Wiscasset Art Walk can hang banners on Main Street railings and, on Middle Street, have bistro tables and possible performances, selectmen decided 4-0 Tuesday night, April 6. Making the requests, organizer Lucia Droby said WAW will be mostly outside this year, have musicians, family activities, restaurants selling “picnics to go,” might have arts vendors and, if she can find them, dancers.

It will be “almost a normal” WAW, Droby said. “We want to bring joy, we want to bring liveliness to the village, some brightness and something to look forward to ... experience small town neighborliness ... art education ... self-expression ... and of course we want to attract visitors to Wiscasset.” Last year, with the pandemic, a Walk Around Wiscasset series had attendees waving to one another, dressing in themes and writing on sticky notes what brings them joy.

This year’s Wiscasset Art Walk will follow up on the “joy” activity with a “grateful” one, Droby said.

“Sounds like it’s going to be fun,” Selectmen’s Chair Pam Dunning said of the plans Droby described for the art walks’ return. “Thank you for all your hard work,” Selectman Katharine Martin-Savage told Droby.

Also in the Zoom and YouTube meeting, Town Manager Dennis Simmons announced medical products company Molnlycke has expanded its product line, added jobs and, as a result, needs more parking. It would like to temporarily use nearby town property, he said.

Molnlycke’s general manager for U.S. manufacturing, Fred Libby, told selectmen the new work involves systems that turn and position patients to prevent pressure ulcers. “Business is going really well, partly because of the COVID situation, with all the hospitalizations.” But now during the day-night shift change, some workers have been parking on the road, between Molnlycke and the Central Maine Power building and “sometimes blocking the fire hydrant that’s up there, so of course that’s not good.”

Libby continued, “There is an area ... where the town road ends and our facility drops down into ... a grassy area” where the company would like to pay to put some gravel, “so it’s not a muddy mess,” over a 50-foot by 120-foot area for temporary, overflow parking “until we can figure out a better plan.”

Martin-Savage said she was all for whatever Molnlycke needs to do. Simmons said the town would still own the site where Molyncke wants to park, and the town would be liable for nothing. The proposal passed 4-0. Dunning thanked Molnlycke for being in Wiscasset. “You’re an asset.”

Lynn Clark of Molnlycke’s human resources department said in a phone interview April 7, the new, turning and positioning business has added 32 permanent jobs and 14 temporary ones to Molnlycke’s Wiscasset workforce, bringing the total to 159.

The board approved a request from Barnhouse Grill and Pub, 690 Bath Road, to extend its liquor license with outdoor seating; voted again to put a solar project negotiations article on the June town meeting warrant, after last month’s board vote happened without a motion; and agreed Carol Daigneault’s $1,000 donation to the fire department could go in that account. “Very generous of her,” Dunning said of the gift from the Rockport woman Wiscasset helped rescue from a crash in Edgecomb in 2001.