A March referendum will decide a proposed $1.7 million Wiscasset school department energy conservation project. At the same special election, voters will also consider a 180-day moratorium on retail marijuana establishments and social clubs.

Selectmen decided Tuesday night to hold the votes. They planned to meet at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 18, to announce the date and location of the votes.

Selectmen voted 3-1, with Jeff Slack dissenting, to turn down the school committee’s request to hold a Jan. 30 special town meeting. The board voted instead, 3-1, Slack dissenting, to hold a referendum vote.

Selectmen’s Chairman Judy Colby felt the energy conservation improvements school officials are proposing are needed but said she couldn’t support having the funding rest on the outcome of a special town meeting. “It disenfranchises voters who can’t be there.” 

Selectman David Cherry agreed. “With a referendum you allow for absentee ballots, with a town meeting you don’t.”

Slack said that by agreeing to have a town meeting the school committee was making an effort to work closer with selectmen. He urged Colby and Cherry to reconsider. The school committee could have gone ahead and signed the contract, he added. Former selectman Judy Flanagan also urged the board to hold the special town meeting.

Selectman Ben Rines Jr. said he’d heard of a petition circulating to form a committee for closing one of Wiscasset’s two remaining schools. Rines asked what would happen if the town went ahead and financed the project and later one of the school buildings closed within the next 16 years, the length of the financing.

School officials couldn’t say for certain what the financial impact would be. They said it would depend on whether the project were financed through a lease purchase agreement or bond.

“You don’t just close a school in a few months and tuition students out,” School Committee Chairman Michael Dunn said.

John Merry, the school department’s maintenance and transportation director, said from their previous meeting with selectmen, school committee members had the impression selectmen wanted a special town meeting.

“Time is not our ally, we’ve got $90,000 in funding we stand to lose,” he added.

Superintendent of Schools Heather Wilmot said the rebates were time-sensitive. She explained the lighting portion of the project needed to be completed by April to qualify for over $70,000 in Efficiency Maine rebates. Wilmot said the lighting work would need to start in March in order to be completed by then, hence the request for the January town meeting.

The soonest the town could hold a referendum vote was 45 days, town attorney Shana Mueller told selectmen. The referendum question would require a public hearing, she added.

The school committee proposes financing the project over 16 years either through a tax-exempt lease-purchase agreement, or a general obligation bond administered by the board of selectmen.

As stated on the proposed warrant, approving the article and financing the project through a bond will increase the town’s indebtedness to $5.66 million. It further states, an estimated interest rate of 3.35 percent for a 16-year term will result in $521,611 in interest over the course of the loan. The total debt service of the project is estimated at $2.27 million.

Regarding the upcoming marijuana vote, officials said the moratorium would give the town time to amend zoning and other ordinances in accordance with regulations to be determined at the state level for marijuana-related businesses. 

Town Clerk Linda Perry said the polls at the community center will be open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Jan. 31 to elect a selectman to fill Flanagan’s unexpired term. Absentee ballots can be obtained at the town office and are available until 4 p.m. Jan. 26, Perry said. New voters may register at the polls or in advance.  For more information, contact the town clerk’s office at 882-8200.