Wiscasset now has an idea what an engineering plan for a seawall would cost. Town Manager Dennis Simmons said nothing has been budgeted for a plan so he is trying to get grant money for it. “But it looks like (the bids are) all going to be over what I could really get” in grants, he told selectmen June 6 when he opened the three bids received.

Tighe & Bond of Portland bid $69,000; GEI Consultants, Portland, $106,700; and John Turner Consulting, Dover, New Hampshire, $46,500.

Where on the waterfront would a seawall go? “Along the edge of the parking lot between the recreation pier and commercial pier,” Simmons said in email replies to Wiscasset Newspaper’s question’s June 7. He said other than the possibility the sewer department’s pump station next to the railroad tracks “could be inundated by an unusually high tide,” the project does not relate to the Cow Island sewer plant town officials have said could face a move or a retaining wall and other flood-fighting measures. 

Selectmen OK’d Simmons and Public Works Director Ted Snowdon to review and choose one of the engineering bids. Wiscasset Newspaper asked Simmons June 7, since the work is not budgeted and he felt grants might fall short of those bids, would he still award the engineering work. He answered, “I have to review the bids before making any decisions. There may be areas that we can reduce costs.”

Also June 6 in the meeting at the town office and carried over Zoom and YouTube, the board accepted a lone, $38,000 bid from Maine Coastal Painting in Falmouth for restoration work on the town clock at 25 Fort Hill St. Simmons said $40,000 is budgeted.

All who spoke in a hearing on Pleasant Street Extension’s proposed rewilding favored it. Leslie Roberts, who has proposed it, said adding the native plantings will help fight erosion, improve the habitat for pollinators and other wildlife, leave a “meandering foot path” and not impact any White’s Island projects.

Roberts said a McClintock Foundation grant and donations residents have made will fund the design; and plans call for getting Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s permission, lining up volunteers and, for the plant-buying, seeking a Maine Outdoor Heritage grant.

One person called the rewilding a wonderful idea. And Pam Logan said it would be a great improvement and she fully supports it. “Best part is: Not going to cost the town a dime.” 

The board will consider the proposal later this month.

Kim Dolce asked selectmen to encourage the release of a report from the committee on the future of Wiscasset’s schools, and to have a public forum. Selectmen’s Chair Sarah Whitfield, board liaison to the committee, said it has not met in a long time, but it will, and the report will be forthcoming and likely a forum.

Maine Art Gallery board of trustees president Richard Riese noted the budget committee’s vote on a June 13 ballot question, which proposes appropriating up to $28,800 from capital reserve to match grant funds MAG gets to “preserve, renovate and improve” the former Wiscasset Academy that houses MAG, should say one member supported it and five, not six, opposed it. Simmons said the error was his, not the selectboard’s. 

The board passed cannibis fees Whitfield said would take effect immediately if voters passed the proposed ordinance June 13: $5,000 for a medical or adult use storefront; $2,500 for medical manufacturing, a medical testing facility, adult use manufacturing, or adult use testing; $1,000 to $2,500 for a cultivation facility depending on size; and a $500, non-refundable application fee.  

The 2022 town report is dedicated to longtime volunteer and past selectman Katharine Martin-Savage, who died April 10. “Katharine certainly personified commitment to community, and the town of Wiscasset is grateful for her many years of dedicated service ...,” Whitfield read from the dedication. It noted Martin-Savage hosted Friends of Wiscasset Public Library’s “Bands for Books” at her Seafield Farm and served on the selectboard, budget committee, jail authority, Wiscasset Female Charitable Society, Wiscasset Community Center’s Cooper-DiPerri Scholarship Committee and more. 

Whitfield presented the town report to one of Martin-Savage’s daughters, Stephanie Hergenroeder. Then, Selectman William “Bill” Maloney got up and gave Hergenroeder Martin-Savage’s Spirit of America award for “her outstanding community service.” Said Hergenroeder, “She would be so humbled and so proud this evening ... for she was a huge lover of this town. And I think we’re all going to miss her charity, her service and her graciousness. Thank you very much.” 

The board named Linda Pope to the appeals board and nodded a business license for Genoa Healthcare’s pharmacy, 35 Water St., Room P; business and liquor licenses for Jolie Rogers, LLC, 8 Railroad Ave.; a pier vendor permit and a conditional business license, pending state approval, for Beaver Ridge Farmstead in Freedom; and reshingling and repairing the harbormaster building’s roof using funds left over from boat launch repairs.