Twelve months of a monthly membership at Wiscasset Community Center cost, together, almost 50% more than an annual one, selectmen observed Sept. 1. Board members brainstormed how to make WCC membership more affordable for someone who can't pay the annual, lump sum. 

Income-based scholarships are available for memberships and programs, Goud said. He said the website refers to that. Vice Chair Pamela Dunning was finding it nowhere on the memberships part of the site. She then asked for it to be. "I'd like to see it extremely visible on every page that lists payments ...," Dunning said.

She said it would be simpler than ideas the board was mulling such as letting people pay the annual rate but be billed monthly. Parks and Recreation Director Duane Goud said there would be more staff work required for 12 times the payments. WCC could go back to having ACH, he said. 

Selectman Heather Jones was the first to raise concern about the extent of the extra price for paying monthly. "That seems like a detriment to people with lower incomes (who) may have more difficulty coming up with a large lump sum payment." For a family membership, paying monthly comes out to $828 over 12 months versus a $528 annual payment, she said. "It's sort of designed to cut off a lower income range."

"(The difference) sounds like an awful lot," Chair Alissa Eason said.

"That's why we encourage the quarterly rate," Goud said. WCC pushes the quarterly or yearly memberships instead, "to actually keep people involved," he said. And he said some monthly rates are decreasing to be more in line with what Y's offer.

Quarterly can be harder to come up with, Eason said. She said the monthly offer should be only "nominally higher," to cover the added administration.

"I think there are people there who have time to do that (work) without charging more," Jones said. WCC is taxpayer-subsidized, "So this should have built into it a way for everyone to access it," she said.

Moments later, Eason said: "Yeah, I have a hard time rationalizing $300 more ... You're going to have to talk me into (that)," she told Goud.

"It's not $300 more if you (do) it for the year," Goud said. He added, the department's monthly rate is close to the monthly ones at Y's.

"But we're tax-subsidized," Eason said.

Then Town Manager Dennis Simmons said, "The tax subsidy is growing for this every year."

Selectman Sarah Whitfield said WCC's rates are well cheaper than what other places charge, "on all fronts."

Eason said that's great, but the town is charging nearly 50% more to pay monthly.

Resident Kim Andersson recalled when she was an educational technician in town and made $11.25 an hour. She said she was really grateful then for WCC's monthly rate. She said WCC has been previously targeted in the community to shut down and, if more taxpayer dollars are used to keep rates down, people will start looking again to close WCC. "Let's not make that possible."

Jones asked Goud to get the board details on scholarships and to provide the number of subscribers at each rate.

Selectman Cassaundra Rose said she thought the issue could be addressed by Goud's providing what it would look like if people were billed monthly for an annual membership.

"I can do that," Goud said. He said it would include a charge for the added workload of monthly billing.

Selectmen then noted, because an annual membership is a commitment, the subscriber might need to provide notice if exiting early. Jones said she would like people to be able to skip a month once in a while. Then Simmons said the discussion was getting into what would be an "administrative nightmare."

Eason said she found it "repulsive" to be charging nearly 50% more to pay monthly. "That is excessive and unnecessary." She said the board could instead consider raising the cost of the annual membership, "but not penalizing our monthly membership people."

Goud said there aren't that many who pay monthly, to which Eason said she knows, "but the ones that do, shouldn't be having to pay almost 50% more." Said Jones, "It's a barrier ..."

Then Goud said, "l'm welcome for anybody that wants to come and manage the office ... I come down here for a membership increase" of about $3 a month and for the first time in three years. "That's what l'm here for. I'm not here to be managed on how l do it. I am here to present this. And I will take everything else into consideration."

"Um, that's a pretty bold statement," Simmons said.

Goud asked for the board to make its website and management requests as easy as possible. He said he was all for listening to everybody. "And I apologize if this is coming off strong. This has been a long couple of weeks, I've had a lot going on, myself, I apologize if I'm coming on too strong. I am open to all suggestions."

Goud reiterated he was proposing only small changes either way in the various rates. "It's pretty comparable to what we have around the area. So l try to stay within that."

"Oh, and I think that we appreciate that. And it's only because when we do the math, that the monthly seems exorbitant," Eason said. "And it is our job to review these rates. And so when we have these conversations, we are doing our job."

"And I appreciate that. I know, I've been in your seat," Goud said. "I just, I'm frustrated. I apologize."

The board agreed 5-0 to an amended version of the rates Goud had proposed; the amendment being to add the option to pay monthly on the annual membership. View the rates that were included in the meeting packet at wiscasset.gov and that appear as an attachment with this article online. 

Also Sept. 1, the board accepted an anonymous $50,000 donation toward improvements at WCC, including fitness equipment upgrades and the installation of an in-floor hot tub; and agreed to transfer $30,000 from the Community Center Special Revenue Donation account to an account specifically for the hot tub, which Simmons' written manager's report said is preliminarily estimated at $100,000-$125,000 to design and build. 

The board named Cindy Dionne, Shannon Babcock and James Crowley to the ad hoc wastewater treatment plant outreach committee.