MILLINOCKET – The state Legislature is still mulling a proposed $14 million land swap that might end traditional uses on 6,000 acres around Katahdin Lake, but other possible land deals could cut vital ATV and snowmobile arteries around town, Town Councilor Wallace Paul said Thursday.

Paul told other councilors Thursday that he heard of another pending deal while attending a state legislative committee hearing in Augusta on Wednesday. The deal, if completed, would threaten ATV and snowmobile access from Baxter State Park to the Penobscot River’s East Branch, a well-used sportsmen’s corridor, he said.

“I am afraid that there are decisions that will be made that will isolate Millinocket, East Millinocket and Medway,” Paul said Thursday. “My fear is that what started out as a 6,000-acre deal is actually growing.”

The fledgling deal, he said, involves the Gardner Land Co., the state Department of Conservation and another buyer – he hinted an environmentalist.

The council last month unanimously supported a resolve that condemned the $14 million deal’s loss of traditional land uses. Councilors Jimmy Busque, David Cyr, Paul and Matthew Polstein have attended several hearings in Augusta. Paul, Polstein and Busque reported on the hearings they attended.

The resolve, councilors said, has caught the attention of legislators and others in Augusta as they struggle to find an equitable balance between traditional use preservation and wildlife preservation.

“Our name was being taken in vain as often as not by people who were supporting having the whole piece of land [preserved] as proposed,” Paul said.

Echoing comments made at previous meetings by Polstein and McLean, Paul said he feared that the resolve, while properly worded, might have tied the hands of people who support the town’s position.

“I think that we have taken a strong position and I am afraid that if we are not careful how we play our hand that we might be endangering something more than what we have worked for with our resolution,” Paul said.

At earlier meetings, Polstein and McLean advocated councilors’ working with state government to make the town’s position known, but not so stridently that it made it easier for state officials to dismiss the town. More such deals were likely in the works, they said.

During Thursday’s meeting, Paul and Busque urged other councilors to work at forming coalitions with other state municipalities that feel their traditional land usage is threatened by deals such as the land swap. Busque mentioned an alliance in Aroostook County that Millinocket could join.

He said he plans to attend a meeting of that alliance today.