Wiscasset selectmen

Planning eyed for ex-school

Tue, 01/19/2021 - 8:45am

According to a document released ahead of Wiscasset selectmen’s Tuesday, Jan. 19 meeting, new help may be coming to possibly get something going at the former Wiscasset Primary School.

Town Manager Dennis Simmons’ report, released via email Jan. 14, states he has asked Mary Ellen Barnes and Emily Rabbe of Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission to contact owner Steve Barndollar “to assist in getting his project moving forward.” The school on Gardiner Road closed in 2015. Wiscasset moved students to Wiscasset Middle School, renamed it Wiscasset Elementary and moved older students to the high school, now Wiscasset Middle High.

Simmons has said the owner of the former WPS wants housing there. Simmons’ new report also notes Barnes and Rabbe will contact the comprehensive plan committee to help in its work; and he, Barnes and Rabbe briefly discussed trying to get town-owned property at Mason Station back on the tax rolls.

“I realize (it) will require input from other stakeholders, but we have to start somewhere,” Simmons wrote. He noted in a phone interview Tuesday morning, the items he listed about LCRPC depend on a contract with the town. That contract is being worked on, he said. 

Tuesday’s agenda lists the report and no items for the board to take up relating to LCRPC’s planning help. The board is set to consider a business license for Patricia Bean, doing business as Grounded Seed Flower Farm; and an executive session on a legal matter.

The board meets at 6 p.m. on Zoom, https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83625653734?pwd=M1k5K1lwNnhlakhvR0tHQlJHQVArQT 09

To join by phone,  dial 1 646 558 8656
Meeting ID: 836 2565 3734 Passcode: 911529