Wiscasset selectmen will ask voters this spring if they want to end the town’s police department and rely on county law enforcement; and if they want to farm out ambulance service. Both questions will be non-binding.

Selectmen on Tuesday night, April 22, settled on those and other warrant articles. The board planned to meet at 4:30 p.m. Monday, April 27 to give the warrant its final approval and sign it.

The prospect of ending Wiscasset Ambulance Service and going with a contractor had been discussed throughout budget talks. But the police department’s future appeared intact until an April 16 selectmen’s workshop.

The April 16 discussion on the police department came up as selectmen discussed whether or not to propose replacing a cruiser. Police Chief Troy Cline is seeking a sport utility vehicle for the department.

With the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office and Maine State Police, the town doesn't need its own department, Selectman Jeff Slack said.

Together, the county tax and the police department are costing the town more than half a million dollars a year, he said.

“It’s getting to the point where we’ve got police, police, police.”

He would support either lowering the town department's coverage, from 24 hours, or doing away with it entirely, Slack said.

Vice Chairman Ben Rines Jr. said that residents have continued to support funding the local force. On Tuesday night, Rines was the lone opponent to the straw vote regarding the department. Dunning, Slack and Bill Barnes voted in favor of it. Selectmen Tim Merry was not at the meeting.

Dunning said the police department is one of the ones that people talk about getting rid of every year. “I’m not voting against the police department. I’m voting to ask the people what do you want, so we can stop having the same argument every year,” she said during Tuesday’s meeting.

In a brief interview on April 16, Dunning said that if voters favor doing away with the police department, the matter would likely be looked at over the course of a year, to be considered for the following year.

On Tuesday night, selectmen discussed having Town Manager Marian Anderson reduce the force through attrition, if any occurs.

Cline on Monday, April 22, said the idea of doing away with the department is short-sighted and not in keeping with residents’ wishes.

“I have not heard any negative comments or concerns regarding the police department from the citizens, businesses, town department heads or other agencies the department works with,” Cline writes in an email response to questions from the Wiscasset Newspaper. “Quite to the contrary, I have heard very positive comments about the direction the department is going and the changes that have been made to make that possible.” The department appreciates the citizens’ continued support, the email states.

“I strongly disagree (that) eliminating the town’s police department would solve the town’s budget issues,” Cline writes. “The police department budget that I submitted was fiscally responsible and well thought out ... I understand the challenging position the Board of Selectmen and Budget Committee is put in to present a budget that is fiscally responsible and in keeping with the citizen’s expectations in these difficult economic times. I would simply ask that we as citizens and residents of Wiscasset not simply reduce services for the sake of a reduction in taxes.“

The board’s vote for the straw vote on ambulance service ran 4-0. Results of an outside review of the ambulance department will likely be presented at the May 19 selectmen's meeting, Anderson said on April 16.

A request for emergency medical services proposals, on the town's website at www.wiscasset.org, gives a deadline of noon May 4.

The request states that the town intends to award a contract by June 15 and have the contract take effect July 1. However, it notes that the town reserves the right to not award a contract.

Anderson has said the request for proposals does not mean a change will be made. And if the proposals come in high, a change would not be likely be considered, town officials said Tuesday night.

The request seeks proposals to serve Wiscasset, Edgecomb, Westport Island and Alna. Wiscasset Ambulance Service currently serves the four towns.