The state has authority to remove the 6,000-pound weight limit on Wiscasset’s Federal Street, and would like to, but doesn’t want to force the change, a Maine Department of Transportation official told Wiscasset selectmen on May 5.

“We don’t want to force it down your throat,” Scott Rollins of MDOT’s planning bureau said.

Rollins’ comments came as some Newcastle residents urged the Wiscasset board to consider supporting the removal of the longtime weight limit. Angelo Pappagallo of Newcastle argued that there may be grounds for getting Maine’s attorney general’s office involved. He questioned how the weight limit came to be; it happened without a hearing for other towns and contractors to give input, Pappagallo said.

“I’m not naive,” he said about the chances that Wiscasset would support a change. “But I’ll tell you this is not going to end here. It’s all about being fair.”

According to Rollins, Wiscasset’s ordinance on the weight limit is not what makes the limit stick; the MDOT’s 2002 approval of the limit does, he said. Since then, MDOT has moved toward the view that all roads should be open to everyone, Rollins said. He described the Federal Street weight limit as a legally existing, non-conforming rule, but one that MDOT would like to remove.

“We’d like to see this (limit) go away,” Rollins said.

The limit is so low that some sport utility vehicles could be ticketed, Rollins said.

The weight limit causes truck traffic from gravel pits in Whitefield to take Newcastle’s Sheepscot Road to reach their destinations in Newcastle and Boothbay, Newcastle residents said. However, Wiscasset Selectmen’s Chairman Pam Dunning wondered why the trucks don’t take nearby Route 27 to get to Route 1. It’s about a block and a half up the hill from Federal Street, she said.

Newcastle Town Administrator Lynn Maloney told Wiscasset selectmen that the views that Newcastle residents were airing that night were not necessarily the Newcastle selectmen’s stance; the point of coming before the Wiscasset board was to provide the Newcastle residents with a platform for discussing the matter, she said.

Morrison Bonpasse of Newcastle suggested the weight limit be removed on a trial basis, to see how it goes.

A number of Federal Street residents and Alna Third Selectman Douglas Baston called for keeping the weight limit.

“I hope the (Wiscasset) selectmen will try to stand up for what Federal Street enjoys, and I hope you understand (proponents of a change will) be looking at every little legal detail they can,” Pope told the Wiscasset board. “We should be looking at a way to keep that limit.”

With Wiscasset Primary School’s grades moving to Wiscasset Middle School on Federal Street next fall, Pope said, “All the more reason to keep that limit.”

Baston said Alna selectmen have previously supported Wiscasset’s weight limit.

“Alna stands between Wiscasset and Newcastle and would be impacted by this (change),” he said. “We do not want to see a change.”

Dunning and Rines voiced support for keeping the weight limit. Selectman Jeff Slack said he hadn’t made a decision. Fellow board member Bill Barnes said it sounded like if the state decides to make a change, there’s nothing the town could do about it.

Board members discussed possibly talking further with neighboring towns and looking at alternate routes that trucks could take.