Before fall, Alna may have more information on two options for the town office: Updating it or selling and replacing it. Selectmen on July 5 agreed to spend $2,350 on a new study with the same firm that looked last winter at expanding the 1794 cape or moving the town office into the fire station on the other side of Route 218.

The board dropped the idea of moving to the station after Lewis and Malm Archictecture estimated it would cost $600,000, Second Selectman Melissa Spinney said.

The Bucksport firm’s estimate on expanding the cape was $579,957 to $665,971 under the first study’s draft report the board got in February. “We’re rethinking it to less expensive options,” Spinney said.

Selectmen said this summer’s study will be the town’s first spending on the search for the town office’s future. A $2,000, Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission grant covered the first study; the board has yet to tap $10,000 voters approved in 2016. It will for this one, First Selectman David Abbott said.

“(The cost) is reasonable, I think,” Abbott said about the firm’s proposal. Spinney agreed. Third Selectman Doug Baston was absent. The firm wants the first $470 up front, Abbott said.

Lewis and Malm President Charles Earley writes in a June 28 letter to selectmen, “(We) are very pleased to be considered to continue this important project and look forward to working together with you again.”

According to the letter, a design team that also includes Lincoln Haney of Bath and PCM of Cumberland Center will work on concepts and initial estimates. The team will eye an enlarged meeting room and other updates to the building, and the other idea, a new town office behind the cape and in front of the diagonal row of trees. Selectmen said they told the firm if the town office is replaced, they would want the new one on the same property.

Under that scenario, the town could sell the cape with two of the lot’s 12 acres, Abbott said. Members reiterated, any decisions would be up to voters. They said getting the six to eight-week study done now will leave plenty of time to work on any proposals for the March 2018 town meeting.

Also July 5, selectmen said they hope to get internet providers Charter and Tidewater and consultant Mike Edgecomb together for a meeting. The board wants to know which services are where in town. After the town won an $80,951 ConnectME grant this spring for a project with Charter, Tidewater’ s parent company Lincolnville Telephone Company challenged it, saying the project targeted areas Tidewater already serves.

ConnectME Program Director Lisa Leahy has said the authority’s board may revisit the grant July 28.

In response to a question from resident Judy Fossel, selectmen said they maintain their position that students need to live in town year-round. “That’s illegal, you know that,” Fossel responded. She referred to Maine Department of Education school enrollment specialist Pamela Ford-Taylor’s June 21 email that stated year-round residence does not determine residency.

Spinney and Abbott said they had not seen the email. Fossel’s renter Ona Brazwell read them it June 21. “We can’t make decisions if we don’t have the information,” Spinney told Fossel.

“Right now, there’s no change (in position),” Abbott said. “We could change that if we find out it is illegal.”

Fossel took down the town’s email address of alna@tidewater.net to forward Ford-Taylor’s email.

The board and resident Ed Pentaleri made plans to talk July 19 about paying the town website’s fees with a credit card the town would get; and about the steps to set up the website to take tax payments.

Pentaleri made over the website earlier this year. He said it’s on his credit card now and he can get reimbursed, but the town should take over paying the fees. “So if I get hit by a bus or whatever, it’s not all over,” Pentaleri said.