Route 144, Wiscasset resident Roger Jones left Tuesday night’s board of selectmen’s meeting satisfied. He said it was the first time the town hadn’t just told him to take his road concerns to the state.

During the public comment period, Jones told selectmen he has long tried to get the sides of the road in safer condition. In 2012, he succeeded in getting the legislature to approve overlay work; and a grader was recently used near the railroad tracks and The Copy Shop; but someone with the state recently told him there would be no new work on the sides of the road until 2017, he said.

“We can’t wait that long.”

He asked the board to try to get the state to address problem spots and, if the state won’t, then ask the state to lower the speed limit on a one-mile stretch near his home to 35 mph. Tractor-trailer trucks associated with the Molnlycke plant are going by two to four times a day, he said.

“Can you imagine, coming down the Old Ferry Road with tractor-trailer trucks, (Central Maine Power) trucks and our traffic?”

Jones offered to pay selectmen’s gas to travel the road themselves. “And you tell me what you think.”

Board Chairman Ben Rines Jr. said Jones’ comments couldn’t have been better timed. On Friday afternoon, Oct. 9, Town Manager Marian Anderson and two selectmen have a meeting with Maine Department of Transportation Commissioner David Bernhardt.

They’ll be talking about Federal Street, but they will also bring up what Jones had to say, Rines said. Vice Chairman Judy Flanagan told Jones the board would get back to him with a response.

No movement on taking properties

Attorney Wendy Paradis advised the board about its options for taking properties the town, under state law, has title to as a result of unpaid taxes. Taking over vacant lots and ones with people’s second homes on them is easier and lacks the political fallout of evictions; but if the board chooses not to also take the other properties, the result could be an angry taxpayer questioning why they should pay their taxes, she said.

The board considered Rines’ motion to give owners of vacant, tax-acquired properties 30 days to pay their taxes or vacate; the proposal lost with Rines and Jeff Slack in favor of it, Flanagan opposed and David Cherry abstaining.

Rines asked why Cherry had abstained; he doesn’t have to say why, Cherry responded.

As with some other recent, unrelated votes that failed to get the three supporting votes to pass, Rines said the board could revisit the matter after voters elect a fifth selectman in November. However, on Wednesday morning, Oct. 7, Rines said he had thought about it more and now plans to call for another vote on the proposal Oct. 20. Paradis had told the board that the proposed measure was a valid one, Rines said.

For that reason, he said, “I thought the vote was pathetic.”

Boston Post cane returned

Lincoln County Historical Association (LCHA) President Ed Kavanagh thanked the town for lending LCHA the Boston Post cane for display at the Old Jail Museum. In returning the cane, he expressed for support for an idea that has been floated to ceremonially give the cane to the town’s oldest resident, but keep it with the town and give the person a pin.

“I think that would be a lovely thing to start up, as long as I’m not the oldest resident,” he said.

Renewals for airport rental,

speedway permit

The board renewed Wiscasset Speedway’s special amusement permit, 4-0, for another year. Wiscasset Police Chief Troy Cline commended the speedway for treating Wiscasset police officers like family when they put in hours there; speedway co-owner Vanessa Jordan said the police and other town employees are awesome.

“We are privileged to be able to do this,” she said.

Also Tuesday, selectmen approved a new, higher lease for Peregrine Turbine Technologies to rent space in Wiscasset Municipal Airport’s terminal building. The deal the board approved raises the rent from $800 a month to $900 a month.

Double-sided loss

Flanagan renewed her case for using both sides of the paper when documents are copied for the board.

“We are not setting a good example. We are not saving paper. We are not saving the cost of the paper,” Flanagan said about single-sided documents. The proposal to go double-sided lost 2-2, with Flanagan and Cherry in favor of it and Rines and Slack opposed.

The large numbers of documents they review are easier to follow single-sided, Rines and Slack said later.