The board voted 3-2 at its most recent meeting to draft a letter to Kinder Morgan, denying its representatives access to survey town-owned property.
Selectmen Chairman
Roberta A. Fraser and members Ken Berthiaume and Jack Marsh Jr. voted in
favor of the motion. Herbert “Chan” Stephens and Theresa G. Sepe
opposed it.
About 25 people attended
the meeting at the Winchester Town Hall, with most of them there to
encourage the selectmen to take a stance against the project.
“I know many of us here
are looking for leadership,” said Rick Horton, a resident and chairman
of the school board. “You are the leaders of this town, and you need to
make a statement and follow through.”
The selectmen’s vote
comes after the majority of residents participating in town meeting last
month approved three petition articles directing town officials to take
certain actions opposing the proposed construction of a pipeline by the
Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. LLC, a Kinder Morgan company.
Those actions are to deny
the company and its associates permission to enter town-owned property
to perform surveys; oppose approval of the project by the N.H. Energy
Facility Site Evaluation Committee because the proposal is inconsistent
with the town’s goals of protecting and preserving its aquifers,
drinking water, wetlands and streams; and oppose approval of the project
by the N.H. Energy Facility Site Evaluation Committee because the
proposal is inconsistent with the basic tenet of individual property
rights.
The margin of approval for each article ranged from 149 to 183 votes, out of roughly 600 total votes.
The company is proposing a
pipeline to carry natural gas from shale gas fields in Pennsylvania
through upstate New York, part of northern Massachusetts and into
southern New Hampshire before going to a distribution hub in eastern
Massachusetts.
The Monadnock Region communities on the proposed route are Fitzwilliam, Richmond, Rindge, Troy and Winchester.
Selectmen in Fitzwilliam
and Rindge have already taken united stances against allowing Kinder
Morgan to survey property in their towns of the pipeline, and supported
other anti-pipeline warrant articles voters approved last month.
Before the Winchester
selectmen voted on April 1, board members engaged in about 20 minutes of
heated debate among themselves and with some audience members about
whether the selectmen should take a position on the entire project.
Sepe and Stephens said
they needed more information about the project to make a decision, while
Berthiaume, Fraser and Marsh said they needed to stand behind town
meeting’s approval of three anti-pipeline warrant articles last month.
The debate escalated to a
shouting match at one point, with Sepe defending her position to
anti-pipeline audience members that selectmen don’t have all the
information yet to take a stance on the project.
Sepe said she and her
family live less than 300 feet from the pipeline, but she hasn’t made a
decision yet about the project because she doesn’t feel she has all the
information.
In addition, she said she believes it’s important to separate her personal opinions from her role as a selectman.
“I want to get more information. That is just how I feel. If you don’t like it, too bad, that is how I feel,” she said.
The only action Sepe said
she’d agree to is selectmen writing a letter to Kinder Morgan saying
that voters approved the three anti-pipeline warrant articles, and
including the wording of the articles.
Horton said he was disappointed that Sepe feels as she does about the matter.
Fraser said selectmen should take a stand against the proposed pipeline.
“As the governing body of the town of Winchester, we have a responsibility to carry out the voters’ wishes,” she said.
Toward the end of the
debate, Stephens said selectmen would meet with Kinder Morgan officials
at the end of this month, but didn’t have a specific date.
Marsh then made a motion to draft a letter to Kinder Morgan to deny its representatives access to town-owned property.
He had just gotten a few words into it, when applause and cheers erupted from pipeline opponents.
After the vote, some
residents spoke for and against the pipeline, including Bill McGrath who
said he was concerned the town could get slapped with a lawsuit because
one of the anti-pipeline warrant articles goes against state law.
Fraser confirmed that one of the articles isn’t legally enforceable.
The article they were referring to was about not allowing Kinder Morgan representatives to survey town-owned property.
Resident Ronald W. Croteau said the town has to fight the project.
“It’s not going to help
the state of New Hampshire one iota, or the town of Winchester,” he
said. “It’s going to deface our town.”
