Molnlycke is aiming to break ground April 1 on the expansion to its Rynel plant on Twin Rivers Drive, following the sweeping approval Wiscasset voters gave January 14 to a tax deal linked to the project.

“This is great,” said James Detert, Molnlycke's business development director for the Americas, after what looked like a unanimous show of hands for the deal. Seventy voters turned out for Tuesday night’s special town meeting in the gymnasium of the Wiscasset Community Center.

Now the company will be applying for Maine Department of Environmental Protection permits and Wiscasset Planning Board approval for the 32,000-square foot add-on, projected to cost at least $5.5 million, Detert said. The expansion will provide space for Brennan Medical, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based company Molnlycke picked up in 2012.

Molnlycke’s current workforce in Wiscasset of 70 employees is projected to grow by 10 to 30 employees as a result of the expansion. Detert said the company hopes to have the new space ready to open in December.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Wiscasset officials told residents the deal with Molnlycke works out better for the town than if the company expanded without it. That’s because the money the expansion adds to the tax base would cut the state’s revenue sharing and school aid to the town, and increase the town’s county tab. It would shake out to the town getting about 41 cents’ worth of every tax dollar from the expansion.

“That’s not a lot ...,” Town Planner Misty Parker said.

With the deal, however, the town gets 59 cents of every dollar; Molnlycke, the other 41 cents. “This is a great deal for us,” Selectmen’s Chairman Ed Polewarczyk told voters.

Polewarczyk and Town Manager Laurie Smith cited the half-year it took town and company officials, and lawyers for both, to come up with the deal.

“Six months ago, I didn’t know how to spell Molnlycke,” Polewarczyk said.