Lawyers continue to look at and weigh in on the cooperative agreement between Wiscasset and the state for downtown improvements.

An attorney for a downtown property owner is still challenging selectmen’s authority to sign it; and Town Manager Marian Anderson states in a Friday email that the town’s legal counsel, Shana Mueller, has been reviewing the proposed agreement; Mueller will share her suggestions and recommendations at the board’s Nov. 1 meeting, Anderson writes.

On Oct. 17, the town office received new correspondence from Portland attorney Robert S. Hark. He recently wrote to the town saying he represented Wawenok LLC, owner of property at 63-85 Main Street in Wiscasset.

Hark’s letters argue, by state statute and town ordinance selectmen must obtain town meeting authorization prior to entering into a Maine Department of Transportation agreement due to costs the town will have in connection with the state’s planned $5 million project. Tthe June non-binding referendum didn’t authorize selectmen to approve the agreement because the referendum was only advisory, Hark argues.

On Oct. 18, Hark requested documentation related to the project from the Wiscasset town office under the Freedom of Access Act. Anderson responded in letter to Hark dated Oct. 21, stating the town will comply with the request. “We will provide you within a reasonable amount of time a good faith, non-binding estimate of the amount of time necessary to comply with your request, as well as a cost estimate pursuant to MRSA 408-A(3) & (9),” Anderson states in the email.

The law permits the town to charge a fee for searching, retrieving and compiling the public information requested.

In an Oct. 27 email to Anderson, Hark stated he’d yet to receive any information, and asked that the town office forward him the documentation he requested by Oct. 28 at the latest. “(I)f we don’t have access to those documents there will be a need to put the issue off yet again, as the public is certainly entitled to see these public documents,” Hark wrote.

Late Friday afternoon, Anderson notified the newspaper she was assembling the documents requested by Hark. “I expect to have them ready for him
on Monday,” wrote Anderson in an email.

Selectmen will meet to discuss the MDOT agreement at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 1 in the Senior Center, located at the Community Center on Gardiner Road.