Wiscasset Voters Approve Entire Town Meeting Warrant

Wiscasset voters returned incumbent select board member Terry Heller to office for a second two-year term and reelected former select board member Pam Dunning in during Wiscasset’s annual town meeting by referendum on Tuesday, June 13.

Dunning and Heller triumphed in a four-way race for the municipal office, receiving 357 votes and 311 votes, respectively. Donald Davis received 303 votes and incumbent Dusty Jones lost a bid for reelection, receiving 276 votes.

Victoria Hugo-Vidal was elected to the Wiscasset School Board with 419 votes. Daniel Sortwell was reelected to the Wiscasset Water District Board of Trustees with 483 votes. There were 25 write-in votes for the budget committee.

In other results, voters approved every article on the 74-item warrant.

Voters agreed to hire an economic developer, funding for the new position being included in $146,456 planning and economic development, which passed 461-179.

The question to appropriate $183,200 from the capital reserve account as a grant match for state funding for providing a fiber-optic broadband network throughout town passed overwhelmingly with a vote of 505-148.

The adult cannabis business ordinance was approved 337-296. The medical cannabis licensing ordinance passed 364-268.

Two nonbinding referendum questions were both approved by the voters. Voters authorized the select board to sell the Old Academy Building on Warren Street, giving first refusal to the Maine Art Gallery, 328-310. Voters also authorized the board to sell Scout Hall on Lincoln Street, 374-260.

Voters validated the $10,321,539 Wiscasset School Department Budget, which Wiscasset voters approved at the budget meeting in May. The bottom line is $976,458, 10.34% increase over 2023.

The $7,553,954 municipal budget was accepted in entirety with voters approving every budget article. The total is a $657,579, 9.53% increase over the current fiscal year.

The following capital improvement articles were approved, with voters agreeing to appropriate $2,254,701.48 from the capital reserve account to purchase a public works loader for $160,000; upgrade town computers, $20,000; perform culvert repairs on Foye and Brown roads; $50,000; public works paving projects, $465,000; wastewater pumping station controls, not to exceed $87,000; a grant match for fiber-optic broadband for state funding, $183,200; townwide property reevaluation bond, $155,701.48; and for the purchase of new fire/rescue truck, not to exceed $800,000.