BRUNSWICK (AP) – A Defense Department official visiting Brunswick said the federal government plans to sell Brunswick Naval Air Station at fair market value after the base closes.

Military installations have been turned over to states or towns after previous rounds of base closings, but that won’t be the case this time, according to Wayne Arny, a deputy assistant secretary of the Navy.

Preston Hartman, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, said Snowe still plans to introduce legislation that would remove the requirement that the air station be sold at fair market value.

Hartman said the provision would simply give Brunswick or the state the option of having the air station’s ownership transferred at no cost.

Arny said federal, state and local agencies, as well as private sector businesses could acquire parts of the base property.

“I am not sure that there is a pecking order,” he said.

“People in the community think we are going to get this land for free,” Brunswick Assistant Town Manager Patricia Harrington said. “But he (Arny) made it clear that the Navy doesn’t want to give it away.”

Harrington said Brunswick’s interest in ownership will be addressed by redevelopment authority officials.

Arny said his goal is to have a buyer or buyers lined up by the time the base shuts down.

“Why should we wait 10 or 15 years to transfer ownership of the base. Our goal is when the last sailor leaves Brunswick, we’ll be able to hand the keys over to the new owner,” Arny said.

Under an initial Pentagon plan, Brunswick would have remained open with a skeleton crew while most of its personnel and planes would have been transferred to a Navy base in Jacksonville, Fla.

Ultimately, BRAC commissioners voted to close the air station.

Gov. John Baldacci has pledged to help the Brunswick region recover from the loss. His staff has said the base would officially close in 2011.