Richard Tetrev will be Wiscasset Municipal Airport’s interim airport manager the rest of the season, following Frank Costa’s resignation effective Sept. 5, Wiscasset Administrative Assistant Kathy Onorato said Wednesday.

Tetrev, who has served as airport supervisor since 2015, appeared before the Public Safety Advisory Council on Aug. 29. Tetrev oversaw Brunswick Naval Air Station prior to its closure.

Since BNAS stopped being a federal facility, the airport no longer maintains crash trucks – fire engines that spread a foam fire retardant called AFFF. Instead, the town of Brunswick has dual use fire trucks that can be used to spread AFFF. The Wiscasset airport had relied on the BNAS crash trucks in case of a crash or aircraft fire, but now the airport is left without this critical safety measure, Tetrev said. That will make getting grants to improve the airport more difficult, he said.

When BNAS stopped using its crash trucks, there was some AFFF left over, but no one can figure out what happened to it, he said. The best guess is that it is in the possession of the Maine Forest Service for putting out wildfires. Both the Wiscasset Ambulance Service and the airport are in touch with the agency. If Wiscasset can get some, it could be applied with five-gallon buckets until a vehicle can be obtained and firefighters trained on how to use it.

The plan for the immediate future is to create a staging area at the airport in case of a natural disaster or mass casualty event, Police Chief Jeff Lange said.  Tetrev wants to do a drill at the airport within the next year, with a simulated plane crash, table top exercises, and other drills in case of a crash in the future as the airport begins accepting larger planes, especially jets. 

Students in 10th grade will learn CPR and how to use a defibrilator, according to Wiscasset Ambulance Service’s director Toby Martin. Bus drivers will also learn CPR, and five people including School Resource Officer Craig Wooster will be trained to become CPR trainers.

Lange said officers will be attending training the county Emergency Management Agency is holding regarding carfentanyl, a synthetic opioid 10,000 times more potent than morphine. The drug can be carried in the air and cause an overdose by breathing it in or touching it with the skin. 

The police school supply drive has netted $230 in cash and many boxes of supplies, including backpacks and other items.  One of the items teachers are saying they need for students are headphones for their laptops, but not earbuds. Some of the funds may be used to purchase some of these items.

Lange also said speed bumps will be installed on Lee Street. They will be seasonal, taken out in the winter to facilitate plowing. Signs warning motorists will have to be installed, he said.

Lange has purchased three additional ballistic vests, adding to the four bought by the department last year. Only two were budgeted, but Lange said that he is finding the funds elsewhere – covering some shift times himself – to cover the needed expense. The vests need to be replaced every five years. Another needed expense is the cost of radios that will work with the digital system the county has installed.

The police will be funding a scholarship for students interested in a career in law enforcement and public safety, through bottle drives throughout the town. Anyone interested in donating to the scholarship fund can contact Lange at 882-8203.