Wiscasset selectmen spent most of their meeting Tuesday evening going over the town committees, their membership, their duties, and the need of some committees.

Selectmen Pam Dunning and Ed Polewarczyk have been reviewing the activities and functions of the committees for several weeks and have brought forth some recommendations for the board to consider.

Although the selectmen appeared to have no problem with the commendations, they decided to wait until the next meeting before adopting them.

Among the recommendations is to deauthorize the Transportation Committee. Before doing that, the selectmen want to meet with the members of that committee.

The Wiscasset Transportation Committee was established by the selectmen May 14, 2002 to work on the bypass.

Since there is no longer a bypass issue, Dunning and Polewarczyk have recommended that it be dissolved. Dunning said she was told the committee had not met in months.

The selectmen did vote to deauthorize the town Energy Committee. Polewarczyk said there was a difference between the Transportation Committee and the Energy Committee being dissolved because the Energy Committee had no active members. The Transportation has active members, and he would want to hear from them before it was deauthorized.

The Celebration Committee, the group that oversees the 4th of July celebration, needs help. According to the Town Manager Laurie Smith, most of the work on that committee has been done by members of the town office for the past two years.

The selectmen discussed sending letters to nonprofit in town, businesses and the chamber of Commerce asking them to get involved.

Other recommendations that are being considered include having all committees submit minutes to the town clerk on a regular basis. Selectmen Judy Colby suggested the committee chairman meet with the selectmen to keep the board up-date on what they are doing.

“The committees are to take directions from the selectmen, Colby said. “We are not giving them direction; we are shirking our duty to them.”

The selectmen will consider the need for term limits on the committees to encourage new membership among committees from a wide sector of citizens.

Appointments

The selectmen appointed Polewarczyk to serve on the Airport Master Plan Committee.

Marguerite Rafter Strong was appointed to serve on the Wiscasset Waterfront Committee with a term to expire on December 31, 2015.     When the agenda item came up for her appointment Polewarczyk made a motion to go into an executive session, the motion passed, and the selectmen went into an executive session briefly.

When they came out of the executive session a motion was made to appoint Strong, and it carried 5-0.

 Selectmen’s meeting schedule for January

Selectmen will meet the second and fourth Tuesday of January, instead of the first and third Tuesday.  Their meetings in January will be held January 8 and 22. On January 22, the investment committee will make a presentation.