Wiscasset Police Chief Troy Cline on June 2 expressed confidence that residents will agree to keep funding the department’s school resource officer. The $47,400 spending item is among the 55 questions voters face on Tuesday, June 9, including a pair of straw votes and a historical preservation ordinance.

Polls will be open at the Wiscasset Community Center from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“I feel confident that the citizens will vote to retain the (resource officer),” Cline writes in an email response to questions from the Wiscasset Newspaper. “There was even a citizen initiative to keep (it) on the warrant. I feel this is an important position not only for the students but staff at these schools as well.”

Cline said he is looking forward to seeing the results of another ballot item, a non-binding one on whether or not to end the police department and use the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.

“The citizens of Wiscasset have already expressed their desire to keep the police department on several occasions prior to my becoming chief,” Cline writes. “I am confident that everyone in town realizes the importance of having a town police department.

“The Wiscasset Police Department is a professional agency staffed by qualified and experienced officers. We ... appreciate the support of everyone in Wiscasset.”

Selectmen voted 3-1 on April 16  to pose the question; they also voted 4-0 for another straw vote, to farm out ambulance service. After a contractor’s series of bids ranged in the hundreds of thousands of dollars on May 5, Selectmen’s Vice Chairman Ben Rines Jr. recommended voters reject privatization.

The budget committee is recommending against a proposed $68,950 in funding for Wiscasset Public Library; the recommendation has spawned multiple letters to the editor in support of the funding request.

Budget Committee Chairman Cliff Hendricks said June 1 that the committee supports funding the library, but not at that level.

Library Director Pam Dunning on June 2 said that if the library doesn’t receive the town’s funding this year, the library would probably have to be open fewer hours. The library has an endowment and receives funding from Wiscasset, Alna, Edgecomb and Westport Island.

A historical preservation ordinance on Tuesday’s ballot calls for a selectmen-appointed commission. Its duties would include surveying historical and cultural resources; recommending districts, sites or landmarks to establish; and reviewing National Register nominations.

Another proposed ordinance would replace the town’s existing one on floodplains and keep Wiscasset property owners eligible for a national flood insurance program.

Among Tuesday’s municipal elections, voters will decide two seats on the school committee and two on the board of selectmen.