Smith brings Burling into Leishman Lease Deal

Kevin Landrigran reports in the Nashua Telegraph that Finance Chair Marjorie Smith claims that veteran State House insider Peter Burling got her involved in efforts to renew a lease deal for State Representative Peter Leishman:

Smith said it was former state Sen. Peter Burling, of Cornish, who first raised to her concerns that Leishman's pursuit of the lease was jeopardizing the future of bringing back passenger rail service to the state.

Pan Am owns the track from the New Hampshire border to Concord that would provide the rail link for commuters traveling to Boston.

Burling is chairman of the New Hampshire Rail Authority that last month applied to the Obama administration to get competitive stimulus money for the rail effort.

Last month, Fink informed Campbell that due to the state's failure to properly bid the work, he was suspending negotiations with DOT officials about the passenger rail project.

"When Peter Burling mentioned Peter Leishman's name and said that the contract with Peter Leishman was interfering with progress on the passenger rail proposals, I replied I thought that the two could be kept separate,'' Smith wrote. (more)

Smith denies putting any pressure on Campbell to renew the lease, and her letter to Campbell indicates that Campbell didn't know that Leishman had a lease renewal pending before being speaking with Smith. No one involved in the case has yet to explain why so many public officials were taking such an active interest in a lease agreement that nets the State less than $10,000 annually.