At the July 19 County Commissioners’ meeting, buildings manager Matt Huntley said a 1000-gallon underground propane tank used to fuel the county courthouse’s emergency generator was corroded and could no longer be filled. The county had two choices.

The first was to rip up the tank and replace it for $3,900, plus the excavation cost, which was unknown. Huntley said it was likely that two mature maple trees would also be lost, because their root systems would be damaged by removing the tank. The tank would also be subject to corrosion.

The second option was to leave the tank where it is, burn off any remaining propane, fill the tank with sand and erect a new, above ground tank there. There would be no cost for the second option, but the tank would face busy Route One in Wiscasset.

The commissioners took a brief stroll out to the site to see the location and how the aesthetics would be affected by the tank, which would bear the logo of the oil company, Dead River. The site is also home to the large chiller unit and a storage shed. The commissioners agreed to the above ground solution, but also asked Huntley to look into obtaining a fence to screen the tank from view.

Chief Deputy Ken Mason was asked about the number of inmates in Two Bridges Regional Jail being held for long periods because they cannot make bail. Hamilton Meserve and William Blodgett wondered if there were statistics on the number of inmates and the number of days they were being held for minor crimes or probation violations or failure to appear or to pay a fine. Mason said the courts normally decide on issues like bail and whether a warrant will be issued for someone who has failed to pay a fine. “We shouldn’t have people in jail who stole something worth $100 for 364 days when it costs $120 per day to keep them there,” Meserve said.

Mason agreed, but said it was not something the Sheriff’s Office handled. “I could bring a list of prisoners and why they’re there,” he offered.

Blodgett thought it should be easy to use a database from the jail to keep track.

The commissioners also signed four Animal Control Officer contracts, for Alna, Bristol, Waldoboro and Whitefield.

Emergency Management Assistant to the DIrector Casey Stevens announced that the Simulcast system proposal would be discussed at the next meeting with the president of the company, but that the additional cost to bring all seven towers up to code would be only $12,000, about five percent of the total cost.

Administrator Carrie Kipfer said that after checking on the status of the deeds records being housed in Augusta, Lincoln County’s microfilms were in good shape. The State Archives can provide digital copies of the records for about $1,000 per box, and Lincoln County has about a dozen boxes. It was decided to allow the Archives to do one box and then see if they were legible before asking for more. The company currently doing the work costs much more, Kipfer said.

Kipfer also learned more about the needs of the law library, and now believes it may be possible to bring books upstairs so that people can have ready access to them, and get rid of outdated books. The state library may be interested in maintaining digital copies of the Lincoln County News, which is being stored in paper format in the basement.

The commissioners gave permission for Kipfer to accept the Maine Department of Transportation grant of $880 for Hibbert’s Gore roads.

Kipfer announced that Robert Faunce, Regional Planner, received a $28,000 grant for Downtown Boothbay Harbor Flood Impact Preliminary Engineering Study and Adaptation Options to Protect Governmental and Commercial Structures from flooding associated with a hundred-year storm. The grant was issued by the state Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.