By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

CASCO — After hearing from the public, the majority of the Casco Select Board decided to remove from the town warrant an article on purchasing two acres of land next to the town hall for $180,000.

In fact, next week’s Special Town Meeting will be postponed until February. That’s because the warrant had to be rewritten; therefore, the Casco board could not sign it on Tuesday evening. The tentative date for Special Town Meeting had been Jan. 28. Now, it’s likely to happen in mid-to late February.

The land being discussed is 2.5 acres of undeveloped land behind the Casco Town Hall. The property-owners approached the town with a price of $180,000; and there has been no negotiating of that price. Also, a purchase agreement had been signed and that expires in late January. 

During Tuesday’s board meeting, many residents in the audience expressed not only being opposed to the land purchase but not liking the short turn-around time for the public to vote on it.

Approximately ten people in the audience spoke in opposition of the warrant article and a select board member mentioned he had heard via emails from several citizens who were against the purchase.

“This is too short a notice for a warrant article for this amount of money. Anything else we would want to spend $180,000 on, we would want a plan,” according to Rae-Anne Nguyen. “We don’t have a plan for the Berry Property. There are three competing ideas for that property.”

There were several references to the absence of a plan for the Berry Property, the 11-plus acres of property that was purchased after it was approved at Annual Town Meeting in 2016. 

“I am not for putting this on the warrant,” Nguyen concluded.

Select board member Scott Avery spoke.

“I’ve had a lot of people messaging me. To be honest, I have heard from no one in support of doing this,” he said, adding that he has started to question if the land sale should even be on the warrant.

“It is well above the property value. I have heard from 30 people who have said, ‘No, this is not the time,’ ” Avery said.

After a lengthy discussion, the motion on the floor was to create a new warrant that did not include the land purchase.

“This is not a popular decision. We should just nix it,” said Avery, who then proposed a motion. 

The motion was to postpone the special town meeting, so that the language could be cleaned up and that the land sale could be removed. 

The vote was, 3-2, with Vice-chair Grant Plummer and Chairman Eugene Connolly opposing.

Both Plummer and Connolly expressed two ideas: 1.) That people could decide whether or not to purchase the land if it was on the warrant and 2.) Owning the land gave the town of Casco control over how the land is developed.

“I think it is important to recognize their offer to sell it. When an abutter is offering property for sale, regardless of the price, we should consider it,” Plummer said. “The thought is this is the townspeople’s decision. This ends up being the people’s vote. I still feel that way. Judging from what we are hearing, I have an idea how that vote is going to go. I still think doing our due diligence, this should go in front of the voters, and the voters should tell us whether they want it or not.”

On Tuesday night, there was another thing that concerned citizens about the warrant as it was worded. Below the warrant article, it said, “Select board recommends this article.”

When the board first learned about the land offer, it was in full support. After hearing from citizens, most had changed their minds. If the warrant article went to the voters, the accompanying recommendation would be incorrect. 

Pam Edwards spoke on that aspect.

“At this point, I don’t support the article. I can understand why you might put it on the warrant. I would want to take out the select board recommends approval because I am hearing that the select board does not recommend approval,” she said.

She asked Casco Town Manager Tony Ward if it were possible to adhere to special town meeting date, but change the recommendation on the warrant. His answer was no. The warrant has to be clean, he said.

One option available to the board is to postpone the special town meeting, allowing time to clean-up the language on the warrant, Ward said.

Some of the comments by people in the community were made earlier in the evening.

Sam Brown was among the first people to speak.

“I think leadership has to show people what you are planning to do with the property. One hundred eighty-thousand dollars will be taken from Open Space funding .  . .  I will be lobbying to have the town vote against it. I think it is a waste of our money,” Brown said.

Tuan Nguyen stepped to the microphone, saying he agreed with Brown. He asked what the date for Special Town Meeting was. He learned it was scheduled for Jan. 28, a week away.

“A week’s notice on a warrant article on spending $180,000 is not enough time. I don’t think you should put it to public on week’s notice,” he said.

“For $180,000, we could have helped Loon Echo [Land Trust] finish off buying land for the [Hacker’s Hill] preserve, but we didn’t do that. It is being developed by private landowners,” Tuan Nguyen said.

Resident Tom Mulkern shared his thoughts.

“I am opposed to this being on the warrant. Special town meeting should be for a broken plow truck or something,” Mulkern said. “This [land purchase] should have some investigation and be on the annual town meeting in June.”