Alna selectmen are making their position clear on the changes some Newcastle residents are seeking that could affect where trucks travel.

The Alna panel of three doesn't want the state to go along with those proposed measures; the board gives its view in a letter to the Maine Department of Transportation. Members approved the letter March 6, Town Clerk Amy Warner said.

The Alna board's letter calls for the truck traffic patterns along Route 218 and Sheepscot Road in Alna and Newcastle to remain unchanged. “...(W)e officially speak in opposition to the petition,” it states.

Newcastle selectmen contacted the state transportation department after receiving a citizens' petition, Newcastle's interim town administrator Lynn Maloney said March 13. The town sent the department a copy of the petition, at the department's request, Maloney said.

A department spokesman said March 18 that the department is addressing the petition by doing an internal analysis.

“We have a regional and statewide obligation, in anything we do, in making sure freight moves more efficiently,” spokesman Ted Talbot said.

The department will be responding to Newcastle selectmen within weeks, Talbot said.

The citizens’ petition proposes multiple measures, including raising or removing the weight limit on Wiscasset's Federal Street.

“We strongly believe that the ability for heavy trucks to (get to) Route 1 South on State Route 218 from Whitefield would ... improve the quality of life for Sheepscot residents,” a statement accompanying the petition reads.

Alna's comprehensive plan opposes changes in truck traffic patterns, according to the Alna selectmen's letter.

In an interview March 13, Alna First Selectman David Abbott said the board wrote the letter so the state would know its position when considering the petition.

“If you're rerouting the trucks, all you're doing is shifting the burden to somebody else,” Abbott said. “We don't want to change anything, as far as we're concerned.”

Wiscasset Selectmen's Chairman Ed Polewarczyk said the board had not taken any action regarding the Newcastle petition.