The news in early February that Dragon Cement has revived negotiations to purchase the Mason Station in Wiscasset for distribution of its product created a flurry of phone calls among lobstermen along the Sheepscot River. Dragon, New England’s only cement plant, has just begun a $50 million, 18-month modernization of its Thomaston facility that will increase its production by about 40 percent. It will need a way to store the additional cement and distribute it to locations in Maine and further south in New England, either at its Rockland site or at a new facility.

A story in the Feb. 6 issue of the Wiscasset Newspaper quoted Dragon president Joseph Koch as saying the decision about Mason Station would be made by the second quarter of next year, but Dragon Vice President Terry Veysey said on Feb. 11 that the company is merely in the investigative phase of considering Mason Station as a distribution center and would not finalize a decision until 2004.

“We are far from an agreement [with Florida Power and Light, owners of the station]” he said. “We have a lot of details to look at before we know if the site will work.”

Observed Wiscasset resident Bill Phinney, who owns White’s Island directly across from Mason Station, “since Dragon keeps coming back, it seems to me they’re pretty serious about the station. There are only a few places in Maine that have deep water and a railroad.”

Phinney added that because neither the Wiscasset selectmen nor the Stafford Business Advisors, who are helping plan the town’s economic development, will talk about the negotiations, he fears townspeople will learn about a purchase only after it is concluded.

Veysey said Dragon is considering other possibilities, one being to expand the distribution operation in Rockland Harbor where a pneumatic pipeline is used to transfer cement shipped by rail from Thomaston onto a barge. The company would use a similar operation in Wiscasset, but there, barges would have to navigate the narrow, nearly 20-mile river to reach open waters.

In Rockland, the Maine Department of Transportation has been looking for a site to create a terminal for coastal passenger ferries and possibly smaller cruise ships with rail connection from Rockland to Brunswick, where passengers could connect with Amtrak. The target date for the project, which would run during the tourist season and provide a link to move visitors and residents up the coast, is 2006.

Out of 10 sites considered, Tracy Perez, Policy Specialist the Office of Passenger Transportation, said a location on the other side of Atlantic Point from Dragon’s distribution center is considered the most favorable. The DOT, she said, looked for features like room for parking for at least 200 cars for its proposed high speed CAT ferry alone, space for a facility large enough to handle customs, deep water, and with the possibility for a rail connection. The Atlantic Point site has the advantage of an existing rail line.

Perez said the DOT believes there would be room enough at Atlantic Point for both Dragon Cement and the ferry terminal. While the DOT, as a state agency, has the power to take property for the project, she said she doesn’t think this would happen because Dragon is so important to the economic health of the region.

“We wouldn’t want to jeopardize that,” she said. “We can still go back and look at other sites that have been considered.” However, if Dragon did decide to go, she says DOT would buy its land. (A report, “Rockland Waterfront Assessment,” is available in the Rockland City Hall.)

The DOT planned to meet with Dragon officials on Feb. 14 to discuss the site.

Veysey said that he doesn’t see a problem co-existing with the DOT project. I don’t see any obstacles as yet,” he said. “We’ve co-existed with others in the harbor without problems so far.” He added that Dragon had been talking about having another facility for some time, and that it was not being pressured to find another spot.

Dana Faulkingham, president of the newly formed North End Co-op on Westport Island directly across from Mason Station, said when he and other fishermen first heard of the possible deal, they naturally were concerned about how it would affect their fishing in the Sheepscot River. Co-op members, he explained, set their traps in shoal waters of the Sheepscot early in the season and relocate them in the deep channel after the lobsters shed and move there. Most co-op members fish all the way down the river and out to the three-mile limit; a couple of them have federal permits. Numerous other fishermen from towns on the river would also be affected.

“We just want to get this thing out in the open,” said Faulkingham. “Then, we’ll work with the company in any way we can.” He added that he believed one thing the Sheepscot River fishermen would have to do is apply to the Department of Marine Resources for permission to use larger strings of traps than the current doubles or triples permitted. “That way,” he explained, “we could minimize the number of buoys and end lines that might be cut off by a tug or barge carrying the cement.”

Faulkingham said he has been assured by Veysey that he will be contacted if the purchase moves forward, and that Dragon will work with the lobstermen to meet their concerns.

Veysey said that in 1994, when the company prepared to begin distribution from Rockland Harbor, company officials met with representatives from the town and with fishermen and worked out a plan which has been satisfactory to all.