Simmons: All options open for sewer plant’s move; more funding eyed

The further the next sewer plant is from the river, the more it would cost, Wiscasset Town Manager Dennis Simmons told selectmen June 18. He said town-owned and other sites, by a voluntary sale or one through eminent domain, are all possibilities. “Every option’s on the table.”

The topic came up when Simmons mentioned U.S. Sen. Angus King, I – Maine, is trying for more funds to help with the move. 

If the $6 million King now seeks for it from Congressionally directed spending comes through, it would bring the amount raised to $11 million of the “roughly” $36 or $37 million needed, Simmons said. “We’re making progress here ...” He added, this is a multi-agency process that will take multiple funding sources. 

Simmons told the board he has told consultant Bill Olver about more potential sites to look into for their feasibility. Selectman James Andretta said he thought it would be easier to ask those property owners first.

Also June 18, the first meeting since voters kept Andretta, William “Bill” Maloney and Sarah Whitfield on the board, selectmen kept Whitfield as chair and made Pam Dunning vice chair; kept Richard Forrest and Frank Sprague on the waterfront committee, added James Kochan and Eric Cousineau and accepted – with regret and with thanks for her many years of service – Susan Robson’s resignation from that committee; and nodded a letter of intent needed to pursue a Maine Natural Resource Conservation Program grant to naturally restore Pleasant Street Extension by scraping the hardpack and adding native plant species.

Wiscasset Climate Action Team Chair Cassaundra Rose told the selectboard Gov. Janet Mills has announced Wiscasset will get the separate, $50,000 community action grant it sought from the Community Resilience Partnership. “So, congratulations. We’re really happy to have helped get the town that funding, and we’re really committed to ... continue helping the town apply for (more) funding,” Rose said. The community action grant is for community engagement and engineering toward waterfront climate resilience, according to the draft letter of intent Rose said was needed to pursue an invitation to apply for the Maine Natural Resource Conservation Program grant.    Resident Steve Christiansen said he is not sure the Sheepscot River has risen the eight to nine inches Rose had just cited. Christiansen said the area of that extension has always flooded and he is not sure what the project will uncover there because a pier used to be there. He wondered if the only “gain” in doing the project was a better view.   Rose said wetlands can help absorb flooding, and healthy wetlands help make healthy worm flats.   Committee and board members thanked Christiansen for his comments. Whitfield said she does not know people’s views on the potential project so she encouraged him to suggest people he talks with come speak up also. According to the discussion, the letter of intent does not commit the town to taking the MNRCP grant; the town would have to be invited to apply and, if it wins a grant, the town would not have to accept it, according to the discussion. The Pleasant Street Extension project could run about $200,000, to be fully funded though grants, according to WCAT.   The board nodded the letter 4-1, Andretta dissenting.   The town office will close at noon Thursday, June 27 to close out this fiscal year and bring the new one into the system, Simmons said.