A spokesman for the Fall River mayor’s office said Friday that the city badly needed any and all contributions it could get in the fight against a proposed liquefied-natural-gas tanker terminal at Weaver’s Cove, contrary to the assertion of at least one Somerset official who said Fall River no longer needed the money.

It was the third attempt by some Somerset officials to withhold or scale back support for the legal battle to block the LNG proposal, even though the vast majority of town residents are vehemently against the Weaver’s Cove project.

Last March, over the objection of the Board of Selectmen, Somerset voters unanimously approved a $25,000 contribution — some 3,000 residents live within a mile of the proposed terminal and many fear a possible explosion.

Communities in Massachusetts and Rhode Island along the route that LNG tankers would traverse have made similar pledges.

Then, in April, a selectman made an unsuccessful pitch to scale that contribution back to $10,000.

But now, a proposal at tomorrow night’s Special Town Meeting that caught LNG opponents by surprise calls for reneging on that pledge altogether.

Instead, the money would be diverted to a side battle: upholding a decision by Somerset’s Conservation Commission to block a pipeline-construction project that would deliver natural gas from the Weaver’s Cove facility.

What really raised eyebrows last week was the assertion of Mary Jeanne Stone, chairwoman of the Advisory and Finance Committee, that Fall River officials have indicated that they do not need the $25,000 from Somerset.

“We were surprised to read that somebody said the money wasn’t needed, because that’s not the case,” said Eric W. Poulin, Mayor Edward Lambert’s project manager for the LNG fight.

Stone, interviewed Friday after her comment appeared in The Spectator, the town’s weekly newspaper, said her information came from Town Administrator John McAuliffe.

McAuliffe said Stone’s assessment wasn’t completely accurate.

He said he spoke last spring to James Smith, Fall River’s city manager, who asked Somerset to hold on to the money for now.

“He basically said, ‘Just earmark it for us, and as we progress in the litigation, we’ll let you know when we actually need the cash,’ ” McAuliffe said.

However, the town is now facing its own large legal bill in the battle to block the pipeline, McAuliffe said.

The result was the recommendation to tap the $25,000.

“The money’s going to the proper purpose, which is fighting LNG,” Selectman Chairman Patrick O’Neil said.

But before the March vote authorizing the $25,000 contribution, the selectmen had already argued against the donation by warning, for example, that money would be needed for the pipeline fight.

McAuliffe acknowledged Friday that “it’s not yet certain whether Fall River would be all right with the concept of us using those funds now [for the pipeline battle], since we have immediate costs associated with that appeal.”

Poulin said Lambert’s office has drafted a letter, to be sent tomorrow, saying that the $25,000 was still needed to help overturn approval of the Weaver’s Cove project by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Fall River is expecting to pay up to $650,000 a year just to appeal that FERC decision, and the price tag could go as high as $1 million annual if other communities affected by the project don’t contribute, Poulin said.

“We don’t want to appear ungrateful,” he said, “but if [Somerset officials] want to be a part of the FERC suit, Fall River still needs the money.”