Maine Department of Transportation was set to return Tuesday, April 18 to the Westport Island-Woolwich bridge that paint exploded from this winter, Westport Island selectmen said Monday night. 

A resident told the town the foam on the water there now has “tons of paint chips” in it and, due to lead in that paint from the bridge, the resident is concerned for the waterfowl, Chair Donna Curry said in the meeting at the town office and carried over Zoom. Selectman Jeff Tarbox said MDOT continues to address the paint issue and planned to be back Tuesday. According to Wiscasset Newspaper files, environmental cleanup began in February after bridge neighbor Nancy Malone Appleton told selectmen about the chips.

MDOT spent days there before snow returned, and plans called for work to continue for at least 12 weeks this year, reducing traffic to one lane at those times, according to Wiscasset Newspaper files. A town announcement in March described “a catastrophic failure of the paint on the bridge. The extreme sub-zero cold we experienced Feb. 3-4, followed by a rapid warming, caused the paint to explode in pieces off the bridge.” According to that release, the paint was lead-based.

Also Monday, Curry said Westport Island’s local share of Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit’s proposed 2023-24 budget is still up from 2022-23’s tab, but not by as much, due to a state error the district learned of after presenting the proposal in town.

The district first projected Westport Island’s tab would be up $78,556, to $962,651; it now appears the town would pay $946,576, Curry said. “Every little bit helps.”

Julie Casson of the shellfish committee said the panel has been working with Maine Department of Marine Resources on possible ordinance changes including having the ordinance cover all shellfish species excepts mussels and having enforcement be as robust as in other towns. “We’ve had poachers (and) problems with green crabs ... We want sustainability ...,” Casson told the board.

The would be-revised ordinance needs town approval and then DMR’s, Casson said.

Plans were discussed for putting flags on veterans’ graves May 19, rain date May 22. And the board voted to have the town hall policy note Westport Community Association can store event materials at town hall, as Tarbox said WCA always has.