Wiscasset selectmen set a public hearing for 6 p.m. May 9 to discuss removal of the Wiscasset Historic Preservation Commission. The decision to hold the hearing came in response to an emotional appeal Celeste Edwards of Fort Hill Street made to selectmen Tuesday night.

Edwards told selectmen she was considering putting her home up for sale after being unable to resolve an issue over a fence she had erected around her home. The commission told her the wooden picket fence would have to be removed.

Edwards had appeared at a commission meeting April 6 to discuss her application for a certificate of appropriateness for the fence she put up last fall. Edwards, who is legally blind, said she requires a fence to prevent her from falling down the steep hillside around her property, and also to contain her dogs. She lives in Wiscasset part of the year. She bought the house in May 2016 but said she was not told she was in the historic district and was subject to the authority of the commission with regard to the fence.

Her application was denied April 6, and the commission wanted to send her a letter ordering her to tear down the fence, but Town Planner Ben Averill asked Commissioner James Kochan to withdraw his motion, because, Averill said, the commission did not have enforcement authority, and was required to ask the code enforcement officer, Stan Waltz, to write and tell her the fence was not in compliance. Waltz would have to seek a remedy with the Board of Selectmen, Averill said, and it would be a statutory remedy – that is, the board could take Edwards to court.

Instead, a week later, Edwards received a letter from the commission, demanding she tear down the fence.

“I was shocked,” Edwards told the Wiscasset Newspaper. ”I chose a picket fence rather than a chain link fence because I respect the historic nature of my house, and I have historic pictures of this house with a similar picket fence around it. I’d like to put the money I have into restoring the house itself.” Edwards said she had put about $35,000 into renovations, but that the fence the commission is demanding would cost about $40,000. “I can’t afford that. I lost my job because of my blindness.”

“I’ve been stopped in town and asked about my house and my fence, as far away as Bath,” she said. “It makes me want to sell the place and move, and I really love the house.”

She said she called Averill, who suggested she get onto the agenda at the Board of Selectmen. Edwards said she also also phoned Town Manager Marian Anderson, and that Anderson was very sympathetic. Edwards said she called Waltz, as well, and that he said she didn’t have to tear down the fence. Calls to Anderson and Waltz were not immediately returned.

Addressing selectmen Tuesday night, Edwards objected to the way the commissioners treated her and the embarrassment it had caused her in the community.

Before Edwards spoke, Susan Blagden, a member of the commission, rose from her seat and called on Selectmen’s Chairman Judy Colby for a point of order. “She (Edwards) still has time to take the matter to the Board of Appeals which is the correct procedure.”

In response, Colby said she had received other complaints from residents about their treatment by the commission.

After hearing from Edwards, Colby responded: “No one should ever feel they were treated disrespectfully or unfairly by any town official, employee, committee or board. I apologize for the way you were treated.”

John Reinhardt, commission chair, apologized to Edwards and said it wasn’t the commission’s intention to cause her hurt or embarrassment. “I don’t think we were doing anything but following the ordinance. We certainly weren’t trying to make you feel bad or cause you to move,” Reinhardt said.

Selectman Larry Gordon commented: “We have a planning board, town planner and code enforcement officer. I don’t see why we need another board for people to have to go through.”

Selectman Ben Rines Jr. said he supported holding a public hearing, motioned by Colby, to resolve the matter. “I’m not willing to toss out the entire commission,” he said. In the end the board voted unanimously to hold the hearing and instructed Anderson to arrange for as much advance notice as possible. The location of the hearing has not been set.

Blagden said selectmen had no authority to dispose of the commission. “It would have been better to have had the discussion in executive session,” she said.

At the close of the meeting, over the objections of a reporter, selectmen went into executive session to decide this year’s town report dedication.