Pepperell Selectmen Schedule Special Town Meeting to Vote on Pipeline Opposition

PEPPERELL — June 2, 2014 — Pepperell selectmen voted unanimously to oppose the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company's Northeast Expansion project and scheduled a special town meeting for June 30 to ratify a non-binding resolution against the 36-inch high-pressure natural gas line. The board, meeting June 2, also voted to form a coalition of municipal representatives from Middlesex County towns and Hollis, New Hampshire, naming Selectman Steve Demelis as Pepperell's representative. A petition bearing more than 200 certified voter signatures triggered the special meeting call; Town Administrator John Moak's written report noted a May 23 letter to Kinder Morgan subsidiary Tennessee Gas Pipeline seeking answers on alternative routes had received no response. Separately, the board read the full text of a $1,100,153 Proposition 2½ override question headed to the June 16 ballot, warning that reserves have fallen from more than $6 million in 2007 to roughly $1.1 million and that a no vote would trigger 5 percent cuts across all town departments with no capital funding for equipment or building maintenance.