Perry, ME: Firetruck purchase sparks LNG debate

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Perry: Firetruck purchase sparks LNG debate

By Diana Graettinger

Friday, March 30, 2007 - Bangor Daily News

PERRY - It took less than five minutes to pass the $1 million school budget, but two hours to pass town money issues including buying a new firetruck.

About 50 residents at the town meeting Tuesday night lumbered through 54 town articles, including switching the town’s fiscal year from Feb. 1-Jan. 31 to July 1-June 30 to bring it in line with the school department’s fiscal year. Voters approved that article.

Voters also dealt with several other articles, ranging from $28,000 for garbage disposal, up from last year because of an increase in price from the Marion Transfer Station, to a tiny $250 for the Washington County Council of Governments.

The article that dealt with the purchase of a new pumper truck for the fire department turned into a minidebate about LNG.

Article 20 asked voters to spend up to $190,000 on a new pumper. Of that amount, $87,000 was to come from the fire department’s reserve account, while the rest would be borrowed over 10 years at a rate of 4.09 percent.

"Why don’t we wait for LNG to buy that?" a resident asked.

For more than a year, LNG has divided this town, pitting family members and friends against one another. On Monday, voters narrowly approved a $3.6 million payment plan from the Oklahoma-based Quoddy Bay LNG in return for a liquefied natural gas tank farm they want to build in the town. The terminal would be on Passamaquoddy tribal land at neighboring Pleasant Point.

Fire Chief Paula Frost told residents that the existing pumper was 25 years old. "Most of us wouldn’t drive a car that is 25 years old," she said.

She said the aging equipment was a threat to firefighters’ lives as well as buildings in the community. In the past year, she said, firefighters spent more time towing the truck than driving it back to the station after a fire.

The fire chief said if the town didn’t buy the pumper now, it would cost more in the future.

LNG opponent Gary Guisinger asked Selectman Dick Adams, who helped negotiate the $3.6 million agreement, why he hadn’t included a new pumper in the deal.

Adams said it would be one to two years before the tanks were built, and the pumper is needed now. Guisinger then suggested the timeline would be more like three to four years, to which Adams responded, "I don’t know, Gary, you’re the one giving the answer."

Tribal member Sandi Yarmal, who lives in Perry, said the truck is needed now.

"Personally speaking, I would rather not wait ... and run the risk in the event that Quoddy Bay doesn’t get the financing they require and the project does not go through, then we’ve lost a firetruck or a human life," she said.

Voters quickly gave the thumbs up to the purchase.

Then it was on to third party requests for money from such groups as the Pine Tree Chapter of the Red Cross and Downeast Health Services.

Voters were in the mood to give out some money to most of the agencies, but rejected a $1,000 request from United Cerebal Palsy of Maine.

When it came to a $5,104 request from Catholic Charities of Maine, a discussion ensued and voters learned that last year the town turned down a $1,400 request from the agency. The agency still got its money after a record-keeping mix-up at the town office.

Asked about the services the agency provides to the town, a woman said they fed and cared for the elderly in Perry.

"Would Catholic Charities stop their work with the elderly in Perry if they did not get an allocation under the article?" Perry resident Nancy Asante asked.

Voters then approved $1,400 for the agency.