Mason Station Redevelopment Co. might seek to coordinate with the town of Wiscasset on developing some of the town-owned land near Mason Station, Mason Station Redevelopment President Ryan Gahagan said. Besides that prospect, he said the company’s signed option on the former power plant is to either buy it or its owner, Mason Station, LLC.

He told selectmen March 18, the exclusive, three-year option began in August 2023.

The property has a leaking roof and clogged sewage draining pipes and there has been uncertainty over the parcel’s boundaries, Gahagan said. Mason Station is working with the town to learn just what Mason Station LLC owns there, he said. 

Metal and trash are being moved and later will be removed from the site, he said. And a “warm room” has been created in the powerhouse as a base of operations, “because it’s a bitter, bitter cold.”

Possible uses still being eyed for the site are battery energy storage and a “working waterfront” marina that might involve a boat yard, recreation, kelp-drying space and commercial fish landings. “A marina is one of the things we’re still excited about and we think is very valuable from a market position standpoint,” he said.  

Gahagan noted the night’s presentation came at the town’s invitation, and was neither a proposal nor part of a site plan review process. It was “a status report of some of the things we’re thinking about,” he said. The company can give the updates as often as the town likes, he added.

Selectmen praised the presentation as beautiful and well laid out. “It’s easy to remember what you spoke to,” Selectman Pam Dunning said. 

Also March 18, the board nodded a liquor license renewal for Maine Tasting Center, 506 Old Bath Road; and Town Manager Dennis Simmons honored town employee Molly Bonang on 10 years of service, “serving our community very well, and almost five years of putting up with me.”

After a hearing, the board made plans to have town counsel Gray Louis finish drafting a dangerous building order for the board to vote on. Louis, via Zoom, said the board has wide discretion but could, after a set time, get work done at 16 Lee St. and put a lien on the property for that cost. Health Officer Erin Bean said debris removal and related work are together estimated at over $16,000.

In public comment, resident Jorge Peña asked if there is a plan for the potential loss of federal aid for school meals. Chair Sarah Whitfield said she was concerned, also. She said to ask the school department or a school committee member. And Selectman Terry Heller thanked Peña for giving voice to a concern she said a lot of people have. 

The school department’s food service director, Lorie Johnson, told the school committee earlier this month, given the potential loss, "I'm having conversations with my crew as (to) how we can keep costs under control and coming up with new ideas for scratch cooking more often than not."