At one-plus acre, Whites Island near Wiscasset’s downtown is small, but special to many residents. Now the town has a chance to own it, but the timing could be better.

Voters just upped the ambulance service budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars to ensure round-the-clock coverage. Now the town faces hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs if it chooses to fix or replace the footbridges to the island. Selectmen recently held off on signing the deed the non-profit Maine Coast Heritage Trust offered them.

Best-case scenario: a grant or grants to help with or fully fund the bridge work.

We hope the town tries the grant route. Money is out there and a single yes could go a long way toward the project.  In the meantime, unless new information comes to light that would make ownership a bad idea for liability or other reasons, and if residents want the island, we hope selectmen snap up the property.

Access by boat is better than nothing, and may be good enough until the town can afford more, with or without help.

My grandfather always said there are two things you can’t take back: A spoken word, and a missed opportunity.