The Wiscasset Municipal Airport's next 20-year master plan is in a holding pattern, following selectmen's split vote on it June 3.

Concerns about the plan's potential impact on Chewonki Campground dominated much of Tuesday's discussion by board members, airport and federal officials and the campground's owners.

According to co-owner Pam Brackett and the campground's lawyer James Hopkinson, one piece of the plan could jeopardize the survival of a business that attracts 10,000 people to town and generates about $2 million in spending each year.

The trees provide campsites with shade and borders, Brackett said in an interview earlier Tuesday.

“If they take the trees, it’s going to be one big yard, and nobody wants to camp out in the sun,” she said. She and her sister Ann Beck have owned the campground for 53 years, Brackett said.

The airport’s proposed master plan calls for making the runway safer by getting easements and removing trees so tall they stick into protected airspace. Brackett and Hopkinson called for the plan to say other options would be considered.

They already have been, and were rejected, Airport Manager Ervin Deck said. “They're not viable .... We can study until you know what freezes over .... There's a serious safety issue and the obstructions aren't going to get any smaller,” he said.

Deck and other supporters of the master plan said that passing it wouldn't cut down any trees; that would take the easements and an environmental assessment that was also the subject of debate Tuesday night.

A combination of all-night lighting and some tree removal would have less environmental impact than improving safety by tree removal only, said Gregg Cohen, senior environmentalist for Stantec, the firm that did the assessment. Fewer acres of trees and wetlands would be involved.

Leaving the airspace obstructed will block federal funding for airport improvements, Deck said.

A draft of the environmental assessment, available at www.wiscasset.org, is open to public comment until July 7. The proposal then faces a review by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Selectman Ed Polewarczyk called for a delay in the master plan’s approval until the airport and the campground have reached an agreement. Both are assets to the community, he said.

The campground would have no incentive to negotiate until the plan is in place, Deck said.

Stantec officials said economic impacts might factor into the appraisals that would be done for easements.

“It’s important to me that whatever happens to the campground, they need to be made whole,” Polewarczyk said.

He and Vice Chairman Judy Colby voted against the master plan’s approval Tuesday. Fellow selectmen Pam Dunning and Jeff Slack voted for it, leaving the tie. Selectman Tim Merry was not at the meeting. Members discussed taking up the plan again after June 10 elections. The board meets next on June 17.

Praise for Polewarczyk, other selectmen

Board members and Interim Town Manager Don Gerrish praised Polewarczyk at his last meeting as a selectman. He received applause from around the room Tuesday night. Polewarczyk did not seek reelection.

Members said they had learned from Polewarczyk and were looking forward to seeing him at the podium as a member of the public.

Gerrish took a moment to point out selectmen’s time-consuming and critical role in town business. “People don’t realize the amount of effort it takes to make things happen, including time away from (their) families,” he said.