Wiscasset is no longer pursuing a possible land buy on Gardiner Pond. Selectmen on Tuesday halted efforts after town officials reported that an appraisal’s results fell short of the value the landowners put on it.

The 3-2 decision came two weeks after Wiscasset resident Steve Mehrl told the board that the last thing the town needs to do is get more land. Selectman Bill Barnes echoed that sentiment Tuesday night when he proposed an end to seeking the acreage.

“The town has enough property right now that we’re receiving very little revenue for,” Barnes said.

The board sought the appraisal after the town lined up $275,325 in Land for Maine’s Future funds toward the purchase. Voting with Barnes Tuesday to stop moving forward with the possible purchase were Chairman Pam Dunning and Vice Chairman Ben Rines Jr. Selectmen Tim Merry and Jeff Slack dissented.

If new developments occur, the board could look again at the idea of buying the land, Dunning said.

Wiscasset Parks and Recreation Director Todd Souza first brought the idea to the board in March 2014. The land could be used solely for public access or could be the site of recreational programs that could make money for the town, Souza told the board at the time. He was not at Tuesday’s meeting.

Maine Yankee

A majority of selectmen expressed support Tuesday for getting Maine Yankee’s spent nuclear fuel out of Wiscasset and writing a letter encouraging the federal government to make that happen.

The board agreed to have Town Manager Marian Anderson work with Maine Yankee spokesman Eric Howes to draft the letter. Howes planned to find out who best to send it to.

Rines cited one option Howes said the federal government may turn to: consolidating nuclear plants’ waste at an interim storage site until there is a permanent one.

“That makes perfect sense for America,” Rines said about an interim site. “That all of these things be collected and kept in one place, where they can be kept secure, until such time as the federal government decides what they want to do with it.”

“Definitely,” Howes agreed. He supported the board’s plans for a letter. “One of (the) things we hear, walking the halls of Congress, is why aren’t we hearing more from the communities and the states that are holding the spent nuclear fuel. So if the town of Wiscasset wants to get involved ... we certainly could work with you to facilitate that.”

Dunning said the letter could explain what Maine Yankee has meant to the town in the past and what impact its spent fuel storage now has on the town. (The site is) a lovely piece of property ... and it’s too bad that it’s a storage facility and not able to be developed,” Dunning said.

Barnes wondered if the fuel’s storage could also pose a potential security risk.

“When you’ve got all of these people in some of these foreign countries ... blowing up places, what if something happened here and somebody dropped a bomb down there?”

Rines shared Barnes’ concern about the fuel’s presence.

“The world has changed an awful lot ... I used to think, ‘Well, what the heck. At least we’ll get some tax dollars out of it.’ But it’s not worth it. That stuff really needs to be gone.”

Mehrl encouraged board members to research their concerns and find out what the storage units are built to withstand. He described the property in its current use as a peaceful, quiet source of revenue.

Two firms bid on assessing

Selectmen agreed to have Anderson study the two bids the town got for assessing services and report back to the board on Feb. 17. Dunning opened a bid from R.J.D. Appraisal of Pittsfield at a total three-year cost between $59,090 and $68,420; and one from Hamlin Associates of Parkman that totaled $70,200 over three years.