Wiscasset selectmen are considering how to proceed in response to a petition the town received Thursday, April 6 from the Wiscasset Taxpayers Alliance. The petition is the latest challenge to Maine Department of Transportation’s plans for a $5 million traffic improvement project.

The petition seeks a vote asking residents to reject changes MDOT made to the project after the June 2016, non-binding referendum vote in support of option 2. One of two project options, it includes the installation of traffic signals and eliminating Main Street parking from Middle to Water streets. The petition states project changes were made without the consent of Wiscasset voters including proceeding without federal funding and failure to comply with Section 106, a federal statute on historic preservation standards. The petition further states, MDOT imposed costs to the town for project amenities, upgrades and maintenance, and excluded construction of a parking lot on Creamery Wharf, or Main Street Pier.

Town Clerk Linda Perry told the Wiscasset Newspaper she certified the petition Friday morning. It contained 207 signatures; 179 were required to bring the proposal to a referendum vote.

Perry said five residents turned in the petition: William Sutter, Ted Talbert, Kim Dolce, Larry Gordon and Seaver Leslie. Gordon is a selectman and Leslie is a member of the town’s Advisory Committee working with MDOT engineers on the project. The Advisory Committee meets again at 5 p.m. Monday, April 10.

Reached Friday, Sutter said the taxpayer’s alliance is asking for a yes/no ballot referendum at the June 13 town election.

“Voting yes doesn’t kill the downtown project, it refocuses the conversation,” he said. “For me and a lot of other folks MDOT dropped the ball when they decided to exclude federal funding from the project. Because federal dollars aren’t being used it means the community’s concerns over historic preservation don’t apply.”

He said another issue involved MDOT’s elimination of plans for a parking lot initially proposed for the pier. “They knew if they proceeded with it they would have needed to have gotten a permit from the Army Corp of Engineers, which may have invoked ... historical preservation standards.”

The point is, the downtown project now being planned isn’t the same one voters supported, Sutter said.

Town Manager Marian Anderson said selectmen will take up the petition at their April 18 meeting and decide then whether or not to put it on the June 13 warrant. Anderson added she hoped to get a legal opinion on whether or not a municipality can direct MDOT to use federal dollars on a project.

 Judy Colby, select board chairman, said she expects the board will honor the petition. “I’m not sure the vote would carry any weight with the state,” she said.