Perry voters to weigh LNG deal Question asks for approval of $3.6M agreement by selectmen

PERRY – The real winners in the horse race between proponents and opponents of an LNG facility in this town are the media and the U.S. Postal Service.

For more than a week, the local radio and weekly newspapers have been bombarded with ads extolling the benefits and pitfalls of a $3.6 million deal between the town and Oklahoma-based Quoddy Bay LNG to build a multimillion-dollar liquefied natural gas tank farm in this town.

In addition, the U.S. Postal Service is getting its fair share of money with a number of mailings being sent to Perry residents, the latest from opponents of the proposed LNG tank farm.

The stakes are high.

Quoddy Bay LNG hopes to build a multimillion-dollar terminal at neighboring Pleasant Point with a tank farm in Perry.

Recently, the majority of selectmen put together a $3.6 million annual payment deal with the company. It goes before voters Monday, March 26.

Question 3 on the ballot reads: “Shall the proposed agreement between the town of Perry and Quoddy Bay LNG, LLC dated Feb. 5, 2007, titled ‘Financial Framework Agreement,’ as on file with the town clerk be approved?” It will be up to voters to decide thumbs up or down.

Another LNG question on the ballot is linked to whether the town got a “good” deal in the first place.

Proponents say yes.

Opponents say no. They want a negotiating committee and a new deal.

The question of a committee was put before voters in the form of a petition more than a month ago.

In February, a special town meeting was held and voters agreed they would like to see a committee formed, They even offered suggestions on how it should be configured.

But the legality of the meeting was questioned by two of the three selectmen because it was not called by them, but by the opponents of the deal with the help of a notary public. Illegal or not, in the end 72 people voted by secret ballot in favor of the creation of a negotiating committee, while 23 voted no.

After the vote, Selectwoman Jeanne Guisinger said the selectmen had three choices: to accept the results of the town meeting, challenge it in the courts or ignore it. Two selectmen, Chairman David Turner and Selectman Dick Adams, decided to ignore it.

Although opponents could have sued to determine whether the special town meeting was legal or not, they decided not to take legal action fearing that because of the short time until the town vote the court would not have time to rule.

“I can understand why voters may be confused at this time,” Guisinger said about how the question is worded on the ballot. “Perry voters invested time and energy into developing a committee composition and process with which they were comfortable. Indeed, those in opposition to the committee ended up asking to have a part in it.”

As a result, the ballot question on the warrant is the original one first proposed by the petition and not the one reworked at the town meeting. Guisinger said that if voters approve Question 4 on the ballot Monday, the first order of business for the committee would be to establish goals for the negotiating process.

“The committee would appoint lead negotiators to negotiate directly with developers and legal teams using those goals.” If voters reject the $3.6 million deal in favor of a negotiating committee, she promised she would work to see that the broader representative vote on at the special town meeting in February would be part of the negotiating committee. “There is a place for this committee whether the financial framework agreement passes or not,” she said.

Chairman David Turner disagreed. He said it was up to the selectmen to handle the administrative tasks of the town, not a committee.

Turner said that the special town meeting was not binding on the town, but did expose the problems in the wording of the article on the town warrant. He said that the creation of the committee raised questions: What are the guiding rules of the committee? What happens if they can’t get a quorum?”

Turner said the opponents were trying to stop the project. “They’ve made public statements that they do not think any amount of money would be right for the town,” he said.

Turner said if people don’t like the current financial package negotiated by the selectmen, they could vote it down and the selectmen would continue to work to get the best deal for the town.