At a St. Philip’s Church member’s request, Wiscasset selectmen plan to have their Aug. 1 meeting minutes note comments about the minutes from the July hearing on commonspace’s business license request for Harbor Peer and Wellness Center at the Hodge Street church. At first Aug. 1, St. Philip’s vestry member Sharman Ballantine asked for the July 18 minutes “which are going to live on, online on the Wiscasset town page” to be amended. She said she did not feel they accurately reflected what was said and what occurred. 

She said the minutes lacked the names of people who made negative comments, lacked some of the positive comments and included among the negative ones a reference to crime. Ballantine said that comment should not be “linked” to the church. “The recovery center was about renting a room that used to be our priest’s office ... so that people could make appointments to go in and talk to people who were in recovery,” Ballantine told the board.

“And I know that it’s an emotional issue for the people that live in the village. But there’s a lot of other people who don’t live in the village, that are represented by this selectboard, and who probably don’t vote, and certainly weren't there on July 18.” Ballantine added maybe the approval process service organizations face in Wiscasset “needs to be tweaked a little bit.”

Then Selectman Terry Heller explained the board tabled the proposal July 18 before Ballantine and some others could comment, so she encouraged Ballantine to speak at the Aug. 1 meeting. Heller asked if the July 18 record could be amended. Chair Sarah Whitfield responded, the only completely unbiased minutes would be direct transcripts. She added, the crime comment that was among the negative ones was not directed at the church.

Whitfield said she told board secretary Jackie Lowell a summary was fine since that has been the general practice. And Lowell and Selectman Pam Dunning said the minutes only have to state who made a motion and what the vote was. Heller asked if Ballantine’s comments could be part of the Aug. 1 minutes and Lowell said they could.

Town Manager Dennis Simmons noted the town’s YouTube channel has recordings of the selectmen’s meetings.

The board also heard from Deborah Morgan. She was “so amazed (and was) left speechless” by the vitriol and fear mongering she said she heard at the hearing that she could think of nothing to say July 18. But someone told her anger “works against everything,” she said. So she was there to ask the board to show “more impartiality ... when something else comes up that deals with helping the most unfortunate people in the state of Maine, and they’re right here in Lincoln County.”

Heller later brought up the July 18 meeting and said the board should reflect the “vision and leadership that we hold” and, when commonspace makes its next proposal, to “receive them without any hesitation and with a good amount of impartiality ...” Fellow members made no comment. 

Commonspace has continued to work on proposing single-room occupancy (SRO) apartments upstairs at the church. Earlier this year, commonspace, then going by Amistad, won a $916,000 Maine Housing Authority grant for that project.

Also Aug. 1, Susan Blagden sought another update on repairs to Ralph Doering’s Wawenock block downtown. She said she was on Vinalhaven the other day and, when she mentioned she was from Wiscasset, “a completely unknown person to me pounced at me and said, ‘My god, what is wrong with you people ... You know you’re the laughing stock.”

Simmons said then-Code Enforcement Officer Bruce Mullins sent a rather stern email saying the town would be exploring its legal options. Simmons did not know what response the town received; Mullins resigned last month, and a new CEO was set to be named, Simmons said. (Moments later, Bruce Engert was.) Simmons has talked with the town lawyer about options on the work that has tied up part of Main Street’s new sidewalk since bricks fell from the facade in spring 2021. “We’re all sick of the excuses,” he said. Wiscasset Newspaper has sought new comment from a Doering spokesman. 

Jim Munson asked to have Police Chief Lawrence Hesseltine look at the Lowelltown Road-Gibbs Road intersection Munson said needs signs on Lowelltown Road “because it comes up over that rise ... Every day, someone rolls right through (the intersection) but from the Lowelltown end is the most dangerous.” He suggested a couple lighted signs.

Heather Jones asked in public comment, and then received selectmen’s OK, to power wash, sand and revarnish the James Weldon Johnson bench and attach a plaque to it. Jones built the bench last year in honor of the poet-civil rights advocate killed in a car-train collision downtown in 1938.

And the board accepted a $2,500 donation to Wiscasset Ambulance Service. A woman sent it in appreciation for saving her life, according to a card Simmons read aloud.