It took less than five minutes to approve two articles authorizing Wiscasset selectmen to spend $71,531 from the undesignated fund balance at a special town meeting held Feb. 25 in the hearing room.

Town Clerk Linda Perry called the meeting to order at 7 p.m., turning the gavel over to Susan Blagden after swearing her in as moderator.

The board of selectmen, town manager and a ballot clerk were in attendance but other than two newspaper reporters and Robert Fairfield, a former Wiscasset selectman, the hearing room was empty. The meeting was advertised well in advance.

The budget committee chose not to make a recommendation on either article. No budget committee members attended the meeting. Selectmen chose not to make a recommendation on either article, although when the votes were taken all five raised their hands in support of the articles’ passage.

Both articles were passed with no discussion.

One article sought $57,058 to pay the first quarterly debt service payment for financing a $2 million to cover costs of withdrawing from Regional School Unit 12. In December, selectmen learned the payment was inadvertently left out of this year’s budget. Because the payment is due in mid-April, the board needed authorization from the townspeople to transfer funds for the payment from the undesignated fund balance.

The loan, financed over 10 years through The First, was the lowest of three bids offering a fixed 2.56 percent interest rate.

The other article that was passed authorized selectmen to spend $14,473 for replacing the furnace and heating system in the airport’s administration building. These monies, too, will come from the undesignated fund balance.

Bayside Plumbing of Nobleboro submitted the lowest of five bids on the work. The present heating system installed in the 1980s failed over two months ago. The airport has been using electric space heaters and a pellet stove to heat the two-story building.

The meeting adjourned at 7:04 p.m