For a second consecutive selectboard meeting, speaker after speaker Oct. 21 had questions or urged against letting a data center go up on land Wiscasset got when Maine Yankee closed. The topic — not on the agenda, nor discussed by the board that night — was the lone one raised in public comment.

"It will upend our lives," Wiscasset's Regina Martin-Cronk said of a data center. The Ready Point Road resident lives about a mile from the Old Ferry Road property under discussion and has ridden her horses on it for 10 years. "It's beautiful," she said. The idea of a data center there makes her sad, for herself; and for her children, who are saying they don't know if they'll come back after college if the data center is there, she said. "And it's heartbreaking. So, please give everyone all the information. I'm not sure this is the deal you're looking for."

Richard Davis of Young's Point Road, Wiscasset said he, too, lives near the property being eyed. "I'm very fearful that (a data center) will affect us environmentally (and) affect our property values ...," Davis said. He called a data center a regional issue and asked for neighboring towns including Westport Island to "at least have a seat at the table (so) they can have input because this project will affect more than Wiscasset."

Wiscasset's Kim Dolce "vehemently" opposes the would-be project. She told town officials to "do the research" and learn what the party they are speaking with "won't tell you."

The party has yet to be named publicly, due to its non-disclosure deal with the town. Town officials have said if the party makes a formal proposal, it would face the public process of pursuing local and any other required permits.

A Westport Island woman said a data center would destroy the ruralness that has attracted her and others to the region. And a Newcastle man and Wiscasset's Patrick Sandefur were concerned electricity bills would rise with a data center around; perhaps enough to offset a data center's benefit to Wiscasset's tax base, Sandefur said. 

Also Oct. 21, the board nodded business licenses for Spiritual Embrace Massage and Wellness, 35 Water St., Suite M; Richardson Mobile Marine, 493 Gardiner Road; Hair by Emmalinda, 681 Bath Road; Horsehead Productions, 320 Bath Road; and Bou Barn, also 320 Bath Road.