Wiscasset selectmen are no longer considering sending voters a firearms discharge ordinance. Public statements, including ones that night, would be grist for a lawsuit the town risks if it passes the rules, selectmen and Town Manager Dennis Simmons said July 16 before the split vote ending the work.

Selectman William “Bill” Maloney opposed the ordinance. He said it could get the town sued for limiting hunting. A 1641 ordinance grants an easement for the public to enter the intertidal lands for fishing, fowling and navigation, Maloney said. “You’d have to rescind this ordinance.” And Maine’s Right to Food Act also protects hunting, as harvesting, so Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine or someone else could file suit and win, he argued. 

Resident Leslie Roberts’ request six months ago started the town’s look into possible rules. In January, Roberts and Police Chief Lawrence Hesseltine voiced safety concerns centering on hunting in the cove below Castle Tucker. In the hearing, Roberts reiterated the ordinance idea is about safety. “It’s not about hunting. It’s about people hunting in an area that’s densely populated. Everybody’s out walking,” Roberts told the board. 

“Shotgun pellets aren’t going to go that far,” Maloney said about duck hunting, the type of hunting that had reportedly occurred, leading to Roberts’ request in January. 

Maloney went on to recall taking a bike to grammar school except in deer hunting season. He took the bus then.

Simmons told Roberts, “What you’re asking for is no hunting in the cove ... And you’re sitting right there and stating that’s what you want to have happen. That’s where I’m going to have an issue with this, because somebody’s going to complain ...” 

Selectman Pamela Dunning concurred. “They’re going to watch the video of this meeting where that’s what it said the point of this (ordinance) is, and there’ll be a lawsuit. Your tax dollars at work.”

Selectman James Andretta said he is all for less government and fewer rules. Roberts, he argued, wanted to prohibit hunting there because “she does not want it in her backyard.” 

The would-be ordinance is “definitely something in which the public would want to weigh in,” Selectman Terry Heller said in support of a public hearing. Selectmen’s Chair Sarah Whitfield said she completely understood that, but was concerned legally about an ordinance. Whitfield was surprised more people did not come that night, with the topic on the agenda.

A public hearing would only get people upset “about something we can’t do anyway,” Maloney said. “If we do (an ordinance), we’re going to get sued, and we’re going to lose,” he said at another point.

He proposed to “just drop” working on an ordinance. He, Andretta and Dunning passed the motion; Whitfield and Heller dissented. 

Also July 16, the board nodded business licenses for Midcoast Structures, 681 Bath Road, and Garage Doors & More Company, Inc., 407 Bath Road.