A field at Edgecomb Eddy School might work as a recreational area to make up for the town's abandonment of a public tennis court, a state official said October 21.

The new spot has to be on town land, be open to the public and be permanent, Mick Rogers of the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands told Edgecomb selectmen.

It's the permanent part where Edgecomb dropped the ball years ago, when it sold the tennis courts and the rest of the old Eddy School on Cross Point Road. Elder Care Network of Lincoln County owns the property now, town officials have said.

The federal Land and Water Conservation Fund helped the town build the court in the 1970s.

During Monday's discussion, Selectman Stuart Smith mentioned a field between Route 27 and Edgecomb Eddy School, on school property. He and Selectman Jack Sarmanian asked if projects like a park or ballfield there would suffice as a new recreational area.

A project could work there if it gets through a number of steps, including seeing if that piece of land is appraised at least as high as the land where the courts were built, Rogers said.

If the area was open to students during school hours and to the public when the school is closed, that could meet the public access requirement, Rogers said.

Selectmen planned to take the idea to the town's capital improvements committee. Any project would go to voters for approval, board members said.

Reached October 22, Edgecomb Eddy School's Dean of Students Lisa Clarke said people currently come on school property for a variety of activities, from walking their dogs to going sledding. She has no problem with the prospect of a project being considered for the field, and would be interested to hear more, she said.