Expect a survey and grant-seeking to help plan broadband access. Over Zoom Tuesday night, Feb. 1, Wiscasset selectmen authorized Town Manager Dennis Simmons to spend up to $7,500 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for the broadband committee to plan buildout, and plan how to help those lacking skills or funds for high speed broadband.

Selectmen’s Chair Sarah Whitfield hoped Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission, which the town already contracts with, can help the committee. “I think this is really important work. I’m totally on board,” but she would like it to cost as little as possible given the tough budget cycle she anticipates, she said.

The committee will see if Woolwich and Dresden will team with Wiscasset on planning. “They are not as far along as we are, so we are not certain it’s going to work. But if it did, it would help” cut costs, committee member Carla Dickstein told the board. Either way, she expects a $7,500 matching grant from Island Institute, and Wiscasset should not wait, she said. 

This leaves about $11,000 in ARPA funds, according to Simmons. About $198,000 more arrives later this year, he said.

Also Feb. 1, selectmen agreed to wait for a state task force to look at how to memorialize James Weldon Johnson. A 1938 car-train crash downtown killed the poet-diplomat-civil rights advocate. The task force will “probably” be in town June 17, Maine’s first annual James Weldon Johnson Day, but a marker or other memorial might not be, State Rep. Rachel Talbot-Ross said. 

“If it’s a plaque, if it’s trees, whatever it looks like, we’re just asking you to have some patience with the task force process, to engage with the task force, and for that to lead the effort ...”

Terry Heller noted selectmen, including her, are on the task force; the town is “well represented” on it, she said. “I don’t think we’re in any danger of not collaborating,” she said.

The board accepted with regret Katharine Martin-Savage’s resignation from the future of the schools committee, made Ryan Demeny a water district trustee, agreed to rejoin Maine Service Centers Coalition for $500 and heard from auditor Fred Brewer the town managed costs well in 2020. Selectmen kept RJD Appraisal as assessor’s agent and agreed to seek offers to convert the street lights to light-emitting diode (LED). Simmons said the project could cost $140,000 and would save about $42,000 a year.

“I think this is something that we really need to do.”