At the polls Tuesday, a question involves rejecting certain provisions of the Maine Department of Transportation’s planned $5 million downtown project; but it’s unclear what voting “YES” on Article 66 means if passed by voters June 13.

Selectmen placed the article on the ballot in response to a petition containing 207 signatures filed with the town clerk in April by the Wiscasset Taxpayers Alliance.  The Alliance is “an informal coalition of Wiscasset residents, business owners and taxpayers,” according to its website.

William Sutter of Federal Street, an Alliance member, said Friday he believes support is building for the article’s passage. The group did a mass mailing in support of it and is erecting signs around town urging a yes vote.

The article rejects changes MDOT made to the project after the June 2016, non-binding referendum vote in support of option 2. Option 2 was one of two projects proposed by MDOT. It includes the installation of traffic signals, eliminating Main Street parking and construction of off-street parking lots.

But if the question passes there’s uncertainty about what happens next. Accompanying the article is an informational note. It states, “voters should understand and acknowledge that MDOT may well not respond to the results of the vote in the same fashion as the voters might expect, given that MDOT is not necessarily bound by a town meeting vote on the design of its project.”

At a May 16 public hearing on the warrant, Jim Billings, Principal Attorney of MDOT’s Office of Legal Services, told selectmen the wording of Article 66 is “flawed in a number of respects.” He explained, calling the question a “binding vote” doesn’t mean MDOT is bound by the outcome. Billings said MDOT has wide discretion on how it funds its projects including whether or not to use federal funds.

The informational note had already been included with the article following a legal opinion the town office sought on the petition. Attorney Shana Cook-Mueller of Bernstein Shur was asked to clarify what the select board could do from a procedural standpoint.

“While MDOT is required by statute to include the public in the process of designing its project, it is not necessarily required to receive permission from the voters of the Town of Wiscasset to proceed with a particular design,” Mueller stated in an April 10 email to Town Manager Marion Anderson. “It is also possible that MDOT would not choose to give credence to this petition, even if it passed at the polls,” she added.

Mueller went on to state, “If the Board of Selectmen chooses to move this petition forward to a town vote, they should understand and acknowledge that MDOT may well not respond to the results of the vote in the same fashion as the voters might expect, given that MDOT is not necessarily bound by a town meeting vote on the design of its project.”

Selectmen did not make a recommendation on Article 66, although two board members, Ben Rines Jr. and Larry Gordon, are in favor of its passage. “I think the article could have been more clearly written but I’m going to vote in favor of it,” Rines told the Wiscasset Newspaper Friday morning.

Gordon, whose term on the board is ending, says he’ll vote yes on Article 66 as well. “Absolutely, and I hope the article passes. I think it would be a big mistake if this project goes ahead the way they are planning it.”

The article asks voters to “disapprove and reject, by a binding Referendum,” MDOT changes made since the June 2016 vote in support of option 2. These include: proceeding without federal funding and failure to comply with Section 106, a federal statute on historic preservation standards; and, imposing on the town the cost of project amenities, upgrades and maintenance; and excluding from the project construction of a parking lot at the Main Street Pier.