Before the Wiscasset Historic Preservation Commission introduces itself to property owners, its members want to make sure town officials understand the panel’s role.

Members on Feb. 4 decided to have Chairman John Reinhardt and Vice Chairman Gordon Kontrath meet with the new town planner, once there is one, Town Manager Marian Anderson and Code Enforcement Officer Stan Waltz.

Kontrath and Reinhardt will talk with the officials about the ordinance that created the panel, and about the OK, or “certificate of appropriateness” that projects in the historic overlay zone need from the panel.

That way, officials will know to send project applicants to the commission for the certificate; and applicants can get a checklist outlining what they need to give the commission, members said.

“We could have someone walk in the door on Monday, saying ‘I just bought a lot and want to put up this type of home here.’ What are we going to do,” Reinhardt asked.

The checklist, part of the application for the certificate, is very clear, member Wendy Donovan said.

Member Jib Fowles said the meeting with officials would help ensure a coordinated approach to projects. “We have to speak up and say, ‘This is our mandate and we have to proceed accordingly,’” he said.

The vote to have Kontrath and Reinhardt meet with officials ran 4-0. Member Susan Blagden was absent.

Without her and a town planner, members said they could not make new headway on how to handle requests for hardship exemptions.

Drafting a budget proposal for the commission’s costs next year would also need to wait until the new planner arrives, members said.

This month’s meeting was more successful than January’s on one front: Fowles took part via Skype on Reinhardt’s computer. A lost computer cord scuttled last month’s attempt.

Four months into its meetings, the panel has had no projects to review. Members talked Thursday about a possible practice run with a mock case. “That would be really useful,” Donovan said.

Jamel Torres raised the idea when he was town planner.

The panel continued expressing interest in contacting property owners and possibly real estate agents with information about the district. Members were mixed on whether to mail out district maps or make copies available at the town planner’s office.

Mailings would be harder on the ecology, Donovan said. Reinhardt agreed. “Fifty percent would be at the dump,” he said.

As they have in other months, members again united over the panel’s position that all of the district’s properties, old or not, contribute to its historic value, and the projects planned for them are subject to the commission’s review.

Reinhardt said a gas station in the district lies on a former historic property.

“That’s why we’re here,” Donovan said. “That’s exactly why we’re here.”