For six months, Alna Third Selectman Coreysha Stone visited other towns' facilities, spearheaded a survey of Alna residents, and studied waste and recycling topics to see how Wiscasset Transfer Station might save money and charge Alna and Westport Island less. And she believes Wiscasset's cost sharing formula should be based on the station's net, not gross, operating budget.

If it was, Alna's one-year $107,096 tab would drop to $82,236, Stone told Wiscasset selectmen March 5.

"I would consider this, in my mind, best practice," she told the board. "Wanted to plant that seed."

For 10 minutes, Stone shared the results and ideas from her half-year effort. Selectmen thanked her and said they will read the presentation and think about it and, with an electronic copy she would be sending them, they could click on links to more information. Chair Sarah Whitfield said the document would also go to Public Works Director Ted Snowdon. Snowdon, who heads the transfer station, was not in the meeting.

Last July, after Stone in an Alna meeting said she believed it would be in Alna's best interest to terminate the contract as soon as possible, Snowdon, in a phone interview, said he hoped Alna would stay a partner. He later deferred all comment to Town Manager Dennis Simmons. Simmons has said budget time was the time to propose any change.

Stone prefaced her presentation March 5 by informing the Wiscasset panel, Alna residents are in general very pleased with the service at the station.

She floated ideas including grinding wood into mulch and chips to sell; composting pet waste at home; and considering “diverting unrecyclable plastic through 3-D printing ... I just threw something innovative and wacky in there," Stone added. 

Stone told the board she is not an expert and was not judging. "This is purely problem-solving and trying to think creatively about a solution ... to benefit all communities participating in this ..." She also proposed an ad hoc planning committee with representatives of Wiscasset, Alna and the station's other user, Westport Island.

Stone added in closing, as she held up the document, "This is just an invitation to possibly do things in a more collaborative way in the future, so that we can participate more fully in decisions ... And there are lots of residents out there that are ... experts in grant-writing and finding funding, and thinking about ways that you all, with your transfer station, can make as much revenue as possible, because it benefits everybody ..."

Earlier in the night's budget talks, Simmons again called the budget he drafted lean. And he said it might be too lean. Given tariffs, he might need to tweak the numbers, he told selectmen. So it was good the board would not be voting that night, he said.

"I keep watching these numbers constantly ... nearly every day, just to see where we're at, year to date, and what I've proposed, and if we're going to be on track ...," Simmons told selectmen. 

He told them he also had a good announcement: He won't have to touch contingency for the recreational floats, thanks to a $38,000 grant toward the $75,000 cost.

The meeting was the second of back to back nights for the board. March 4, the board nodded the renewal of a medical use cannabis license for SeaGrass LLC, as Mad Hatter's, 291 Bath Road, and new business licenses for Midcoast Nutrition, 681 Bath Road, and Widener Company, 101 Main St. According to their applications, Midcoast Nutrition is a nutrition club and Widener will have a "retail shop and guest rooms."

Work progresses on the Wawanock Block. Simmons told the board he got an email that day from Wawenock representative Mark Robinson. Robinson reported certain rear work was set to be finished by March 14, along with exterior first floor woodwork and doors; and Robinson will provide an updated action plan by March 17.