Wiscasset residents passed up a chance to persuade one another how to vote on the budget come June 11.

With the budget being decided at the polls, selectmen’s public hearing May 6 was residents’ opportunity to discuss the 50-plus items that comprise it.

The proposal includes a switch to pay-as-you-throw at the transfer station, sending ambulances to Woolwich, and cutting 7,000 work hours across several departments. The cuts in hours equal the loss of three full-time workers, Town Manager Laurie Smith said.  

There was a brief question about the town planner’s pay increasing to $45,000 to reflect added duties and a market adjustment; but other than that, residents didn’t get into the budget.

Instead, two discussions ensued: one centered on the town’s departure from an annual town meeting; the other, on this year’s strained relations between the budget committee and the board of selectmen.

“I miss town meetings,” Wiscasset resident Judy Flanagan said. “People could react to what was being said … and we all left the building knowing what was passed and what wasn’t passed, and revotes could be avoided.”

Voting at the polls doesn’t show why one department’s budget or another's was rejected; so how do selectmen know, Flanagan asked.

Selectman Ed Polewarczyk said he talks to as many people as he can afterward.

Selectman Judy Colby said that this year, she might view a budget item’s rejection as voters saying they don’t want the proposed cuts.

“These aren’t cuts that I want,” Colby said. “But we really do have a financial problem in this town and we do have to take responsibility.”

Selectman Jeff Slack asked if an ordinance change would be needed to switch back to town meetings. It would not, Board Chairman Pam Dunning said.

The board has the option every year to call a town meeting, send the budget to the polls, or hold a town meeting but decide each item in a secret ballot.

Board members pointed out past drawbacks of town meetings. The meetings took up a Saturday, one year running from morning into the evening; when some voters left early from a meeting, those still there could reconsider an earlier vote; and fewer people came to town meetings than to the polls, selectmen said.

Town meetings can be intimidating, they said.

The other line of discussion, about selectmen-budget committee relations, started when budget committee member Bill Barnes said the committee had wanted to work with selectmen on a proposal the committee could have supported. (The committee opposes a number of items, including the transfer station budget.)

“That didn’t happen,” Barnes said about working together. “But that is not our fault.”

No one said it was, Dunning responded.

Selectmen acknowledged hearing comments from budget committee members during the budget process; but for the most part, they didn’t consider those to be recommendations from the committee. they said.

“I’m still a little upset about it,” Colby said.

When Committee Chairman Cliff Hendricks began directly questioning Colby, Dunning sounded the gavel and called for questions to go through her. “I don’t want any of this to start getting personal,” she said.

Flanagan suggested the two panels work toward better communication with each other next year.

A parking lot at 25 Middle Street?

Selectmen put off decisions on how to dispose of some tax-acquired properties after Dunning wondered if one of them, 25 Middle Street, could be cleared and turned into a parking lot.

The board would need to weigh downtown parking needs against the cost to demolish a two-story home and the loss of about $3,000 a year the property represents in taxes, she said.

“Every year we hear the same thing. There’s no parking, no parking, no parking,” Dunning said.

The board plans to revisit the matter at its May 21 meeting.

Closed-door Mason Station session

Selectmen set an executive session for 5:30 p.m. Monday, May 13. The discussion will involve economic development and Mason Station, Dunning said.

Approached later, Town Manager Laurie Smith would not divulge further details. The executive session will not be followed by a vote that night, she said.

The town has acquired most of the lots at the failed development project but is still owed about $800,000 in back taxes that led to the foreclosures.

Susan Johns can be reached at 207-844-4633 or sjohns@wiscassetnewspaper.com