East Lyme ― Almost four months since voters came out in favor of spending up to $2.35 million to save 255 acres of land here from development, no contract has been signed.

First Selectman Dan Cunningham said he has a target date of Feb. 15 to finalize the transaction.

“I want it done,” he said.

The three properties comprising the sale are owned by the nonprofit East Lyme Land Trust. The purchase was authorized at a referendum under Cunningham’s predecessor, Kevin Seery.

Residents and taxpayers voted 1,450-167 to authorize the town to buy the land, and 1,530-116 to finance it over 15 years.

A common theme at the polls was a desire to preserve open space amid what residents described as too much development.

The purchase price includes $1.6 million for the 122-acre Hathaway property near Pattagansett Lake, $575,000 for 120 acres in a preserve in the Oswegatchie Hills, and $125,000 for the 22-acre Giants Neck trail system known as Ravenswood.

The land trust bought the Hathaway property for $2.3 million in 2022 from Hathaway Farm LLC, an entity represented by former resident and land trust member Steve Harney. Hathaway Farm flipped from owner to lender when it secured the mortgage for the land trust with Oswegatchie and Giants Neck parcels as collateral for the loan.

Harney this week expressed urgency similar to Cunningham’s.

“I gave them till the 15th to close,” he said. “Time is of the essence.”

Hathaway Farm initially picked up the land, which had been in the same family for hundreds of years, for $1.05 million in 2021.

Land Trust members at the time, including the late Ron Luich as president and Arthur Carlson as a board member, tried to convince town officials and taxpayers to buy the land from the Hathaway Farm for $1.65 million. Luich and Carlson emphasized the property’s status as the number one preservation priority in the town’s long-term plan for what should be preserved and what should be developed.

But the deal the land trust tried to broker between the town and Hathaway Farm went nowhere. That’s when the owner sold the 138-acre property to the land trust, minus about 16 acres of the most valuable lake and road frontage.

The land trust was the subject of an inquiry by the state Office of the Attorney General after complaints that the cash-strapped nonprofit was using property meant to be preserved as open space as collateral for the mortgage. That investigation, too, went nowhere after concluding with no official report or guidance issued.

Harney said a deed on the Hathaway property will be filed one way or the other come Feb. 16.

“It’ll either be from the land trust to the town of East Lyme, or the land trust to Hathaway Farms,” he said.

Harney said he remains interested in working with a developer to build affordable homes on the Hathaway property if the sale to the town doesn’t go through. He is involved in a proposal for affordable housing on privately owned land adjacent to an East Lyme Land Trust preserve near the Montville border. It was rejected by the Zoning Commission last year and has been appealed to state Superior Court.

Cunningham on Tuesday said he has done everything he can to make the Hathaway deal happen, including signing the contract.

“I think it’s largely in the land trust’s court,” he said.

The first selectman said the main question mark remaining is the transfer of a $400,000 grant assigned by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to the land trust.

“We’re hoping the land trust has taken the necessary steps to assign it,” he said.

DEEP spokesman Paul Copleman on Monday said the state agency is working with the town and land trust to complete the transfer “and has yet to run into any significant hurdles.”

Also outstanding is the establishment of a conservation easement to permanently protect the land in partnership with a local agency qualified under state statute. He identified the Avalonia Land Conservancy, the Friends of Oswegatchie Hills Nature Preserve and the East Lyme Land Trust as contenders, but definitively ruled out the land trust.

Friends of Oswegatchie Hills Nature Preserve President Kris Lambert on Tuesday said her organization would only be interested in holding the easement for the parcels within the existing preserve.

She said the Friends also manage the conservation easement for the town’s Darrow Pond property, but that’s because there was nobody else willing to do it when the town purchased the land for $4.1 million in 2011.

“Our role is to manage and steward the Oswegatchie Hills,” Lambert said. “It carries a big obligation, and we are a small group. We really do not want to bite off more than we chew.”

Stewardship includes responsibilities ranging from maintaining signage and controlling weeds, to patrolling the preserve for safety concerns.

Cunningham on Tuesday said he was doubtful the Avalonia Land Conservancy was interested in holding the easement. He said he didn’t think the East Lyme Land Trust was being considered as a candidate.

“That’s going to be one of the challenges,” he said.

e.regan@theday.com