Wiscasset Speedway's options are opening up for next year.

Plans still call for a focus on Saturday racing, but a permit Wiscasset selectmen agreed to December 3 will let the track have other uses and be open Fridays and Sundays.

Selectman Pam Dunning opposed the added days, saying the change would leave neighbors no quiet weekend time to enjoy their yards.

Even on Old Bath Road where she lives, she can sometimes hear the racing, she said.

The track would not be open three days straight, said co-owner Vanessa Jordan. The expanded weekend time will just give the business a chance to consider requests for other events on those days, like a truck pull, she said.

Other than Dunning, no one at Tuesday night’s hearing directly opposed the change.

However, Frank Costa, who lives nearly a mile from the track, urged selectmen and the speedway to bear in mind its impact on the neighborhood.

Costa told selectmen he appreciates the owners' vision for the track; but, this year, the first season since it reopened, he endured hours of noise and burned fuel smells on race days, he said.

“It's just unbelievable ... I couldn't be outside with my family,” Costa said.

He suggested barriers be installed around the track, or other steps be taken, to limit the impact.

Jordan, who owns the speedway with husband Richard Jordan, said the business has worked extremely hard to address neighbors' concerns.

Abuttor Ray Soule came to the speedway's defense.

“They are so well-organized, it's pathetic. They know what they're doing,” Soule said. He has experienced none of the problems Costa described.

“I would be appalled not to see them be able to do what they're asking.”

Selectmen passed the speedway's request 3-1, with Dunning opposed.

Possible new events at the track include a circus, monster truck shows, motor cross, horse events and concerts, according to the Jordans' request.

They're not talking about a concert like 2010's Oxxfest that drew controversy under a prior owner, however; Jordan said in an interview November 29, she and her husband want no part of anything along those lines.

“That's not the direction we want to go in,” she said. “Everything we do is focused on family; otherwise, we don't do it.”

The concert idea would involve a fiddlers' group or something similar, that picnicking families could enjoy, Jordan said.

The track on West Alna Road could become a year-round outdoor venue, the Jordans state in their permit request.

Oxxfest spurred a lawsuit by a couple living next to the track.

A Lincoln County Superior Court justice later barred prior owner Doug White's company from holding any music festivals or concerts that would need special amusement permits.

In a 2012 interview, the neighbors' lawyers said they were unsure if that court order would apply to new owners.

Concerts did not come up as a concern during Tuesday's hearing.

The cost to come watch the races in 2014 will hold at this year's price of $5 a person, ages 6 and under free, to keep it affordable for families, Jordan said November 29.