With Wiscassset Selectman Bob Blagden not seeking another term, two seats are in contention in the annual town meeting June 11. Polls will be open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Wiscasset Community Center.

Selectman Katharine Martin-Savage is running for reelection. Also on the ballot are Kim Dolce and Jefferson Slack.

Martin-Savage has served as selectman twice. Her first term began in 2003, and the second began in 2016. She served on the Two Bridges Regional Jail Authority for 12 years,  the board of the Wiscasset Female Charitable Society, and Wiscasset Public Library's board of directors. She said she “downsized” after losing her second husband. Martin-Savage has lived in Maine since 1980, when her first husband retired. They chose Maine because her parents lived nearby.

She said she felt that the past year on the select board was terribly difficult. “There was so much dissension in town. People would come to the meetings and things got ugly a lot of the time. I thought, people could contact me and talk one on one. They could have sent emails, called on the phone, or stopped me in Shaw’s. But instead, a lot of their anger was getting expressed in public during the meetings.”

Martin-Savage said she believes that as a board, they have done extremely well, sometimes under adverse circumstances. “I feel good about the votes I’ve cast, and recused myself when I feel I had to,” she said.

Some of the issues coming up are going to be a challenge, she said.

“I am possibly more fiscally conservative than others on the board,” she said. “But we have some big ticket items coming up that we’re just going to have to deal with.” She brought up the sewer treatment plant upgrade. “We’re actively searching for grants, it’s almost a constant search. Rick Gaeth (new director of the plant) has been absolutely astounding.” She said funds will have to be obtained, grants or no grants. “We have to do the work. We have a wastewater treatment plant that belongs to the last century.”

She said she has faith in the new superintendent of schools. “Terry Wood has inherited a big job,” she said. “It’s not going to be easy."

Martin-Savage said that it is her contention that high school students should be tuitioned out. She is concerned about the quality of the education that the high school, especially, is able to provide. “Judy Colby and I were invited to a Problems of Democracy class last year,” she said. “Some kids didn’t want to be there at all, they were just marking time. But some kids needed more. There was no choice, except to teach to the middle. That’s not good for either the kids who want college prep classes or those who want coursework where they are learning trades. Every kid deserves the best possible chance at an education.”

Demographics are shifting, and that’s going to alter how Wiscasset and the other towns in Lincoln County, as well as the county itself, have to deal with that reality, she said. She believes the entire county should work together to solve problems that come from the changing populations. She also believes the departments of the town should be working together more cooperatively, and everyone needs to be more fiscally responsible. “We get requests for a brand new whatever,” she said. “Can’t we fix it and make it last a few more years?”

Dolce started out as a middle school science teacher. She started a business in which she did knitwear design, designing sweaters and patterns, and spent the last few years renovating two properties, including her home on Fort Hill Street.  “Now I am running for select board ... that’s my next big project,” she said. 

Dolce has been involved in events in the town since moving here three years ago. Running for select board is her first political foray. “I go to a lot of select board meetings, budget workshops, and meetings of other boards and commissions,” she said. Dolce said her experience with writing patterns, as well as teaching, taught her it’s important to provide a level of communication that removes technical language so that board members as well as the general public understand the problems presented and the options available to remedy them. 

She said she is running for several reasons. The first is taxes. Dolce said that over the last four years, taxes have risen 48 percent. Even so, for many years, most tax dollars have not been spent on infrastructure, and the result can be seen in the wastewater treatment plant issue that is now a crisis for the town.

“There is no point in looking back and pointing fingers,” she said. She pointed out that there have been a lot of new department heads since some of the issues, like the treatment plant, accumulated. “I’m impressed with the department heads. I read their reports every month.”

Asked about the schools, Dolce said it was going to be a very difficult conversation for the town to have, but one worth having. She said she would want to hear from many parents, and she had many more questions before she could say what she thought should be done. If high school students were tuitioned out, the town should use some of the savings to create a world-class K-8 school that would attract younger families to Wiscasset, she said.

Dolce said one of the changes she’d like to see is to deal  with agenda items in a timely fashion. “We also need more transparency between boards and committees,” she said.

She said the town could benefit from a planner, but only once the town knows what direction it wants to go. “We need to update the comprehensive plan, and that should be our guideline,” she said.

Slack is making another bid for selectman after a hiatus. He served on the board for three terms, was a member of the RSU 12 Withdrawal Committee, and served on the Finance Committee. He is a financial counselor for Maine Health, where he assists people who cannot afford medical care or prescriptions.

Slack said that when he bowed out of the selectman's race three years ago, he thought he was retiring. But events during that three-year break made him realize he wanted to be involved. “I’d like to work with the downtown businesses, to help unite us as a town,” he said. “We shouldn’t be sitting on two sides of the aisle, arms crossed, not listening to one another.”

Slack said that in terms of education, he has long been a proponent of tuitioning out the high school students, and for him, it’s not about the money. “The educational quality needs improvement,” he said. “I know people who have pulled their students out of the high school and are spending a lot of money for them to go elsewhere. We don’t have enough AP courses, and there aren’t enough students to make a go of certain classes.”

It might take a while to get there, but all the more reason to begin soon, he said. 

“The demographics aren’t changing. We’re the oldest county in the oldest state. There are going to be other financial needs that we will need to deal with, and soon, based on the aging population.”

Slack said he would like to see the school board and the select board meet on a regular basis. “We had started that, but then the Maine Department of Transportation project came up and that kind of fell apart,” he said. “I still think everyone is going to be happy with the downtown project in the end, but we need to work together to demonstrate that this town is a destination.” He said that the last year of his last term was difficult, with even the board of selectmen breaking apart. “We’d have 3-2 votes, and I didn’t feel good about that, even when I was in the majority,” he said. “Our goal should always be a stronger consensus so that the people can get behind some of the issues we vote on.”

He said that if he were to look back years from now, he’d be proud if the town were united because the selectmen worked together and the citizens came together. “That’s my most important goal,” he said.