“Well, we missed it, didn’t we?”

Opening the Wiscasset ordinance review committee meeting on Zoom Monday night, Chair Karl Olson was referring to the April 3 fall of hundreds of a building’s bricks onto a downtown sidewalk where, days before the incident, the committee had stood, talked and walked on a site visit. Members were there about a prospective policy on use of the sidewalks the state put in. 

Olson recapped the visit as good. He said it showed that both sides of Main Street could have 50 inches of sidewalk open to walk by businesses’ or events’ displays. Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission Executive Director Mary Ellen Barnes said she could make a sketch to possibly go with the policy. Participants also discussed requiring sidewalk permit applicants to keep the continuous, 50-inch path open.

On a possible marijuana ordinance, participants found they want public input and want to educate the public and themselves. How might the committee draft an ordinance residents will say yes to and that would serve residents, member Anna Ridle asked. Suggestions included a survey; public meetings on Zoom, in person, or both; gathering information from other towns and the state; and maybe having someone from the state come speak.

“This will be a long conversation, with a lot of aspects,” Barnes said of the work ahead. She said the committee can learn from the work other towns have put into marijuana ordinances.

Olson agreed. “I don’t want to invent any wheels.”