HARPSWELL (AP) – Harpswell residents, in a 55-45 percent vote, on Tuesday rejected a referendum that would have allowed a $350 million liquefied natural gas terminal to be built in town.

The referendum ends months of emotional debate that divided the town. Voters rejected several questions on Tuesday’s ballot that would have allowed for the development.

The question that would have changed the town’s shoreland zoning was shot down 1,901 to 1,542, town officials said.

Emotional debate leading up to the vote pitted economic development interests that could have reduced the tax burden for residents versus worries that the massive development would spoil the town’s character.

The issue proved to be so divisive that deputies from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department were on hand Tuesday to make sure there were no disturbances. The deputies were later reinforced by state troopers.

Fairwinds, a venture of energy giants TransCanada and ConocoPhillips, wanted to lease a former Navy fuel depot where it would build the terminal.

Harpswell residents would have benefited from more than $8 million a year in lease fees and property taxes. Supporters, including Gov. John Baldacci, said the project would benefit the entire state, as well.

Fairwinds said it would employ 900 workers during a three-year construction phase. Once the terminal opens in 2009, the facility would have about 50 full-time employees, company officials said.

Critics included fishermen who feared that the project could destroy their gear and harm lobster and fishing grounds.

With the plan rejected in Harpswell, attention could shift to Sears Island in Searsport.

State officials announced in November that an unnamed company was interested in exploring the possibility of building an LNG terminal on Sears Island, which for years was at the center of a bitter fight over whether to build a cargo port.

In response, midcoast residents have organized a group to oppose any proposal that might surface.

Voting was going smoothly at the Harpswell Island School until an unidentified man called in a bomb threat in an attempt to disrupt the voting, said Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion.

Bomb sniffing dogs searched the school and the town hall and found nothing, Dion said. Deputies in a boat also checked out a bridge where bombs were said to have been planted.

Afterward, voters had to pass through metal detectors, and packages sent to the school were turned away.

“It’s unconscionable that someone would act to disrupt the election,” Dion said. “We’re going to expend whatever energy we have to find this person. It’s a crime against the community in the truest sense of the word.”

Dion said the bomb threat was traced to a pay phone at a Wal-Mart. The pay phone was removed for forensic examination, he said.

The project envisioned LNG tanker ships arriving every four to nine days at a new dock and jetty extending 800 feet into the bay. The LNG would be offloaded into two containment tanks measuring 240 feet in diameter and 120 feet tall.

From there, the LNG, which is cooled to minus 259 degrees, would be warmed and transferred to a natural gas pipeline west of Portland.

There are currently about 40 LNG terminals worldwide; seven other LNG projects are in the works along the East Coast.

AP-ES-03-09-04 2203EST