Essential workers employed from July 1 to Nov. 27 will get one-time stipends of 6.2% of their pay for actual hours worked, Town Manager Dennis Simmons said. So if they made $10,000 for hours worked over that five months, their stipend would be $620, Simmons explained in a phone interview Dec. 8, a day after selectmen agreed to tap American Rescue Plan Act funds for the stipends.

Simmons based the 6.2% on October’s inflation rate. “That just seems fair (and) has meaning,” as how much everyone’s wallet was impacted, he said. Asked who falls under “essential,” Simmons responded: “While there are a few exceptions, like the selectboard who can conduct their meetings remotely, essentially all employees.”

ARPA funds have also gone to automatic generators for sewer pump stations; Simmons said the stipends should take about another $52,000, leaving about $25,000. He noted selectmen have eyed audio-visual equipment for meetings as a possible use of ARPA money.

Also Dec. 7, the board passed $4 an hour raises, effective Jan. 1, 2022, for emergency medical service (EMS) workers, Simmons said. He said he had proposed $3 an hour raises to get Wiscasset up to the low end of what area EMS agencies are paying. The board approved $4 an hour, which he said the department’s budget looks like it can bear. He will keep a close eye, he said.

He said voters at the special town meeting at Wiscasset Community Center that night unanimously passed the tax increment financing (TIF) proposal for Optimus Senior Living, the planned development at the former Wiscasset Primary School.

According to information Simmons and board secretary Jackie Lowell provided, the board, meeting afterward at WCC, made Selectman Terry Heller its liaison to the waterfront committee; heard Heller commend volunteers and Parks and Recreation staff for their holiday decorating; and approved 5-0 Big Al’s Fireworks Outlet’s next annual license to sell consumer fireworks; the state license was still pending.

Selectmen meet next at 6 p.m. Dec. 21 over Zoom, Simmons said.