Sep. 27--MEDWAY -- After being stalled for almost a year, a plan to create what could be the state's first industrial park totally powered by environment-friendly biomass boilers, creating as many as 80 jobs, seems to be moving forward, town officials said Monday.

Dick Day, owner of Day's Lumber Co., is poised to buy 276 acres from the town for $40,000 to create the business park and wood mill he plans to run on it, Kathy Lee, the town's administrative assistant, said.

Day originally announced his plans in October 2004, but the project has been delayed by the state Department of Economic Development taking a long time to grant Pine Tree Zone status to the park, said Lee and Day's partner, Jerry Tudan of Harpswell.

"We had a number of snags because of the state," Tudan said Monday. "It is still the intent of Mr. Day and myself to go through with this, but we lost the better part of the year to the snags."

State DECD officials were encouraging and helpful, but paperwork problems with the Pine Tree application caused delays, he said.

"We had to fill out the paperwork four times," Tudan said. "We were disheartened and discouraged, and potential people we were working with on this walked away because so much of it hinged on whether we would get Pine Tree Zone acceptance or not.

"Our whole intent was to make 60 to 80 jobs in the area, but when you lose a whole year of momentum and you're a developer, what do you do? We were in limbo on this thing," he added.

The state Department of Environmental Protection also hindered the project, saying that any on-site action taken until all permits were in place could threaten the approvals granted.

Under the plan's first phase, Day would relocate his lumber mill operations to the land, which is located near Interstate 95 and Route 11, along with the boiler.

A 600-horsepower boiler, which would run on burning wood wastes created by the lumber operations, would power a 2-megawatt steam turbine that would provide electricity to heat park businesses.

The boiler also would be instrumental to other businesses Day hopes to draw to the park for phase II, which include a water- bottling plant, microbrewery, and large-scale greenhouse operations.

Biomass boilers are common in Canada and Europe, but this might be the first such operation in Maine, if not the United States, Day has said. And unlike the Canadian operations, all of the boiler's heat, wastes and output will be put to use.

Day could not be reached for comment Monday.

Tudan believes the project does have Pine Tree status as of now, and he and Day are discussing investment opportunities with potential investors.

"For my two cents, the state did not roll up their sleeves and say, how can we make this happen, which is what I was hoping to see. There was nothing from them but wait, wait and wait," he said.

Medway's selectmen were due to vote Monday night on whether to shift a half-acre to the project to help it qualify for Pine Tree Zone status, Lee said.

The brainchild of Gov. John Baldacci's administration, the Pine Tree Development program is designed to encourage employment through sales and income-tax exemptions, as well as tax-increment financing incentives.

Under the Pine Tree program, the state grants zone inhabitants a 100 percent corporate tax break for the first five years and a 50 percent break for the next five, among other tax incentives.