How to make local periodics run before base periodics?

[Darren Pilgrim]

I have some periodic scripts from ports that I need to run before 
periodic scripts in /etc/periodic; but I can't see how to make it so. 
Periodic always processes /etc/periodic before $local_periodic.  If I 
move /etc/periodic/*/999.local file to 000.local and set:

local_periodic=""
daily_local="/usr/local/etc/periodic/daily/*"
weekly_local="/usr/local/etc/periodic/weekly/*"
monthly_local="/usr/local/etc/periodic/monthly/*"

Then /usr/local/etc/periodic runs first, but it's not scalable since I 
moved a file that mergemaster cares about.  It's also noisy because 
999.local generates output for all scripts, even those that are not enabled.

What is the proper way to make local periodics run before base periodics?