If Wiscasset voters do as the budget committee recommends in June, they will reject $312,884 in capital improvements and block ambulance service to Woolwich.

The committee also opposes the transfer station budget, over members' concerns about the proposed move to pay-as-you-throw. Charging by the bag could spark roadside dumping to avoid the fees, they said.

“The more I've thought about this … there's going to be garbage dumped,”  Chairman Cliff Hendricks said as the committee decided its budget recommendations April 18.

Member Ray Soule doubted voters will pass an ordinance change needed for pay-as-you-throw. “I don't think that's going to fly,” he said. “Nobody I've talked to is happy with it.”

As voters will see on the ballot June 11, the committee's 0-7 vote on the transfer station budget clashes with the 4-1 support selectmen are giving it.

A separate question on the ballot will determine the immediate impact of  voter rejection of any department budgets. It proposes funding up to three months of a department's costs, avoiding shutdown costs as high as $265,000.

Both the budget committee and the select board support the measure.

During the three-month reprieve that it would buy a department, selectmen could take another proposal to the polls or an open town meeting, Town Manager Laurie Smith said. Or they could choose to close the department, she said.

The budget panel's opposition to sending ambulances to Woolwich centered on concern the deal would cost Wiscasset more money than it would bring in, while also adding to wear on the ambulances.

Making Woolwich cover any unpaid bills for ambulance runs would help protect Wiscasset from a financial hit, they said.

With those potential debts figured in, Wiscasset still stands to see $35,000 in revenue from Woolwich, Smith said April 19. It would cost Wiscasset about $18,000 to expand its service to include Woolwich, for a net gain of $17,000.

Woolwich town meeting goers May 8 will consider signing on with Wiscasset. But it's not that town's only option. Its current ambulance service, Northeast Mobile Health Services, is offering Woolwich a free, three-year deal, Woolwich Town Administrator Lynette Eastman said.

Wiscasset would charge Woolwich $3,000 for a year's service, the same amount Alna, Edgecomb and Westport Island pay, Smith said.

The budget committee's rejection of capital improvements boiled down to the same issue members have been raising: They don't believe selectmen should have bundled all the items into a single vote.

The ballot item would free up $312,884 from the capital reserve account for projects including $121,384 for road and sidewalk repair; $55,000 in fire truck repairs; $55,000 to get a public works truck; $33,000 for a generator for the municipal building; $13,500 in waste water pump repairs; and $35,000 to fix the municipal building's roof.

Grouping the items takes away voters' right to choose which ones they want or don't want, member Norman Guidoboni said.

The committee supported all but 10 of the 47 budget items selectmen have proposed. Voters head to the polls June 11. A public hearing is set for 6 p.m. May 7 at the municipal building.

Susan Johns can be reached at 207-844-4633 or sjohns@wiscassetnewspaper.com