Plans call for Wiscasset selectmen to set this year’s property tax rate Tuesday night, Sept. 7 over Zoom. None of the options Town Manager Dennis Simmons has laid out would raise the rate over last year’s $20.12 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation.

In his report released Sept. 1, Simmons tells the board each option depends on how much overlay selectmen set aside for possible abatements. He said if the board follows the assessor’s recommended $44,316 overlay, “there would be no tax increase this year.” The other options, each with less overlay, “would result in a small decrease ...,” Simmons writes. 

The report also informs selectmen, Maine Department of Environmental Protection has told the town four wells near the transfer station and old landfill have excessive PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances) levels for drinking water, and the state will pay 90% of the costs for filter systems for the two private wells, both on Fowle Hill Road. The other two are at the transfer station and the fire department’s training site, Simmons’ report states.

Simmons notes the town already supplies bottled water at those two sites; so the only other measure DEP is requiring is signs saying those sites’ water is non-potable.

Until the two private wells have filter systems, the town will provide bottled water, according to Simmons’ report. He states the old landfill is the “most likely” source of the PFAS.

According to a January 2020 PFAS task force report at maine.gov, PFAS is a family of chemicals that take a long time to break down in the environment.

The board is set to take up winter sand bids Tuesday and appoint broadband committee members. Join the 6 p.m. Zoom meeting at

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83625653734?pwd=M1k5K1lwNnhlakhvR0tHQlJHQVArQT09

Meeting ID: 836 2565 3734

Passcode: 911529