Be careful who you accept money from — there are often strings attached.

That was the word Monday from conservation commission member Jason Powell, who spoke before the select board as the town looks to re-open negotiations with the Masons over public access to the exit ramp at Hix Bridge Landing, which the Masons blocked last year.

Town officials have had no luck negotiating with the Masons to re-open the ramp, which lies partially on Masons property, but board member Jake McGuigan recently spoke to representatives and believes “there’s an opportunity for us to maybe reopen this and maybe have some good faith efforts to bring this to fruition, and maybe find a solution that’s amicable to everyone in town.”

Town administrator James Hartnett was instructed to get the ball rolling. Meanwhile, the future of the landing, and its current exclusive use by Westport residents, could be threatened if the town isn’t careful with funding, Powell said.

He cautioned board members not to accept any state money as the town concurrently looks to fund a long-standing $800,000 landing commission proposal, currently unfunded, to completely refurbish and reconfigure the site.

“Generally, when the state spends money on site work for ramp repair, that property then becomes accessible to everyone in the Commonwealth,” he said.

Right now, “it’s ours and we control it. I would just like for us to make sure that whatever funds are being used, they’re being acquired in the right way (and) we know what strings are attached. If we lose exclusive access to that property, we’ll never get it back, and then nobody in town will have a place to park a boat or a trailer.”

He also recommended that if the town has received any state funds to date, “we should probably return them.”

Powell brought up one other issue of more immediate concern: A stopgap plan proposed by landing commissioner Jeff Bull to widen the current entrance/exit to make coming and going safer.

Powell was one of three conservation commission members, alongside McGuigan and Kevin Carter, to vote against Bull’s plan at a recent commission meeting. He believes it is a non-starter, and said police agree after meeting with safety officer Lt. Christopher Mello at the site Sunday.

Lt. Mello “agreed 100 percent that the current plan is untenable,” Powell said of the stopgap measure, which would require vehicles pulling trailers out of the water to back up and make a hairpin turn toward the entrance/exit.

“It’s unsafe. Public safety won’t sign off.”