Wiscasset Monday night moved closer to a possible sidewalk policy, and to learning about, and drafting, marijuana rules. The ordinance review committee voted to send the sidewalk policy onto selectmen. The committee proposed merchants would go to the town clerk for a permit to use sidewalk space; all others would ask selectmen for a permit.

In another decision Monday, the panel proposed giving applicants two options for showing the town the proposed sidewalk use: Either a sketch or a marked up photo.

Also in the Zoom meeting, Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission Executive Director Mary Ellen Barnes said Maine Municipal Association told her it is too busy to do a Zoom session with one town, but would answer questions. Barnes was still trying to land a Zoom meeting with Maine’s Office of Marijuana Policy (OMP). Barnes and members reiterated they want to learn as much as possible, including what other towns have done.

Selectmen’s liaison to the ORC, Sarah Whitfield, offered to try a former colleague who is a marijuana policy expert. “That’d be great,” Barnes said. It is a long shot, Whitfield noted.

ORC Chair Karl Olson said he got an email from a prospective marijuana cultivator “wanting to know where we were at in the whole process” toward an ordinance. “I ... roundabout said: ‘Don’t plant any seeds right now, ’cause we’re not anywhere close.’”

Whitfield said selectmen expect a special town meeting this summer on other business. ORC member Jackie Lowell doubted the marijuana ordinance will make that one.