WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 2011
VOL. 20 NO. 64
BERLIN, N.H.
Bubbles were all around as the group from the Family Resource Center marched down Main Street in Gorham’s annual Independence Day parade. (MELISSA GRIMA PHOTO)
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Jenna Mahoney proudly displays her first place trophy after winning the bike division of the Gorham Kiddie Parade on July 4, with her locomotive themed tribute to the town’s 175th anniversary. (MELISSA GRIMA PHOTO)
Biomass plants say they are not the villain BY BARBARA TETREAULT THE BERLIN DAILY SUN
BERLIN -- The wood-fired independent biomass plants charge Cate Street Capital walked away from negotiations just when it looked like the parties were close to an agreement. “The fact they withdrew from the deal so abruptly came as a shock to everyone,” said Mike O’Leary, plant manager for Bridgewater Power Company. “We were very very close to a deal.” Cate Street Capital declared its efforts to construct a 75-megawatt biomass plant on the former pulp mill site are dead after the parties failed to reach an agreement by the Portsmouth company’s deadline of June 30. Six smaller biomass plants are appealing the Public Utilities Commission’s approval of a power
purchase agreement between the Berlin Station and Public Service of N.H. to the state Supreme Court. For several months, Cate Street, PSNH, the PUC, the Independent Power Producers, and state officials including Gov. Lynch have been attempting to negotiate an agreement that would see the IPPs withdraw the appeal. Cate Street Capital spokesman Scott Tranchemontagne said the company needed an agreement by June 30 to allow it to get its financing in place and meet its winter construction schedule. O’Leary said the June 30 deadline was not part of the discussion when the negotiations first got underway. He said Cate Street Capital inserted the deadline part way into negotiations. O’Leary said all the IPPs have done is exercise their business rights by filing as intervenors in the PUC docket on the
power purchase agreement between Berlin Station and PSNH. He said appealing the PUC’s order to the Supreme Court is part of the process. Tranchemontagne said the negotiations settled on short term power purchase agreements for the four plants currently without such contracts. He said the IPPS wanted other concessions including a cash payment. “The IPPS got greedy and started asking for more,” he said Saturday. O’Leary said Cate Street Capital is trying to make the IPPs the villain when all they are trying to do is protect their jobs, infrastructure, and businesses. He noted that the IPPs have all been in business for a long time. His plant opened in 1984. In contrast, he said Cate Street has never built, owned, or opersee VILLAIN page 7
SEC to hear gas project Delayed prison opening provides time to prepare modifications tomorrow BY BARBARA TETREAULT THE BERLIN DAILY SUN
BY BARBARA TETREAULT THE BERLIN DAILY SUN
BERLIN – The state Site Evaluation Committee is holding a public informational hearing in city hall Wednesday to consider some modifications to the proposed gas line project. Last December, the SEC granted the Androscoggin Valley Regional Refuse Disposal District an exemption from its approval and certification requirements and granted it permission to con-
struct and operate a blended landfill gas and natural gas energy project that would serve the Gorham paper mill. The project was developed to help the mill reduce its energy costs by allowing it to switch its boilers from costly fuel oil to cheaper natural and landfill gas. Gorham Paper and Tissue, the new owner of the mill, is asking the SEC to allow it to rely on that exemption granted to AVRRDD.
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BERLIN -- People and businesses hoping to work or provide goods and services to the new federal prison should be taking steps now to be ready when the facility opens. “They shouldn’t be sitting back and waiting for news of the activation,” said Mark Belanger of the N.H. Employment Security. The local Talent Team, a cooperative effort between the prison, Employment Security, and White Mountains Community College, met this week to update its partners on the prison activation and to urge people and businesses to continue efforts to be ready when it does open. Warden Deborah Schult assured the group that the question is not if the prison will open, but when. Construction of the prison was completed last November at a cost of about $245
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million. When fully activated, the facility will hold 1,700 inmates and employ a staff of 332. It will have an annual payroll of $28 million and spend another $10 million a year on goods and services. Right now, the prison is waiting for funding to activate and open. Schult noted the state’s Congressional delegation has been working hard advocating for funding in Washington. “It’s just a matter of getting the green light to go,” she said. Schult said there are 16 staff on site at the prison including newly hired Human Resource Specialist Carole Anne Andy. She said her office has been moved from the construction trailer into the main prison. Schult said more evidence that the Bureau of
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