Got about 90 minutes? The Wiscasset School Department announced Friday it has set a pair of times for guided public tours of both schools about the changes the planned $1.7 million energy project will bring.

Superintendent of Schools Heather Wilmot said tours help inform people and provide a frame of reference as a project is carried out; the Lisbon School Department, where she served as assistant superintendent before coming to Wiscasset, gave tours on its energy project, which involved the same contractor, Siemens of Scarborough, Wilmot said Friday.

The tours are Wednesday, Jan. 18, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday, Jan. 21, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. On each date, the tour starts at Wiscasset Middle High School on Gardiner Road and ends at Wiscasset Elementary School. Participants will travel on their own from one school to the other, Wilmot said.

Wilmot estimated about 45 minutes per school. The project also involves the department’s central office and bus garage, but Wilmot said she kept the tours to about an hour and a half in length out of consideration for attendees’ schedules. Longer tours might have impacted families’ abilities to attend, and she wants everyone to be able to see students’ learning environment that was the subject of a staff survey earlier this year, in connection with the project, she said.

Wilmot said arrangements can be made to view the parts of the central office and bus garage that are planned for energy work. Call the office at 882-4104 or the garage at 882-7612.

According to information Siemens and the department have provided, school staff cited issues with lighting, heating and air quality. On Monday, Wilmot provided detailed numbers on what would happen where. The project calls for drop ceilings in sixteen classrooms at WMHS; replacement of 15 windows in the WES gym section and 43 windows at WMHS; weather-stripping of doors and window-sealing for remaining windows; and an upgraded equipment inside a walk-in refrigerator at WMHS. A summary Wilmot provided states: “The existing (refrigerator) box is in good shape and does not require replacement.”

In addition, energy management systems throughout the department would have new controls. And local contractors would be hired to put in a new ductless, split air conditioning system at the central office, Wilmot said.

School Committee Chairman Michael Dunn commented Sunday on the upcoming tours. “We are hoping the tours will expose more of the public to what the project represents: What improvements are needed and how this project will help improve the education we provide for our children through a better, more comfortable environment,” Dunn wrote Sunday in a reply to questions via Facebook. “We feel that if more people in the community understand the current condition of our buildings and the great opportunity that a project like (this) represents, they will see that we are doing the right thing for the community, despite the negative/incorrect information they may be hearing from a few people.”

In response to a question during Friday’s phone interview, Wilmot said the tours’ scheduling did not result from selectmen’s protests of the lack of a town vote prior the school committee’s Dec. 15 approval of the contract. Tours were always part of her plan, and are part of her responsibility as a leader to educate families and the community on the work the buildings will undergo, she said.

Reached Sunday evening, Selectmen’s Chairman Judy Colby called the tours a very good idea. She hoped to take one of them. “But as a selectman, this does not change my position. I still feel they need to take (the project) to the voters.” Colby reiterated her concern that, if funding is included with the school budget next spring, “I don’t think people will realize it’s in there.” The department has plenty of time between now and June to get a town vote, Colby said.

On Monday, the committee voted to ask selectmen to schedule a special town meeting.