Ernie Martin of Maine Department of Transportation met with the Wiscasset Historic Preservation Commission Nov. 3 to discuss the Route One upgrade. Martin said the $50,000 some citizens have stated as a cost the town would have to pick up for the project is not true. “There will be no cost to the town for now,” he said. “The only costs will be for maintenance and electricity to run the sidewalk street lighting.” Most of those costs are offset by the maintenance the town is already doing, he said.  “You’re already cleaning off the sidewalks, and paying for street lighting.”

Martin also said that if the town wanted extras, such as public restrooms, the town would have to pick up the cost.

During the discussion, commission members and residents asked if some on-street parking could be added into the plan. Martin was unwilling to consider it. “That’s not what the people of Wiscasset agreed to,” he said about the town’s approval of option 2, which eliminated Main Street parking between Middle and Water streets. “And this is a state highway, and the purpose of it is to move traffic. When people back out into the traffic lanes, it stops the flow of traffic,” Martin said.

Even parallel parking would create a similar hazard, as drivers stopped in the road to back into a space, he said. Martin said the on-street parking was also a hazard to pedestrians. He said some provisions would be made for handicapped parking and deliveries, and that the state would construct an off-Route One parking lot. “You’re a seasonal town,” he said. “During the off-season, there is usually no problem finding parking on the side streets, but from May through October, there is a problem.”

Martin said no decision had been made about where the parking lot would go.  A former garage building on Water Street, now empty, is a possibility, but no decisions have yet been reached.

Chairman John Reinhardt said he objected to the “European” nature of the sketch, which included wide sidewalks, flowers, trees and shrubs. “We want it to look like it does now,” he said. “We have a history of ships, and farming. We used to have pens with farm animals down on the waterfront. I don’t want us to become a town of boutique shops and cafes.”

Member Wendy Donovan pointed out that Wiscasset is largely a town of boutique shops and cafes now.

“I know,” Reinhardt said. “But that’s not the historic nature of the town.”

“I get that,” Martin said. “I hope that one of you is going to be on the Public Advisory Committee.” The committee will work with the state to craft a final view of the aesthetic nature of downtown. Reinhardt said members would definitely apply to be on the committee.

Also Nov. 3, the commission heard three petitions for certificates of appropriateness. The commission approved Richard Forrest’s request to build a garage on his Warren Street property.

Michelle Peele, a trustee for Wiscasset Public Library, didn’t meet with the same success. She sought a preliminary approval to replace the roof with a metal one, because the shingled roof had ice dams every year and water was leaking into the building, imperiling the valuable historic documents and art on the third floor.

The commission acknowledged that other buildings in the historic district have metal roofs, but denied the library’s request. Peele argued that asphalt shingle roofs are not historic either, and that the only historic option is wood shake or wood shingle roofs, but those are forbidden by the town because of fire codes.

Kim Dolce, who owns the former carriage house at 31 Fort Hill Street, returned to amend her request, since she was able to upgrade some of the windows and no longer needed a side door. She requested that the door be moved to the front of the building. The new plan was approved.