Most firms bid more on four generators for Wiscasset’s pump stations than the $100,000 budgeted, and that was not the only issue Town Manager Dennis Simmons noted on Zoom March 2 when he unsealed the bids: IEC Electrical Data and Services of Strong, $204,537; Express Electrical Constructors of Skowhegan, a $182,805 bid and a $225,486 one; United Rentals of Westbrook, $164,326; Power Products of Portland, $117,300; and ESM Electrical Systems, $95,350.

Simmons told selectmen then-sewer department supervisor Richard Gaeth, who has since retired, came up with the $100,000 figure. “As we can clearly see, we’re not going to really be able to do this for $100,000,” Simmons said. The one bid under that will need a close look to ensure it is “workable,” he said.

Portable generators may not be the way to go, Simmons continued. “We’d have to outfit them with transfer switches so they’ll come on automatically. Otherwise, we’re going to have to send people out, usually in a storm, to get these generators running.” Plus, on diesel, they might need more refueling than permanent, propane-run ones, he said.

He said one man who decided not to bid expressed concern about costs to the town. “And we’ve heard this in town before: We take the cheap and then it costs us in the long run, when we should have done it right to start with. So I do want to take a step back,” look at it with Gaeth’s successor, Rob Lalli, and talk with “people who are more in the know than I am,” Simmons said. Selectmen agreed.

Also March 2, selectmen agreed to a Fourth of July fireworks show. They and Simmons cited the nation’s ongoing COVID-19 vaccinations and the show’s multiple vantage points. “And anyone who’s not comfortable can stay home,” Chair Pam Dunning said.

Selectmen kept Pamela Brackett on Wiscasset Municipal Airport’s advisory board; put Anne Leslie on the comprehensive planning committee and Anna Ridle on the ordinance review committee; tabled the proposed addition of Michael Maney to the budget committee; approved Carla Chapman’s applications for a liquor license, an extension of an on-premise license and a special amusement permit for live bands at The Cubbyhole Sports Pub, 213 West Alna Road; and agreed to let Garden Club of Wiscasset hold its annual plant sale outside the municipal building from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 8.

The club’s request noted, due to the pandemic, none of the sale will be in the meeting room. 

The board briefly mulled an arch and signage as possibilities when the town removes the Ancient Cemetery’s fence this spring. Members said they will first see how the spot looks with the fence gone.

Simmons, who has looked forward to returning to in-person meetings when conditions allow, told selectmen their not having to bundle up and go out in the cold that night was “the only good thing” about meeting on Zoom.

Said Dunning, “I dislike Zoom enough that I would prefer to go outside and go to a meeting than sit at home and Zoom.”