CUTLER ? Mired in a lawsuit over how the town’s harbor has been handled for the last year, Cutler’s selectmen on Wednesday led residents through a special town meeting that, in the end, gave town officials more money, authority and leeway in how they move forward at this time of tension.

Five of the articles landed on the warrant because the town manager, three selectmen, three harbor masters and seven members of the harbor committee have become fully involved in the talk of the town. Two nonresident lobstermen who want to fish out of Cutler Harbor were denied mooring permits a year ago, and the waterfront hasn’t been the same since.

The meeting lasted three hours, and the ballot counts for the five most contentious articles reveal a town divided. About 80 residents consistently approved the articles as set forth by the selectmen. Another 68 more residents consistently voted otherwise.

The turnout of 150 residents was far more than the 65 or so who attended the annual town meeting last August.

Many residents wanted to address another harbor-related issue that was not on the warrant, that of the gate that appeared without town approval at the public boat landing in March.

They pointed out there had been no discussion or vote when the harbor committee had the gate erected. Selectmen and the moderator countered that there would be no discussion or vote on it Wednesday evening, either.

The gate issue will be handled at the town’s annual meeting, still to be scheduled for late July or early August.

“If anyone mentions the gate again tonight … ,” moderator Linda Throckmorton said, delivering a sharp look to persistent residents in the front row, evoking laughter from the audience.

Points raised rarely strayed far from the true matter at hand ? how two out-of-town brothers have been at the center of the Cutler Harbor controversy for the last year.

Both Dale Griffin of Whiting and Michael Griffin of Edmunds and their attorney, Ralph Dyer of Portland, attended the meeting, but none of the men spoke.

Several things will happen now, after the votes Wednesday evening:

? $6,000 will be transferred from the harbor management fund to help the harbor administrators pay legal fees and continue to enforce harbor regulations. The town already has paid Sally Daggett, also a Portland attorney, more than $6,000. She rewrote the town’s harbor ordinance last month, among other tasks.

? $2,000 more will be transferred from the surplus fund to cover administrative costs in the town office, for “the girls,” Selectman Kristan Porter said, who have found themselves overworked in keeping up with harbor matters. The $2,000 was more realistically a “buffer” as the town nears the end of its fiscal year in June, he said.

? The harbor ordinance as amended no longer requires the harbor masters to “maximize available mooring space” in Cutler Harbor.

Rather, the harbor masters and harbor committee will ? under the revised wording ?”promote availability and use of valuable public resources; and create a fair and efficient framework for the administration of the harbor.”

Residents were reassured by Porter, the only one of the selectmen who took on the challenging discussion, that the town is doing the right thing, relying on lawyers at this point to guide them.

“We are confident ? very confident ? in this lawsuit,” Porter told the residents.

“There is so much misinformation around this town. … Don’t believe one word you read in the newspaper ? not one.”

Hours before the meeting, the town was slapped with a second lawsuit from the Griffins. Dyer filed a civil action in the Washington County Superior Court for a review of the town government’s action.

The Griffins were denied mooring permits a second time, most recently on April 15. They believe that, as shorefront property owners, they are entitled to moorings in the harbor. The lawsuit contends that the harbor masters have misinterpreted the state statute that allows qualified shorefront property owners to have mooring privileges.