Wiscasset selectmen unanimously approved Big Al’s business license for 2018 and fireworks licenses for 2018 and 2019 on Dec. 17, according to the live streaming video of the meeting on YouTube. A public hearing had been postponed from Dec. 4.

During the Dec. 17 hearing, Big Al’s lawyer Chris Nagel said Big Al’s needed fireworks licenses for both 2018 and 2019 to comply with the law. Big Al’s also needed a valid business license, which Nagel said should have been renewed in 2018, but, as Selectman Ben Rines Jr. recalled, then-town manager Marian Anderson counseled selectmen against approval because the original paperwork from 2012 could not be found. Nagel said business licenses are valid three years, so he was seeking one good through 2021.

According to Town Manager John O’Connell, town officials have found the Big Al’s 2012 paperwork, with all the provisions for fire marshal permitting, liability insurance, and approvals from state and federal regulators, the planning board, codes enforcement, and the police and fire departments.

Addressing an issue raised about the distance from the fireworks store to a set of stairs outside Taste of Orient, town attorney Mary Costigan said the stairs leading from the kitchen did not qualify as part of the building, and the distance, in a measure taken in daylight from the fireworks store to the stairs, was 64 feet, four more feet than required.

Another issue raised Nov. 19 was a shipping container at the Bath Road store. Costigan said, under state statute, the shipping container was permissible, but only for 90 days at a time. Cohen said he has since moved the container.

Tom and Kate Bryant spoke about the storage of fireworks at JB’s Way. They have contended it has harmed their ability to sell their property, but their case lost in Maine Supreme Judicial Court. The Bryants said they have filed suit against the fire marshal regarding the warehouse. The warehouse on JB’s Way is more than 200 feet from the closest Bryant structure, Cohen said, and Tom Bryant conceded the point. Chair Judy Colby reminded the Bryants the issue before the board was solely the building on Bath Road.

The Bryants’ lawyer, Jonathan Pottle, also mentioned insurance for the JB’s Way structures. Cohen and Nagel said those are part of a separate policy from the Bath Road location.

Selectmen approved O’Connell’s execution of the consent agreement with Maine Department of Environmental Protection for air quality violations with the Aug. 4 training burn at Huber’s Market. The agreement includes a $1,000 fine. Peter Rines said that while he was interim chief, he created provisions to ensure burns follow every rule.

Selectmen and O’Connell thanked Rines for his service, and O’Connell introduced Fire Chief Robert Bickford.

Retiring Wastewater Treatment Plant Director Richard Gaeth was applauded for his service. His last day in the job is Dec. 31.

O’Connell said he was able to get the town about another seven months from now to pay Maine Department of Transportation the manhole and sewer costs the town is responsible for. The payment had been due last June. The town must now pay $61,500 by July 15, 2020, meaning it can go in the next budget cycle, decided at the 2020 town meeting.

Selectmen approved business licenses for Coastal Maine Cuts on Main Street and Wiscasset Veterinary Hospital on Gardiner Road.