A Wiscasset police officer would make $16,000 more a year in Waldoboro, Wiscasset Officer Jonathan Barnes told Wiscasset selectmen in an email Chair Sarah Whitfield read aloud March 1. The board then agreed to a $4 an hour raise for police. The department’s budget can handle it, Town Manager Dennis Simmons said.

Barnes wrote, police feel supported in Wiscasset and accept the lowest pay in the area to work for a department whose mission they believe in and a chief, Larry Hesseltine, who puts families first. But Barnes said pay like Waldoboro’s takes stress off officers and their families “and begins to outweigh all the positive reasons we choose to work in Wiscasset.

“We are not asking for an astronomical amount like is being seen elsewhere,” Barnes continued. “We are simply asking for enough to keep us relevant. Retaining and attracting future quality officers is paramount to our success here.”

The raise passed 5-0. “Thank you all, for all you do for us,” Whitfield said about the police department. “I appreciate the way they put themselves out there,” Selectman Pam Dunning said.

An executive session is likely March 15 about the still unfixed Wawenock block facade on Main Street, Simmons said. He said it after resident Susan Blagden’s latest query to the board. Noting it has been about a year since the bricks fell, she said someone’s feet should be held to the fire. Simmons said owner Ralph Doering has engineers working on what to do. “It’s not moving at the speed I think it should be moving at and obviously others think it should be moving at, and I (spoke) with the town attorney (Feb. 24) as to what our options are and what we should do.”

Officials told Blagden they appreciated her frustration. “I know you can’t mortar the bricks in,” she said. “I would if I could,” Selectman Terry Heller said.

Wiscasset Newspaper asked Doering spokesman Mark Robinson for comment via email. He responded March 2, “Wawenock LLC is making plans to start the repairs later this spring. There is not an exact date, but I will keep you advised as I get more information.”

The board thanked the school department for giving the town $995 to buy an automated external defibrillator (AED) for Wiscasset Community Center; and approved Hilary Crowell’s request for a business license for The Cultivated Thread, 227 Old Sheepscot Road. The application calls the business a “small batch weaving studio” with e-commerce and off-site sales.

Selectmen expect to resume meeting at the town office April 1. Meetings will be hybrid, with an equipment upgrade Simmons makes with American Rescue Plan Act funds.