“We have a hero in our midst,” Wiscasset School Committee Chair Tracey Whitney said Sept. 10. “He’s going to get mad at me for saying that,” she said about Vice Chair Jonathan Barnes.

Whitney said Barnes, in his job as a Wiscasset police officer, had saved a life. The statement drew applause a day after Town Manager Dennis Simmons’ press release about how Chief Lawrence Hesseltine, on a call with Barnes, had been exposed to fentanyl, gone unresponsive and been brought back by Barnes’ administering of Narcan.

Whitney said she knew Barnes has saved lives before and will again. "We are so, so very lucky to have him in our community, and I just want to thank you for your service.

Barnes said he appreciated that. He added, he became the face of the incident Whitney was referring to, but it was a total team effort of everyone involved.

Also Sept. 10, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kim Andersson updated the board on the potential regional application for a 9-16 school grant. She noted the committee had authorized her to speak with Alternative Organizational Structure 98 Superintendent of Schools Robert Kahler and she had done so. She would update the committee Oct. 8 about the possible application. The deadline to apply is Oct. 31, she said.

"(If it) gets approved, all that means is that we would be eligible to write the actual big grant (request) which would require a lot of people, work and communication."

Andersson recalled the state telling her, Kahler and Sheepscot Valley Regional Unit Superintendent of Schools Howard Tuttle last year, it was not interested in building a 9-16 school within 50 miles of another technical school, "and we are within 50 miles of three tech centers. So we put the idea aside. But community members didn't."