Allen Cohen still has Wiscasset’s OK to store fireworks on JB’s Way. The town’s appeals board on March 19 rejected a neighboring couple’s claims against Cohen’s planning board approval.

Cohen said he was happy with the outcome.

Tom and Kathleen Bryant brought the appeal. Their separate one, in Lincoln County Superior Court, will continue, Tom Bryant said on March 24. “And I believe we will win in court,” he said.

Bryant’s comment Tuesday night came just after the appeals board met a second time and finalized its decision. The written findings lined up with the panel’s votes on all the issues it reviewed on March 19.

Under a recent court order, the appeals board’s written decision will trigger new filing deadlines for the Bryants, the town, and Allen and Melissa Cohen in the court appeal.

The Bryants’ attorney Jonathan Pottle was unable to convince the appeals board on March 19 that the planning board erred in approving Allen Cohen’s fireworks storage request. Pottle argued that the planning board’s decision wasn’t backed up by the evidence; that, as a member of the planning board, Allen Cohen had a conflict of interest in presenting his application to the board; and that the Bryants didn’t get the notice that, as abutters, they should have received about planning board meetings on Cohen’s proposal.

The Bryants outlined their opposition to the proposal at another planning board meeting, held in January. The couple presented a petition of signatures they said came from 48 people who live or own property within half a mile of where Cohen sought to store fireworks. The planning board approved the project for a third time.

Any lack of notice of the earlier meetings in November 2014 did not undermine the planning board’s decision, the appeals board decided in a unanimous vote. The panel went on to deny the Bryants’ appeal and affirm the planning board’s decision to approve Cohen’s request.

Cohen’s lawyer Chris Neagle told the appeals board that Cohen did have a conflict of interest because he was on the planning board, but that he removed that conflict by recusing himself from the planning board’s decision on his request.

“He has a First Amendment right to speak to anyone in government,” Neagle said.

At the close of Tuesday night’s meeting, Tom Bryant told the appeals board he appreciated its efforts. “You proceeded with honesty and integrity,” he said.

The Cohens also thanked the board for its time.