PALMYRA – The Maine Department of Transportation has set a meeting later this month for Palmyra and Newport officials to discuss the proposed Irving Truck Stop project on Route 100, just off the Interstate 95 Palmyra exit.

The multimillion-dollar project is planned for 77 acres, formerly a farm and gravel pit, and will include two 4,400-square-foot restaurants, a convenience store, 20,000 square feet of retail space, a truckers’ lounge, six diesel fuel lanes, 12 gasoline lanes and two high-bay fuel lanes.

The meeting is set for 1 p.m. Thursday, March 30, at the MDOT office building at 219 Hogan Road in Bangor.

Peter Hedrich of Gorrill-Palmer Consulting Engineers of Gray, which submitted the DOT application, said Tuesday that since the town line with Newport is so close to the project and will be affected by traffic, Newport officials are being included in the process.

“We are very concerned,” Newport Town Manager James Ricker said Tuesday. He said he is particularly worried about trucks making a left turn toward the proposed truck stop from the southbound exit of I-95. Equally worrisome are trucks trying to make the crossover to Route 100 from Route 2.

“We have a bottleneck now at the existing Irving station,” Ricker said. “Can you imagine 660 trucks an hour?”

Ricker said that although the meeting is only to air traffic issues, he expressed concern with “the entire public safety issue.”

“There are a lot of positive things about growth, but along with growth should come some responsibility for its cost,” he said.

Palmyra contracts with Newport for fire protection since it does not have its own fire or police department.

“Currently, Palmyra pays 25 percent of our [fire and rescue] operating budget,” he said, which is an amount that parallels the calls for service.

“What happens if those calls go to 46 percent? We need to determine if the town of Newport and the town of Palmyra, as well as the Newport Police Department and the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department, will all have some type of reciprocal agreement,” he said.

One solution could be the creation of an economic development district that straddles the towns’ borders.

“We know what Newport has to offer – fire, police, water sewer. Palmyra could offer a cost-sharing agreement that could increase our tax base,” he said.

Such a district would be clearly defined both geographically and in terms of cost and would be subject to voter approval, Ricker said. A meeting between Ricker and two Palmyra officials recently was held on siting a district, but Ricker stressed that discussions are in the initial stages only. “We just don’t want any surprises down the road,” he said.

Walter Eutize of Irving Oil Co. said that the process is not being opened up to the public at this point. Residents with questions or concerns are urged to bring them to their individual town officials who will be present at the meeting.

The public will be allowed to attend the meeting; no comments, however, will be accepted.

Eutize was deliberately mum about the scope of the project, only admitting that “it’s larger than what is there now.” The current Irving Big Stop is located across the town line in Newport’s Triangle business section.

“We have no time frame set,” he explained, adding that the company was under no pressure to begin construction this year. The application indicated that the truck stop should be completed by 2007.

“Permitting for a project of this size could easily take more than a year,” he said.

Victor Smith, DOT Eastern Region traffic engineer, has described the project as similar in size and scope to Dysart’s truck stop in Hampden.

Hedrich said the project will require state permits from the DOT and the Department of Environmental Protection as well as from the town of Palmyra.

Once MDOT approves the application, a public hearing would be required, said Smith.