The Bangor Daily News is suing the town of Orrington for allegedly violating Maine’s Freedom of Access Act by not disclosing contract and payment documents related to its troubled trash plant.
Filed in Penobscot Superior Court on Tuesday, the lawsuit comes almost six months after a BDN reporter first made FOAA requests for records of the town’s invoices, receipts, other payments and contracts between Orrington and the Eagle Point Energy Center, formerly the Penobscot Energy Recovery Center, or related LLCs.
The town has not provided those records, leaving major questions unanswered about details of the plant’s ownership structure, how much taxpayer money has been spent on it and whether Eagle Point is paying its monthly mortgage to the town. Withholding that information is a “bad faith” violation of the state’s public information law, the lawsuit alleges.
“Mainers have a right to know what their local officials are up to,” said Dan MacLeod, executive editor of the BDN. “The details of Orrington’s financial arrangement with the company are clearly in the public interest.”
In the suit, the BDN asks the court to declare the town violated freedom of access laws in bad faith, declare the documents public and order the town to disclose them immediately either through temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction.
Orrington’s town manager and select board chair did not return requests for comment Tuesday.
The trash plant has been shuttered since a 2023 foreclosure on its previous owner, Penobscot Energy Recovery Center. Orrington entered a partnership deal with a new owner to buy it in spring 2024.
The town owns 25 percent of the plant, facility asset manager Evan Coleman told the BDN last week. The other 75 percent is held by a private owner, Northern Farms LLC, according to a state license. Coleman is the majority owner of that LLC.
Orrington Town Manager Chris Backman confirmed those numbers. He had previously told the BDN the town owned 20 percent but said that the structure changed last year when a partner withdrew. Coleman said Orrington holds a $2.5 million mortgage on the property for back taxes and other facility investments.
In October, a 10-day fire severely damaged the plant, and it now needs millions of dollars in renovations before it can reopen, Coleman said.
When the newspaper filed requests for documents about the plant in late October 2024, Orrington acknowledged them but said it couldn’t estimate when the material would be provided, if ever, “due to ongoing litigation that the town may or may not be involved with.”
After further requests from the BDN’s attorney were unsuccessful, the paper made a new request for the same documents and was told it would take four to six months to get them. Backman cited shortstaffing in the municipal office and a difficult upcoming budget season before annual town meeting in June.
The BDN argues in the suit that timeline is essentially a denial of the request for the public records and that the “town’s stonewalling is keeping the public in the dark,” attorney Sigmund Schutz wrote in the filing.
The complaint also notes that the town employs numerous administrative staff other than Backman and hasn’t provided a reason why they can’t handle the request instead. Schutz argued it’s “inconceivable” that the town doesn’t have ready access itself to these documents.
“Disclosure is in the public interest, and both the BDN and the public are harmed with every day that the Town continues to ignore its statutory obligations,” Schutz wrote. “The requested records should have been provided a long time ago. Enough is enough.”
A project manager told Penobscot County commissioners earlier this month that the plant is expected to start accepting trash again between September and November 2026, more than a year and a half later than originally planned.