Wiscasset selectmen Jan. 6 voiced some interest in allowing parking spaces' use at the town office for high speed charging stations for electric vehicles, but needed more information. Economic Development Director Aaron Chrostowsky got it for them later in the week, and the board was considering meet Jan. 13 to consider doing a letter of support for Universal EV, LLC's proposal to Efficiency Maine. The application deadline for the grant round is Jan. 20, Chrostowsky has said.

Town Manager Dennis Simmons said early Jan. 12, it was yet known if the Jan. 13 meeting would happen. A draft agenda was mistakenly posted to the town's website and was later removed, he said. 

In the Jan. 6 discussion, Selectmen's Chair Sarah Whitfield was concerned about a potential 10-year deal Chrostowsky said would cost the town nothing. Whitfield wanted to know if there was "wiggle room" on the timeframe.

She said 10 years is a long time in technology. “But more importantly, we don’t know what’s going to happen to this (municipal) building in 10 years … I’m concerned that we would be locked into something for 10 years and not be able to remove it even if we got rid of this building."

According to the information Chrostowsky gathered post-meeting,the "initial term" would be for seven years. 

Whitfield opposed allowing the stations if the town would be responsible for removing them.

“Absolutely,” Selectman Alissa Eason agreed. She said the town should require a performance bond to cover that. There would be one, according to the information Chrostowsky gathered post-meeting. 

The board also wanted to know if the town could receive a set fee for leasing the space instead of, or in addition to, a share of the revenue from the stations. According to the information Chrostowsky gathered post-meeting, the firm does not offer a fixed-price lease; Universal EV offers a share of the revenue, and projects Wiscasset would receive $7,500-$9,000 a year. 

Chrostowsky said the nearest chargers as high speed as the ones being proposed are in Rockland, Brunswick and Topsham. He and other participants liked the thought of people walking around spending money while their cars charge. To that end, some said chargers downtown would be better than up Route One at the town office. 

Selectman William "Bill" Maloney said auto makers have started backing away from EV production, in favor of hybrids. And he questioned giving up four spaces in the town office lot. "There isn't much room here now, at times."

According to the information Chrostowsky has since gathered, the arrangement would require "at least five spaces," to serve four vehicles, not four spaces as discussed Jan. 6, due to the need for a charging stall and access aisle. 

Chrostowsky said the idea for the chargers came from Revision Energy's eying of a possible partnership with the town and a third party that would put in the chargers. Railroad Avenue was ruled out because Maine Department of Transportation owns the area the chargers would have gone, he said. "(MaineDOT) said to us that if you're interested in having a charging station there, let us know," Chrostowsky said. 

Also Jan. 6, Whitfield thanked the ordinance review committee (ORC) for its quick return of the proposed change involving boundary surveys. Selectmen plan to have June voters consider this wording: “The bearings and distances of all property lines of the property to be developed and the source of this information. The Planning Board may waive this requirement of a boundary survey when sufficient information is available to establish, on the ground, all property boundaries, or when the proposed application does not involve external changes to the building."

The proposal follows last month’s public backlash over the planning board’s use of a six-month timeframe for surveys, given the ordinance’s calling for them to be “recent.”

Selectmen nodded a business license for TREATS, under new owners Emily Hughes and Joseph Swifka; and nodded Sherri Dunbar for the ORC and David Sutter for the appeals board.