An hour and a half before Wiscasset selectmen were to hear the latest developments in Johnson Controls’ proposed energy project, something else happened that made it all “moot,” as Chair Sarah Whitfield put it. She and Town Manager Dennis Simmons announced the firm had pulled its offer.

“So it’s in the trash can,” Simmons said. 

Citing deal breakers, Simmons said Johnson Controls was unwilling to separate the municipal and school parts of the project if, legally, they needed to be. And Simmons described as “kind of snarky” an email last week from Johnson Controls’ Dean Angeledes.

“I let it go for the weekend ... But then I emailed him today and I said, ‘You know, I don’t appreciate you talking down to me, when we’ve put a lot of work into this. And I’m sorry that the attorney had questions, but this is the process.’ And he pulled an attitude today and said ‘Well, then, forget it. I’m just pulling the whole thing.”

Wiscasset Newspaper requested and immediately received those emails from Simmons. 

One from Simmons the morning of Aug. 29 lets Angeledes know legal issues, including the need for school committee approval, would push the town vote past Election Day Nov. 5, leaving as options a special vote being called or waiting til next June. Angeledes writes back that afternoon, “Separating the schools is a non-starter. The project cannot cashflow positive without it. Please have the school board vote to decide on moving forward. If they vote to proceed we respectfully request the project go to a special vote in October. We can’t let this linger to June as it will invalidate the current pricing. We have to consider the time factor and subcontractors holding their pricing. Beyond October would be problematic.

“As to the financing, that can be settled with the lender as long as measurement and verification is not split between the schools and Town ...,” Angeledes writes. 

Simmons writes back Friday morning, Aug. 30, citing state law that dictates how schools make deals with energy service companies. “I am surprised that neither the school administration nor (Johnson Controls) understood this fact. I do not involve myself in education law. I can barely keep up with municipal law. I do not believe that the project needs to be two different projects, but the school must go through the approval process outlined in the (law),” Simmons writes. “Who is holding the financing on this? Our attorney needs to see the financing agreements and documents.”

Angeledes replies that morning, “There are no financing agreements in place until the contract is signed. As I’ve explained multiple times, once the contract is signed we would assist the Town in getting a financing (request for proposals) out to eligible lenders. This is one of the parallel paths with development, the other being legal. 

And asked Sept. 5 via email for any comment on the Simmons-Angeledes emails, Andersson noted the schools did a large-scale energy conservation project in 2018 with Seimen's Corporation; “we were never interested in re-doing that work with Johnson Controls. That would have been wasteful and both Johnson Controls and the town understood this from the beginning. That is, however, what removed the energy conservation piece the Town Manager originally wanted from the overall project. Johnson Controls needed to do those upgrades at the school in order for the overall project to have the scale they needed to avail themselves of what would have made the project economically feasible. But again, the schools already did an energy project and there is no reason to update that $1.55 million project six years out. 

On a question from Selectman William “Bill” Maloney in the Sept. 3 meeting, Simmons reminded the board the company has waived the $75,000 “breakup” fee it could have otherwise sought if the energy audit and proposal prep ended with no deal.

According to Wiscasset Newspaper files, the firm agreed to the waiver last fall, before the board nodded a project development deal.

“That was why we went ahead with it,” Simmons told the board Sept. 3. When Simmons related the would be deal’s unraveling, Selectman Terry Heller said, “Just amazing,” and shook her head. 

“It is what it is,” Selectman Pamela Dunning said. “I wasn’t in favor by the end of it anyway.”

“I’ve been frustrated with this right from the get go,” due to the lack of HVAC upgrades, Simmons said at another point. 

Although the 20-year energy deal is dead, Johnson Controls might get some other work from the town. Selectmen Sept. 3 authorized Simmons to bypass the bid process and award to the most qualified company a quarter million dollar project of installing heat pumps at the town office complex. And Public Works Director Ted Snowdon recommended Johnson Controls, based on its fixing the HVAC system last winter for about $70,000.

“(Johnson Controls) went through the whole thing, got it up running ... great all winter, no more leaky valves. And we had a few little problems, minor. (Johnson Controls was) right here, within hours,” Snowdon said. He called those Johnson Controls employees dedicated. 

Simmons said $221,000 is left in capital funds voters approved for HVAC. Snowdon said the project he was now proposing would come to $244,862; department funds carried over from last year could cover or about cover the difference, he and Simmons said. 

“Now we can just go out and get quotes and get it done,” Simmons said. And the other heating system will remain, because, Snowdon said, the heat pumps won’t get the job done “in the real cold.”