Wiscasset has spent $59,109 on legal fees this fiscal year not including over $16,000 in recent litigation filed by the Portland law firm of Murray, Plumb and Murray related to the Maine Department of Transportation’s downtown project.

On Tuesday night, Town Manager Marian Anderson provided a breakdown of legal costs from July to December. General legal services provided by Bernstein Shur of Portland totaled $17,935 for the first half of the fiscal year. Other costs included $13,082 spent as a party of interest in Wawenock, LLC’s lawsuit attempting to halt the MDOT project. Anderson noted the town’s legal fees in the case totaled $18,100 because the litigation began in the prior fiscal year.

Selectmen spent $5,915 for “labor advice,” $5,702 related to the Bryant court action, $4,518 for the avigation easement associated with airspace at the municipal airport, and $3,615 on a request for property tax exemption by owners of the Deer Ridge Farm assisted living complex.

Legal expenses are paid from the contractual services account, monies that are also used for assessing and engineering fees. In June, voters raised $116,000; $30,000 of it was earmarked for legal services.

On Dec. 6, the board voted to take $16,021 from contingency to cover legal services by Murray, Plumb and Murray related to the MDOT legal filing. This left $3,979 in the contingency account for the remainder of the fiscal year which ends June 30, 2018.