“We are not locked into (using) this,” Wiscasset Town Manager Dennis Simmons said Aug. 18 about the $10 million sewer plant move bond up for a town vote Sept. 1. A million of it will be forgiven and anything not borrowed does not have be repaid, town officials reiterated. 

“However if we turn this down, the next loan (Maine Clean Water State Revolving Fund has) offered us, and any future funds from (that fund) are off the table, which will make our job a whole lot harder to secure funding” for the wastewater treatment plant's move, Simmons said. He and others spoke in the public hearing on the bond vote and the other Sept. 1 ballot item, the second try at a school budget. 

On the bond question, Simmons said the town could use the bond money instead of tax money as the local match for grants toward the plant's move; if the bond vote fails, the town will lose its $4 million from the Maine Infrastructure Adaptation Program and have a harder time getting help from Congress, Simmons said.

Selectmen’s Chair Alyssa Eason said the aim is to have mostly outside money fund the move.

“Will we have to fund some of it, yes. But primarily we intend to seek every single grant that is out there,” Eason said. 

If the town turns down the bond, the town will end up paying more for the move, Selectman Sarah Whitfield added. 

Selectmen noted the state’s stance it will only support a move, not local leaders’ longstanding preference of a seawall and upgrades to the aging Cow Island plant.

“If you can get grants, you can also get grants to keep it where it is,” Wiscasset’s William Sutter said.

Sutter said he would take exception to someone saying the plant can’t be improved and protected. “There was a time when people said we can’t cross the river ’cause it’s too wide and too deep. Engineering has allowed us to do that,” and mitigation can be done to keep the plant where it is, he said. Sutter planned to vote against the bond.

Fellow resident Jim Crowley favored a yes vote. The bond would be free money plus a low-interest loan, for critical infrastructure, he said.

"To kill the money (and say) 'We're not going to take it because we don't like it,' I'm sorry, that really disturbs me."

Resident Kim Dolce commented, "Free money would be (the whole) $10 million that we didn't have to pay back." She said she is not a "climate denier"; she has seen what major storms can do. "But in looking at the dollars and cents, looking at the current sea level of the existing plant, knowing that we have to upgrade, it seems like we should be examining these things in detail ..."

Selectman Cassaundra Rose, an Earth scientist, said the legislature in the early 2020s directed Maine's environmental protection and transportation departments to plan for one and a half feet of sea level rise by 2050 and four feet by the end of the century, "based on the best understanding of science, which has been reaffirmed ... And so (both agencies) have been slowly working that into regulations, and I expect that to fully continue."

Said Dolce, "But that doesn't negate building a seawall and possibly raising the new plant on the existing property."

Simmons responded, the state can't force the town to move the plant, but it can refuse to license the plant and can fine the town tens of thousands of dollars a day for every day the plant is out of compliance.

In the hearing and an email response to questions, Simmons said he and a town attorney are arranging to meet with the DEP commissioner to try to get the state to maximize the funding the town gets toward the move.

He told Wiscasset Newspaper the morning after the hearing, "I really just want to reiterate that we once had an acceptable plan to make the plant resilient. Since the state no longer considers that plan acceptable and relocation is the only option, the department needs to work with the town to the greatest extent possible to assist in providing funding, and not just low-interest loans. We had such a meeting after the (Climate Action Plan) study was done with (Maine Clean Water State Revolving Fund's) Brandy King, USDA, EPA, and others. This (meeting) would just be an extension of that at a higher level. I think most people can agree that an adversarial relationship will just cost the town more in the long run."

No date is set for the meeting, Simmons said.

As for the second school budget offer, resident Ed Polewarczyk again urged defeat. "It far exceeds what is typical for a school of our size." He said Wiscasset has more teachers than the state says to and spends more on special education than the state says to. 

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kim Andersson said those are not recommendations, they are "what the state says is, 'This is the bare minimum that we can require you to raise,'" and special ed costs are bound by law based on individual students' needs. She said the proposed budget is .07% lower than 2025-26's. She said it does not replace several educational technicians who resigned; cuts programming for students; and eliminates a behavioral consultant and a literacy one. "If we have to go back and make cuts again, we will be in a tough spot."

The proposed $10.7 million budget's $6.9 million local ask is less than a half of 1% more than last year's; the $11.2 million budget that lost at the polls by 12 votes June 9 would have hiked the local ask about 8%. Andersson encouraged residents to go to wiscassetschools.org for information. And she again invited anyone to meet with her about the school system or the budget.

Polls are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 1 at Wiscasset Community Center.