If Wiscasset Interim Town Manager Don Gerrish hadn't touched department heads’ requests before putting them in the budget draft, the proposed capital improvements would have come to $1.77 million.

Gerrish looked at what appeared to be most needed now, and got the total down to $471,890. The biggest chunk is $150,000 for a new roof for the 1998 Wiscasset Community Center.

The roof’s being flat and white hasn't helped it through Maine winters and thaws, according to Wiscasset Parks & Recreation Director Todd Souza. It's been leaking, and is leaking even more this spring, Souza told selectmen and the budget committee on April 19.

His talk with the panels and Gerrish was part of a daylong budget workshop.

Gerrish viewed the roof project as a priority, to avoid a bigger financial hit later.

“I felt, get it done,” he said. “You need to ... before it gets too bad, because you're going to have more problems down the road.”

No one spoke against the new roof during the workshop. Final decisions on it and the rest of the budget that goes to voters are expected after more workshops in the coming weeks.

Selectmen's Vice Chairman Judy Colby suggested a tour of the town's departments. “I personally would want to see it,” she said of departments' needs. “Don't tell me...,” Colby said. “Show me.”

Gerrish also furnished the panels and the public with department heads' original capital requests from February, including the $1.3 million he whittled out; budget committee member John Merry said he would have preferred to start with those.

Among those early requests was one from Wiscasset Ambulance Service Director Roland Abbott, to replace a 2003 ambulance; and Police Chief Troy Cline's request to replace a 2008 cruiser with a sport utility vehicle.

In response to a question from budget committee member Norm Guidoboni, Cline said he considered the vehicle request and his separate request for a school resource officer to be equally important. “But right now, I'd like to see an officer in the schools more (than the vehicle), if I had a choice,” he said.

Capital improvements projects and buys come out of a reserve account.

Neither vehicle made Gerrish’s draft for the capital spending; among those that did, besides the community center roof, were a $55,000 public works truck; a $10,000 electrical upgrade for the Main Street Pier; reshingling of the municipal building’s roof; and also for the municipal building, a generator. That item was a subject of debate in 2013 and failed to win funding.

Plans call for selectmen and the budget committee to discuss their preliminary recommendations at the selectmen's May 6 board meeting, and to finalize them on May 22. Town meeting is May 31.