A plan to spend up to $150,000 to replace a plow truck has garnered the support of Wiscasset selectmen and the budget committee. On Thursday, Dec. 11, residents at an open town meeting will consider the request, which would restore the town’s full fleet of plow trucks after a falling tree limb destroyed one truck in November.

The town meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the municipal building. Selectmen scheduled it Dec. 2 after meeting with the budget committee and Wiscasset Road Commissioner Doug Fowler.

As discussions between the selectmen and the committee sometimes go, Tuesday’s talks occasionally turned touchy.

“As usual, there’s absolutely no give on the board of selectmen,” committee member Bob Blagden said during the session. He and fellow committee members asked about possible cheaper options, including having a sewer department truck double as a plow truck.

Sharing a truck with another department could be problematic, Fowler said. The truck would need changes, and its use plowing roads would add to its wear, he said.

At one point, Fowler cited the importance of getting a truck soon to serve the town’s needs as the storms keep coming. Another storm would be arriving momentarily, he said about Tuesday night’s forecasted bag of mixed precipitation.

“As we’re all aware, we’re in the midst of winter as we speak,” he said. “I kind of look at (the proposal) as a sacrifice to kind of get us out of this hot mess.”

As proposed, no new taxes would have to be raised to get a truck. Selectmen propose piecing together the funding with $7,300 left over from the purchase of another public works truck; $27,400 left over from a roof project at the municipal building; $18,150 in insurance money for the 1996 plow truck that was totaled last month; and $97,139 from the capital equipment reserve account.

Selectmen had planned to tap savings Fowler found in his department budget, but at budget committee members’ suggestion, the board dropped that part of the proposal. The committee then left the board meeting to mull the proposal further and take a vote. When they returned, member Cliff Hendricks informed the board the committee had agreed 7-0 to support the proposal. Both panels’ recommendations will appear on the town meeting warrant.

“It’s probably not the best solution, but it’s a reasonable solution,” Blagden said about the proposal that will go to voters.

One week earlier, selectmen had settled on a truck they heard about from Fowler. But that truck has since been sold, so he will keep looking in and outside Maine for the best deal for the town, he said Tuesday night.

Show support for veterans

Town Manager Marian Anderson announced that a Wreaths Across America convoy will pass through Wiscasset on Route 1 on Sunday, Dec. 7. The convoy of tractor-trailer trucks, motorcycles and other vehicles will be on its way to Arlington National Cemetery, according to a letter from the organization that gets wreaths onto veterans’ graves. The letter states the convoy will be coming through the town at an estimated time of about 3:40 p.m. Sunday.

“The support of the communities cheering us on as we pass through is very heartwarming,” the Nov. 24 letter from Wreaths Across America founder Morrill Worcester states.

Town officials suggested the public could gather on the municipal building lawn to wave at the passing convoy.