This summer, Wiscasset will open Scout Hall’s bathrooms to the public. Selectmen’s decision March 15 is the latest turn in a longtime local topic, one Town Manager Dennis Simmons wants the board to resolve. Simmons said downtown bathroom ideas have been “tossed around” for years and he doesn’t want that to continue another 15 years. “I want some direction. What do you guys want to do? Somebody make a decision here.”

He said it is time for a plan, not one interim way after another that will total many thousands of dollars “because we didn’t say, ‘Here’s where we want it, get it designed, get it done.’” 

Selectman Terry Heller is the board’s liaison to the waterfront  committee that proposed getting a unit of multiple toilets for downtown and upgrading and promoting the bathrooms in the town-owned Scout Hall as public restrooms. “I’ve been talking potties for about six months now,” and buying the $8,000 unit is the first idea that has appealed to her, Heller said in the meeting at the town office and on Zoom and YouTube. She said it would be nicer than the portable toilets Simmons said the town rents – last year, for $3,980. And the unit could go on Main Street Pier instead of near it, Heller said. 

Chair Sarah Whitfield said she did not really want bathrooms on the pier. “That takes away from the pier, for me personally.” She favored the status quo plus the bathrooms at Scout Hall. Heller called the portable toilets messy. Resident Kim Dolce called them nasty. She said the town’s bathrooms at the harbor master’s office and the ones at Scout Hall are enough. Depending on what the town does, it could go from being the prettiest village to the prettiest pit stop, Dolce said.

Selectman Pam Dunning suggested the town ask the state for the sketches it drew up years ago for a boardwalk project. She said those included bathrooms and could save on engineering Simmons said a plan would need.

Whitfield said the board and committee could talk more on bathrooms in capital budget talks.

At the board’s request, Simmons will look into getting a vendor for charging stations for electric vehicles. According to an offer Whitfield read from, New Jersey-based Greenspot could build a station on a public right of way, maintain and market the station and share the take with the town.

The board put off deciding on Maine Art Gallery’s proposed 20-year lease of the former Wiscasset Academy, authorized Simmons to sign the net energy billing contract with Ameresco, accepted Island Institute’s $7,500 for the broadband committee and approved liquor licenses for Midcoast Provisions, 65 Gardiner Road, and Maine Tasting Center, 506 Old Bath Road.

On the $1 a year gallery lease, Heller said it was a good contract, OK’d by the town’s and gallery’s lawyers and honoring the gallery’s 60 years of shorter leases there. Selectmen suggested if it noted the taxes or other sum the town waives, that might help the gallery get grants, a main goal of expanding the lease from its usual five years. Selectman Pam Dunning asked for the lease to say the gallery will provide yearly financial reports. And resident Jim Kochan raised liability and other concerns.

Selectmen rejected a lone, $1,923,000 bid from Hagar Enterprises of Damariscotta for the Old Ferry Road stream crossing culvert project.

Simmons said in an email response to questions March 16, the town has $525,000 set aside for the project from capital reserves, and has a $125,000 state grant. “Given how the price of everything has gone (up), we expected the bid to exceed the amount we had but the bid was even higher than we anticipated.”

In a phone interview March 18, Hagar Vice President Seth Hagar said there were market factors, both delivery and manufacturing; and factors involving the site and the job: “(It is) pretty challenging with several different utility relocations, the road needing to be held open all the time,” a compact site, deep excavation, and “very complicated” structures going in. “There’s a reason only one company bid. It’s not an easy job.”