Woolwich residents will see two town office building plans proposed to them at the annual town meeting in May.

Concluding a two-year debate on the matter, selectmen and building committee members reached middle ground during the April 1 Woolwich Selectmen meeting. The two groups settled on a larger plan favored by committee members and a yet-to-be-finalized, less expensive plan that will be drafted by selectmen.

Many are hoping for a final outcome which will provide municipal officials the space to work, a meeting space for large gatherings and a building that meets Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) code requirements.

 In the forthcoming town report, residents will see a letter from building committee members recommending the town build a freestanding town office on nearby property. Residents will have to approve the appropriation of $17,000 for the design and preparatory work, according to the letter. Committee members prefer the town fund the larger of the two proposed town office addition plans over what they described as a “minimalistic, piecemeal approach” to resolving building code issues proposed by selectmen.

Selectmen decided not to ask the town to purchase nearby property to construct a new town office after meeting with officials at the state fire marshal's office in Augusta and learning the work needed to bring the current town office up to code would not have to be accomplished all at once.

“I'm not sure it is a piecemeal approach,” said board of selectmen member Allison Hepler, adding that the efforts of the building committee could be incorporated into a new plan and that information they gathered would be useful for future work. “I see that this builds on the effort of the building committee.”

Initially, selectmen were not going to approve including either of the committee's proposed plans on the town meeting warrant. In reaction to this, building committee chairman Dana Lindsey said they agreed to suspend their work, “because everything that we've done has been turned away.”

Former committee member Bill Longley implored selectmen to bring some choice on a town office addition to voters, after saying he felt disheartened by the lack of action on the issue in the past two years.

Between now and the annual town meeting, selectmen are going to try and put together a plan to bring the town office up to code and the approximate costs for doing so, board chairman David King said. They are going to ask at the town meeting to move forward with that plan and schedule a special town meeting to raise and appropriate the needed funds.

King said they did learn a lot in the last couple of weeks about the town office. The stairs meet code requirements and do not have to be modified, however the building does need an elevator to reach all three floors.

“The flip side of that is, for the cost of an elevator you gain a meeting room,” selectman Jason Shaw said.

Building committee members wanted to make sure the more extensive plan they designed with the expertise of Bath architect David Matero be included on the town meeting warrant. Named “Plan B,” this proposal calls for an EMS wing and meeting space to accommodate between 150 to 250 people and other upgrades, the cost of which was estimated to be around $1 million. As described on an election day survey, Plan B would add $12 per $100,000 to a property owner's taxes.