ROCKLAND, Maine — The city is considering whether to sell a massive former limestone quarry with one bidder offering to preserve the site for public ecological studies.
Rockland received two bids for the 14-acre property off Old Old County Road known as the Engine Quarry. The city acquired the property in 1982 for nonpayment of taxes and will decide Monday night whether to sell it. The city considered selling the lot in 2014 but opted to keep it at that time for possible conservation purposes.
The council meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday at City Hall.
Frederick Dodd of Sherborn, Massachusetts, and Greg Dorr of Camden have both bid on the property, which had been owned for decades by the Rockland-Rockport Lime Co.
Dodd operates a business known as International Zoological Expeditions Inc.
“My intentions for the Engine Quarry would be to protect it from the eminent degradation that it now faces,” Dodd said in a Nov. 23, 2015, letter to the city. “I would like to stop the illegal dumping, clean out the quarry, and make it available for those who wish to study a different and unique self-contained ecosystem.”
Dodd points out that he restored one quarry in Rockland after purchasing a 2-acre property on Mountain Road in 2006. He also said he bought and preserved 17-acre Oak Island off North Haven.
The Massachusetts man started International Zoological Expeditions after he finished graduate school in 1970. He has field stations in Belize where he has had tens of thousands of students visit to experience the tropical rain forest and tropical marine environment, he said in his letter to the city.
Dodd said Tuesday he is working with neighboring property owner Daniel Hestad in hopes that they can combine their properties and create nature trails. Hestad acquired 7 acres on Thompson Meadow Road, adjacent to the quarry, in 2014.
In December 2015, the city planning board approved a request by Hestad of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to build a tower for a wildlife observatory on the property.
Dodd has offered the city $20,000 for the quarry.
The other bidder, Dorr, has offered to exchange the 224 Old County Road property to the city for a lot he owns at 45 Rankin St.
Dorr’s brother and sister-in-law own a house and property on Old County Road that also abuts the quarry. A telephone message left with Dorr on Tuesday morning was not immediately returned.
Dorr’s lot is assessed by the city at $7,100. He said the land could be developed and generate additional property tax revenues for the city. Or the city could, Dorr said, retain the lot to create a retention pond to help reduce flooding along the Lindsey Brook system.
Dorr had offered the swap back in 2014, but the city rejected that proposal by a 3-2 vote.