

“Now they’re offering $1 million a year to Robbinston. If it’s been all baloney for Perry, why should it be better for Robbinston?”

The $1 million offer for Robbinston is described as an annual “economic development incentive” by Quoddy Bay.

It was extended orally by Brian Smith, the project manager and the company president’s son, during Quoddy Bay’s introductory presentation to the Robbinston Planning Board.

An attorney who advises a number of parties who oppose any LNG development in the area said Friday that, to her, the contract looks good.

“The argument can be made that this is still a valid agreement,” said Lynne Williams, a Bar Harbor lawyer. “As such, let’s have the money.”

The two-page contract specifies that, once construction on the LNG facility starts at Pleasant Point, “… the Tribe and Quoddy Bay pledge to pay a total of $1 million annually in quarterly installments to the Town, which includes the initial pledge of $340,000 and this additional pledge of $660,000.”

The $1 million would continue to be paid annually “during the operation of the LNG terminal and until Quoddy Bay begins to dismantle the terminal.”

The contract does not specify that the terminal must be built at Gleason Cove, only that “Quoddy Bay is developing an LNG terminal on certain Passamaquoddy tribal land.”

The $1 million offer to Perry had been negotiated by Perry resident David Turner. A former planning board member who in March lost his bid for a vacant selectman’s seat, Turner has been an outspoken advocate of LNG coming Down East ever since Quoddy Bay aligned with the Passamaquoddy a year ago.

Turner said Friday that he didn’t know “where Perry stands right now. … The offer was for the Gleason Cove project. It’s ancient history now.”

In a news release in advance of Perry’s vote on March 28, the developers announced: “The new $1 million pledge could allow the elimination of property taxes in the town of Perry and still provide for substantial growth in school, fire protection and safety services.”

Some residents were offended by the offer, and asked the Washington County district attorney, Michael Povich, whether the offer could be construed as a bribe.

Povich concluded that it could not and said that the offer was made genuinely in the interest of minimizing effects from the LNG project on the town and its residents.

Perry would still be affected whether an LNG terminal is sited at Gleason Cove or Split Rock, Guisinger pointed out.

“Wherever they build a facility, Perry will still be impacted dramatically,” Guisinger said. “We have been under the impression that they still owe the town the million-dollar offer.”