LINCOLN, Maine — A local company has tentatively agreed to clear 11 acres off Route 6 where the town’s proposed recreation and community center would go, town officials said Monday.

Ron Weatherbee, Parks and Recreation Department director, declined to name the firm on Monday, saying company officials would examine the grounds with him within a few weeks before committing to the project.

“I would like to see us at least clear the land and get a plan on where and what fields are going to be, where the building would be, that sort of thing, and get some use out of any part of the land this year,” Weatherbee said Monday.

If all goes well, the land would be cleared by summer, Weatherbee said.

Not counting expenses, more than $400,000 has been raised since the Lincoln Community Recreational Center Trust Fund was created in 2002.

The project’s biggest boost came when residents Addison Furrow Jr. and his mother, Sandra, sold the land for the center to the town in June 2007 at what town officials called a generously low price, $95,000, thanks to the Furrows’ desire to help create the facility.

The center’s construction has no timeline or estimated start date, but Town Manager Lisa Goodwin has said that she would like to see the land used for the town skating rink and perhaps other recreation purposes this year to reignite interest in the somewhat dormant effort.

The Lincoln Recreation Department’s seventh annual Invitational Basketball Tournament for fifth- and sixth-graders raised about $3,000 for the proposed recreation center on March 21 and 22, town events coordinator Shelly Crosby said, although not all of the event’s bills are in yet.

The tournament was held at Mattanawcook Junior High School and Mattanawcook Academy, and 13 teams competed.

“I think it went very well. The fact that we only had five girls teams was the only negative we saw in it,” Weatherbee said. “We did well to get it to that point, but in another year I would like to see eight boys and girls teams.”

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