Wiscasset will ask the state to audit traffic safety on routes One and 144 and do a speed study of 144. Selectmen Oct. 1 nodded the three requests to Maine Department of Transportation after Wiscasset Economic Development Director Aaron Chrostowsky reported back with information the board wanted from MaineDOT.

Route One’s last traffic safety audit was in 2012, and 144 has not had one, according to Chrostowsky’s Sept. 24 letter to the board. The audits are free to the town; they gather input from first responders, business owners and people who live on or travel those roads, the letter stated. MaineDOT uses the audits when making its thee-year work plans, Chrostowsky said. 

Chrostowsky said MaineDOT and Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission support getting the audit for Route One, and he proposed the one for 144 in response to residents’ concerns. Selectmen’s Chair Sarah Whitfield added, she has heard several comments about speed on 144. 

Chrostowsky said a speed study, also free, would need to be a separate request. The board, 4-0, supported having Town Manager Dennis Simmons seek the speed study and both traffic safety audits. Selectman James Andretta was absent.

Also Oct. 1, the board went with Artifex of Bangor’s $45,450 bid to assess the town office complex’s and Wiscasset Community Center’s needs. Simmons told Wiscasset Newspaper, other bidders were AAMP Studios Portland, which gave an hourly rate with no estimate on the hours; Archetype Architects of Portland, $22,000; Haley Ward of Saco, $74,000; Port City Architecture of Portland, $51,607.50 plus possible other costs to reimburse; and Simons Architects of Portland, $110,000.

Simmons gave Deputy Public Works Director Earl Babcock “big kudos” for helping the town get from the state six new floats for $500 each, instead of $5,000 apiece Simmons said they might have cost to build. They will be ready next spring, he said. 

Selectmen nodded a letter supporting a request to the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future, for technical help with energy audits, staff training and an energy conservation plan for town buildings.

The board approved the 2024-25, $30,000 contract with LCRPC for planning services; nodded liquor licenses for Jodie’s Cafe and Bakery and In a Silent Way; and Wiscasset Speedway’s yearly special amusement permit. And Whitfield, addressing a group of Wiscasset Middle High School students, encouraged the ones old enough to vote, to register. Selectman Pam Dunning told the students, as she began to cover her ears, “If you don’t register to vote, I can’t hear you,” drawing fellow board members’ smiles.