It was gone, but now it’s back. Edgecomb.org returned last week after a three-day absence. The website is owned and operated by former Selectman Stuart Smith.

The website’s hosting plan expired in July. Smith elected to renew the plan on a monthly rather than a yearly basis. He forgot to pay the monthly fee in August, which resulted in the website becoming inactive from Sept. 1-3.

“I got the email reminder, but I simply forgot to pay it,” Smith said.

He didn’t know the website was inactive until he was contacted Sept. 4 by the Boothbay Register.

Smith established the website in 1999 when he was serving on the planning board. He continued the website’s operation after becoming a selectman in 2005. Smith has paid for the website’s hosting for all but four years. He estimates the monthly hosting fee is $20.

“At the time, the powers that be (selectmen) didn’t think the town needed (a website), but I did, so I paid for it,” Smith said.

In May, Smith was defeated for reelection to the the board of selectmen. After the town meeting, the new board created a three person website committee advising the planning and selectmen boards about creating a new website.

As of Sept. 4, Smith said no town official has contacted him about the future of his site “edgecomb.org.”

“I own the website, but the content is the town’s. Nobody has contacted me so I don’t know what they want to do about it,” he said.

Website Committee member Jarryl Larson updated the selectmen on Aug. 31 and planning board on Sept. 3 about pricing for a new website. The committee sought two quotes last year with GovOffice.com being lowest. Larson reported to planning board that the website was down, but didn’t know why.

On Sept. 3, Larson was asked if the committee had contacted Smith about why the municipal website wasn’t working.

“You got me. I suspect the owner canceled his contract,” Larson said. “Jack Sarmanian was going to talk with Stuart at one point in time, but I’m not sure if that happened.”

Sarmanian was out of town when the website went down. He was notified by email that the website was offline. He didn’t receive any complaints about the website’s inactivity.

Sarmanian said on Sept. 10, “He’d put a call into Stuart (Smith)” to discuss the website’s future.

“We trying to work on a resolution with Stuart about the website. We’d like him to relinquish ownership, but we need to speak to him about the details,” he said.

On Sept. 11, Smith said he and Sarmanian had exchanged phone messages yesterday about the website’s future.

The current website’s information is not up to date. The selectmen’s meeting schedule changed in August, and the website doesn’t reflect the new one. The selectmen’s and planning board’s agenda and minutes are both several months old.

According to Sarmanian, the board of selectmen is looking to operate its own website. They created the website committee and are looking for funding without holding a special town meeting.

“I don’t think we want Stuart to operate his website. We want one of our own. I think that’s why we formed the committee,” Sarmanian said.

According to Smith, he is able to add links to edgecomb.org, and the planning board and selectmen’s secretaries are still able to post minutes and agendas. Smith isn’t sure why he continues the website’s operation now that it is no longer regularly updated.

“A lot of people have asked me that. I guess the answer is I don’t know,” he said.

Smith is a software engineer and owns Seguin Software Corp. in Edgecomb. He is doubtful whether he will submit a proposal to develop the town’s new website.

“I don’t think the town needs to spend $2,000 on this. The town would be better served if a group of people got together and did something for free,” he said.

Smith said edgecomb.org doesn’t receive a lot of traffic and a small, inexpensive site would better serve the town.