NEWPORT – When Newport officials unanimously voted two weeks ago to become only the second community in Maine that would accept used agricultural containers, they didn’t realize that they would also be accepting the liability associated with the chemicals and pesticides in them.

The selectmen voted unanimously Wednesday night to rescind their earlier vote and not sign the recycling contract.

After reviewing the contract between Newport and Ag Container Recycling Council of Washington, D.C., the town’s attorney warned Town Manager James Ricker that once the transfer station accepted such containers, they became the town’s property.

“If a truck were to roll over and drop one of those containers, we would be completely liable,” Ricker said.

Ricker said that Newport would have been only the second community in the state to accept the containers.

Board members were angry when they learned they would be liable.

“We asked [company representatives] that very question,” Selectman James Brann said. “They sat right here and told us we weren’t liable for a thing.”

Ricker explained that the town’s municipal immunity would protect them if they handled only agricultural containers from Newport farms and businesses, “not those from Lewiston or Cherryfield.”

“The town of Newport does not want to be in the chemical business,” he said.

The board also praised lakeside resident Tom Hart for a design for hydraulically controlled flashboards for the North Street Dam. The town had been using the gate in the dam to raise and lower the lake level and officials were concerned about the wear and tear on the expensive machinery.

Hart’s design uses steel flashboards, sealed with rubber, that are hydraulically raised and lowered, allowing the gate to remain in place. He estimated the cost of the project at $6,000.

“One bad year with the gate and it would cost the same as three of these,” Ricker said of Hart’s design.

The selectmen voted to have an engineer review the design and it could possibly be installed next spring.

In other business, the board:

. Discussed bringing an article before the annual town meeting to use the interest generated by the cemetery trust fund to improve the cemetery roads.

. Agreed to set a new dump sticker policy for 2007.

. Set the schedule for coming budget workshops for three Wednesdays, Dec. 6, 13, and 20.

. Authorized the town manager and the public works director to suspend burials at town cemeteries if the ground is too soft for vehicles due to excessive rain.

. Accepted a $1,000 grant from Wal-Mart in Palmyra to provide supplies for criminal investigations for the Newport Police Department.