A June vote has put the Wiscasset School Department’s energy project on hold, but selectmen’s actions in December had already cast the die that prevented the deal from closing, according to Superintendent of Schools Heather Wilmot.

In interviews and emails March 8 and 9, Wilmot, Town Manager Marian Anderson and the chairs of the select board and school committee explained why recent months’ events unfolded when and as they did, and answered questions on the legal costs and other impacts.

Wilmot believes she could have closed on a lease-purchase deal in time to get rebates and get the $1.7 million project done, if not for the selectmen-instructed letters a town lawyer wrote, telling banks the money may not come.

That’s not what banks want to hear, Wilmot said in a phone interview March 8. “It created a barrier.”

Two banks’ offers on interest rates have expired; a remaining one of 3.38 percent from Power of Leasing was due to expire March 15, Wilmot said. It, too, will run out without a closing, given the ongoing events, she said. “The school department does not have the capacity to close on a tax-exempt lease-purchase agreement at this time ... as there is not confidence within the banks regarding the claims to not appropriate the funds,” Wilmot wrote in an email response to a question.

Anderson and Wilmot provided copies of the letters that went out. Anderson said the town did not give Power of Leasing one.

Wilmot did. She said she has to tell prospective lenders of issues that could impact funding, and would have done it, anyway, to be responsible.

The town’s Dec. 23 letters state in part, it would be imprudent to enter into a contract with the school department until the town meeting vote on lease payments; voters would not necessarily support the payments, since they had not been asked to weigh in formally in advance, Bernstein Shur attorney Shana Cook Mueller writes. “We urge you to reconsider ...”

In addition, Cook Mueller encloses her Dec. 22 letter to school department attorney Greg Im of Drummond Woodsum. The letter asks for either Im or Wilmot to contact her or Anderson, to work together on how to get voters’ input before a contract is executed. “If I don’t hear from you, the Board is prepared to take other action which may include ... notifying potential lenders and contractors of the significant non-appropriation risk ...”

The Dec. 22 letter to Im and the Dec. 23 letters to the banks went out on the  days they were dated, Anderson said. Asked why banks were notified one day after Cook Mueller’s letter asks to hear from the school department, Anderson said, as she recalled, the two lawyers spoke by phone.

Since the letters and related events, the school department has been billed for $8,580 in attorney fees in connection with the project, Administrative Assistant Stacey Souza said. Anderson said the town’s legal costs associated with the project since December total $12,231.50. She noted those costs included handling a Freedom of Access Act request.

In a split decision March 7, selectmen went with the June vote. Selectmen’s Chairman Judy Colby said March 9, the question will be its own, approve-or-disapprove item for voters as they consider the next year’s budget and any other items.

The board’s decision did not surprise School Committee Chairman Michael Dunn. He said it was consistent with a lack of support the board has shown for the committee’s efforts on the project. The department and committee have worked to get the best deal on an investment that would do the bare minimum of what the buildings need, Dunn said. That included lining up about $90,000 in Efficiency Maine rebates and plans to line up contractors before their construction season is booked, he said.

“These actions have taken that away.”

Asked about the committee’s January vote reauthorizing Wilmot on the project, weeks after word went out to banks, Dunn said, “You try to keep things going as smoothly as you can, until you can’t.” Wilmot said she kept trying, unsuccessfully, to stick to the timetable for the rebates and get a bank deal.

The department will have to try for a new round of rebates when Efficiency Maine’s next fiscal year opens July 1, Wilmot said. She and Dunn said they have no idea what to expect in the next round of funding.

Asked if the buildings will get their upgrades in time for the start of the next school year, if voters pass the project and a deal follows, Wilmot said she didn’t know.

Colby said for her and the board, the issue has never been the merits of the project. It’s been about wanting to give townspeople the opportunity to vote, just as they do for municipal spending of that size. “For that amount, 1.7 million (dollars), it needed to go to a town vote ... If this hinders the construction, I’m sorry. But again, from the beginning, we’ve felt people have the right to vote on this.”

Colby added, she knows the process the school department followed was legal. “But I think, out of respect and consideration to the taxpayers, this should have gone to a referendum vote a long time ago.”

Earlier this winter, the school committee had proposed an open, special town meeting. Selectmen declined. They said a referendum would draw a better turnout, including absentee voting.

Ahead of the June vote, residents will continue to learn about the project from a budget standpoint through the select board and budget committee’s budget talks, Colby said. Dunn and Wilmot said the department is continuing to talk with school families and the community and may hold more public tours of the schools.

Dunn reiterated the committee’s planning that started more than a year ago has taken place in workshops and meetings that were open to the public and covered by news media. He was optimistic the June question will pass.

If it does, Colby said a bond might be a cheaper option than a lease-purchase. A bond was not an option under the route of state statutes the department took to this point, Wilmot said. But following a vote, which a bond requires, it would be, and she would explore it, she said.

Dunn expects the committee to talk about the June vote when the panel meets March 23 at Wiscasset Middle High School. A budget workshop starts at 5 p.m.; the monthly committee meeting, at 6 p.m.