KENNEBUNK, Maine — The Board of Selectmen are still negotiating the details of a lease agreement for the property on Depot Street that would be used for a new passenger rail station in Kennebunk.
The board met in executive session for over two hours Tuesday with Tim Dietz, the owner of the property at 12 Depot St., and Town Attorney Natalie Burns, but could not come up with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the leased property needed for parking and ancillary facilities for the train station.
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When the board returned to public session Selectman Blake Baldwin said the board “will continue to negotiate with Mr. Dietz and also explore other options.”
The board voted at an earlier meeting to send a lease agreement to a public hearing on Sept. 11 in order to get a warrant article on the lease agreement to voters for the November 2018 ballot. With the lease agreement still up in the air, the board rescinded that vote Tuesday and unanimously agreed to postpone the train station lease consideration.
Town Manager Mike Pardue said following the meeting that an agreement could not be reached and further discussions are warranted.
Dietz said on Wednesday that he wasn’t sure what the delay was. He wants to support the town and he and his wife, Kathy, have been supportive of the train station initiative from the start.
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“We love this historic building and we want it to go to good use. We want it to be a fixture in the town for a long time,” Dietz said.
In 2014 town voters approved $300,000 to develop a seasonal train stop, with an additional $800,000 available in grant form from the state if the station is completed by December of 2019. The project has been moving forward in fits and starts over the past year.
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