Town councilors agreed Monday to resume tax increment financing district negotiations with the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority.
The decision to re-engage came during an informal straw poll exactly five months after the council voted to scrap negotiations amid tense relations with MRRA and distrust of state lawmakers’ intentions to change existing TIF legislation.
Council Chairwoman Suzan Wilson introduced the agenda item Monday. After the poll, she appointed councilors John Richardson Jr. and Ben Tucker as the town’s liasions during the negotiations.
Steve Levesque, MRRA’s executive director, said Tuesday he was heartened by the news.
“We’re excited to hear that, and we’re looking forward to good engagement and to develop a mutually beneficial program between the town and MRRA,” Levesque said.
John Moncure, the current MRRA board chairman, in turn appointed Levesque and trustees Steve Weems and Sandy Updegraph as the agency’s representatives.
Richardson works as an attorney for the Topsham firm Moncure and Barnicle. John Moncure is a partner in that firm.
jtleonard@timesrecord.com
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