Wiscasset filed a preliminary motion for injunction on March 2 in the Business and Consumer Court. The motion would restrain MDOT from construction connected with altering Route 1 in town until the agency has a certificate of appropriateness (COA) from the Wiscasset Historic Preservation Commission.

The motion seeks to prohibit MDOT from demolishing the Haggett building on Water Street; stall the entire downtown project until it receives a COA; and bar MDOT from changing the project to circumvent the need for a COA.

The motion was accompanied by affidavits from Town Manager Marian Anderson and local merchants and landowners Ann Scanlan, Keith Oehmig, James Kochan, Ralph Doering III and Erika Soule.  All of the merchants and landowners encouraged the court to grant the injunction.

The motion followed selectmen’s Feb. 13 vote when town lawyers Peter Murray and John Shumadine outlined a consent agreement MDOT had been prepared to agree to, which would have required MDOT to seek a COA to demolish the Haggett Building. Other concessions by MDOT would have had MDOT taking responsibility for the traffic lights in exchange for the town’s dropping its lawsuit and allowing MDOT to move forward with the project without  additional COAs or any other requirement from Wiscasset.