The town of Orrington will provide the Bangor Daily News with public records it refused to release related to its ownership of the local trash plant.
Last month, the BDN filed a lawsuit in Penobscot Superior Court asking that the town be required to release contracts and payment records relating to the Eagle Point Energy Center — previously the Penobscot Energy Recovery Center — or related LLCs.
The town has agreed to release the records by the end of this week and pay the BDN’s $2,500 legal fees in exchange for the paper dropping the lawsuit.
When the records are shared, questions may now be answered about the details of the plant’s ownership structure, how much taxpayer money has been spent on it and whether the plant is making its mortgage payments to the town.
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The decision to release the documents comes after the Orrington Select Board held an executive session on Monday. Orrington Town Manager Chris Backman declined to speak with a BDN reporter after the session ended.
The town has partial ownership of the plant, but hasn’t disclosed specifics. A BDN reporter requested the records six months ago under the state’s Freedom of Access Act, which gives the public the right to see government documents. The town first said it could not give a timeline for fulfilling the request. Then it did not respond to followups and, when the request was made again later, said it would take up to six more months to fulfill.
Backman initially told the BDN that he could not give a timeline for fulfilling the requests because of litigation the town “may or may not” have been involved in. When the requests were filed again in March, he said it could take four to six months because of shortstaffing and the need to put together the budget while preparing for the annual town meeting in June.
The BDN argued in its filing that these extended timelines were essentially a denial of the requests and the town was acting in bad faith, violating the FOAA law. It also noted the town office employs other administrative staff but Backman didn’t provide a reason why they couldn’t fulfill the request instead.