Wiscasset Selectmen’s Vice Chairman Ben Rines Jr. sat out a closed-door board session on July 1 after he failed to persuade fellow members to talk publicly instead.

“I don’t see any reason for the secrecy whatsoever. I don’t think it speaks well for the board,” Rines said.

Tuesday’s executive session involved economic development possibilities, according to the night’s agenda. No one named those possibilities, but Rines said nothing Interim Town Manage Don Gerrish told him ahead of time sounded like it couldn’t be discussed in the open.

A lawyer determined the matter was an allowable use of an executive session, Gerrish said.

The vote to enter Tuesday night’s executive session ran 4-1 with Rines dissenting. When he didn’t get up to leave the open meeting room with the rest of the board, Chairman Pam Dunning asked if he would like to go into the session and hear what was said. Rines declined, saying later it wouldn’t make sense to take part in a meeting he voted against.

He did agree to a separate executive session later in the evening, on legal issues regarding Mason Station and Ferry Road Development.

‘Happy Birthday, Wiscasset School Department’

Tuesday’s board meeting fell on day one of the town’s new school department, and its first day no longer a member of Regional School Unit 12.

“Happy birthday, Wiscasset School Department,” Dunning said.

The town and the district are still honing the amount the town will have to pay for the pullout, Gerrish said. It will likely come to about $1.7 million or $1.8 million, he said.

Residents voted in November 2013 to leave the district.

Possible tax relief

Gerrish asked selectmen to figure out by August 1 how much they would like to take from the town’s fund balance to offset taxes. The projected tax hike now stands at about 9.8 percent, following voters’ approval of both the town and school budgets. Rines said he would like to lessen the hike, which he called staggering.

Board members discussed possibly using more of the fund balance than last year. Dunning noted the board in recent years has worked to depend less on it to offset taxes. She said she wasn’t speaking in favor of either side of the issue, but that both should be considered.