The Wiscasset Police Department held its second “Coffee with a Cop” event Aug. 23, at Treats on Main Street. Coffee and breakfast pastries were free to folks who stopped by to chat with Chief Jeff Lange, School Resource Officer Craig Wooster and Officer Paul Rubashkin, as well as intern Natalie Bonneau, who will be leaving to go back to Husson University next week.

Of the locals who turned out, most wanted to talk about the Maine Department of Transportation plan for Route 1, Lange said. “There’s a lot of misinformation about what the plan will and won’t do. One gentleman said that he would be less likely to buy a case of wine from Treats if he had to carry it all the way to the Water Street parking lot. I pointed out that not only is there parking right behind the shop, but there is a loading area in front of the Chinese restaurant.  He seemed satisfied with that.”

But most of those who stopped in were visiting Maine, some as a regular summer pilgrimage, some visiting for the first time. Holly Swanson, from upstate New York, spoke to Lange about their mutual home state. She came up to add to her collection of Maine coast pottery at Edgecomb Potters. “When I got married, I told my mother, ‘I’m not a china girl.’ But she bought me a starter set of dishes from Edgecomb Potters. I drive up once a year to add something to the collection,” Swanson said. She stopped for a cup of coffee, a scone and a friendly conversation.

“Coffee with a Cop” is a national program that encourages people to get to know police officers outside of a traffic stop or a crisis situation, so they can relate to them as neighbors and friends. It’s a form of community policing that Lange said he would like to do more of. “We want to bump it up to twice a year. I’d like to do it more often, but there’s not enough money in the budget for it.” It isn’t the cost of the coffee and pastries that’s a barrier, it’s the cost of having all the police officers on duty at the same time, some at the event, others covering the office and patrol duties.

Lange said his door is always open if he’s in the office for anyone who wants to get together and talk. “Just call and make sure I’m there first.”