Five Run for Three Seats on Wiscasset Board of Selectmen

Wiscasset voters will go to the polls Tuesday, June 10, to elect three selectmen from a pool of five candidates, including two incumbents and three former selectmen.

He noted that Selectman Ed Polewarczyk did not want to lose his voting right at the selectmen’s meeting May 20 because of knee surgery. He was allowed to participate and vote on the town meeting warrant articles by a telephone conference call.

For the past few years, Barnes has been a member of the budget committee and has been an outspoken advocate to lower the budget. “As selectman, I will continue to be open in expressing my opinion. This is what people expect of me, and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Barnes said.

Barnes is concerned that people will no longer be allowed to live in Wiscasset because of the high taxes. “We need to face reality here pretty soon, and do something about it,” he said. “We need to work together for the good of the people.”

He wants to see the new board of selectmen communicate more with the people, and see more people attend the selectmen’s meetings to express their views with the selectmen.

“We need to take a look at the town departments to see where reductions can be made to get them off the backs of the taxpayers,” Barnes said. “We need to continue working with the budget committee, the selectmen, the school committee, and the people to reduce taxes. The people’s ideas should be heard and considered.”

The town’s biggest challenges this coming year are to work to lower taxes, and to decide what to do about the schools in Wiscasset, Barnes said. The town needs to create a school system that will provide a quality education for the students, at an affordable cost to the taxpayers.

“Although Wiscasset is facing a lot of problems today, I couldn’t imagine living any place else,” Barnes said.
“I was born in that house on the hill and lived there for 65 years,” he said, pointing to his homestead on Route 27. “This is my home, and the people in this town have been good to me. It would be my privilege to serve them again as selectman.”

Barnes, a retired Guilford Railroad foreman, co-owns Mike’s Log Cabin on Gardiner Road.

Colby has been involved in the Bath Road Master Plan and the Route 27 and Route 1 improvement projects and would like continue the work and see the projects resolved, she said.

“There is still more work to do,” Colby said.

Although the proposed municipal budget is up $160,000 over last year, Colby said the budget is tight and not extravagant and she does not know where cuts could be made.

“It’s down to bare bones,” she said.

Colby said to decrease the town’s budget further, services would be affected, possibly the transfer station or police department. “But it’s entirely up to the people to decide,” she said.

To reduce taxes for residents, Colby said the town needs to create a large tax base by encouraging economic development.

“I am for keeping the village a village,” she said. Colby said there are plenty of economic development opportunities on Route 1 and Route 27. “People have to be open minded for economic development,” she said.

Colby, a former school board member, said the biggest challenge facing Wiscasset is the new school system. The selectmen, school board, and town will need to work together to create a system that provides a good, viable education for children while keeping taxes down, she said. She supports joining an Alternative Organizational Structure school system or consolidating facilities.

Considering the expenses the town could incur getting Wiscasset High School and Wiscasset Primary School ready to accept the middle school students, Colby said a better option may be to close the middle and primary schools, create a K-8 program at the high school, and give high school students school choice.

Colby said she understands many Wiscasset residents have a loyalty to Wiscasset High School and this option may not be popular with residents.

“We have to put our sentimentalism aside and do what’s best for the children,” Colby said.

Formerly from San Francisco, Colby has made Wiscasset her home since 1968. She said what she loves best about the town is its people.

“The people in Wiscasset are quaint and care about each other. This is a true New England town,” Colby said.

“As a native of Wiscasset, I can see how spending affects our tax rates; I see how our ordinances affect our ability to attract business,” Nichols said. “I have some knowledge of the complexity of the issues surrounding Mason Station. The liabilities exceed the assets there, which should be a warning flag to our town.”

Nichols would like to see the town sell the Mason Station property, perhaps for even less than its assessed value, just to get it back on the tax rolls to bring in revenue to the town.

Taxes are rising in a weak real estate market, creating an uncertain future for Wiscasset, according to Nichols. “We are now into the reserve account, which could be depleted in five to seven years if we do not have economic development and close a school,” Nichols said.

To fix some of the problems facing Wiscasset, Nichols suggested creating a dialogue with the school board, budget committee, and the townspeople to determine the future of the school system. “We need to close a school while maintaining a quality education. It is better to put our money into programs than it is to maintain three buildings,” Nichols said.

The town planner should be encouraged to make efforts to fill the business park, where the town has existing infrastructure, he said.

“Retain proven expertise to assist in an effort to resolve the complicated issues at Mason Station, to direct a discussion on the future of the waterfront; now that CEI is leaving, we need to look for new sources of tax revenue,” Nichols said.

Nichols expressed concern for people on fixed incomes. “Wiscasset people are an aging population, facing high property taxes on property they have owned for years and now being forced from their homes because they no longer can pay the taxes. These people have paid into the system all their adult life and are now being robbed of their homes,” Nichols said.

Another issue that concerns Nichols is the change to an open town meeting. “Wiscasset voters overwhelming voted for secret ballot referendum voting,” Nichols said. “Until they vote differently, the selectmen should honor the vote of the people.”

“We need to work together as a community to resolve the problems,” Nichols said. “There is no need to look back at how we got here to the position that Wiscasset now finds itself in. We need to look to the future and work as a team in an effort to make it better.”

In 1971, Rines graduated from Wiscasset High School and by age 23, he was elected to his first seat on the Wiscasset Board of Selectmen. He has a total of 16 years experience on the board, serving his last term in 2006. He has also served on the town’s budget committee.

“I am almost like a rookie,” Rines said.

From 1996-2000 his public service extended to the Maine Legislature, representing House District 57, which, at the time, included Wiscasset, Whitefield, Alna, Windsor, Somerville, and Hibberts Gore.

Restoring the credibility of town government will be the biggest challenge facing the new board, Rines said.

In reference to last year’s three attempts to get a budget approved by voters and the recent board’s decision to return to an open town meeting after years of referendum voting, Rines said the last two years “have been disastrous.”

According to Rines, this year’s municipal budget is up 10 percent over last year and that is too much.

“That’s quite an increase. We have to be more frugal and learn to say no more,” Rines said. “People can’t afford that.”

Rines suggested postponing some capital improvement projects.

Wiscasset’s new school system is a big transition for the town and Rines said a year or two is needed to settle in before making major decisions about consolidating facilities. “However, we can’t continue with the current school budget,” Rines said.

The school board and superintendent have done a tremendous amount of work in just six months, Rines said.

Rines will advocate for the board to go back to meeting every week. He said because selectmen’s meetings are the public forum for residents, their voices should not be limited to every other week. He said meeting more often would make things easier and create a friendlier environment.

“I would like to see the issue of Mason Station through to the end, so the taxpayers of Wiscasset get all the back taxes due them,” Slack said. “Also, I think the Bath Road Master Plan will bring new businesses to town, and I want to play a part in getting those projects off the ground.”

“We need to work together, all the town committees, the new town manager, and the selectmen,” he said. “As my grandfather used to day, ‘We all need to pull the rope in the same direction.'”

Slack said the town needs to bring more businesses into town to lower the tax burden on the taxpayers, and to work with the schools to get the best and most functional school district possible.

Slack served on the town’s RSU 12 Withdrawal Committee and worked to develop the withdrawal agreement that was approved by the voters last November. He would like the knowledge gained from that process to help with the transition from RSU 12 to a stand-alone school system.

Two of the biggest challenges facing Wiscasset in the coming year are the development of a new school system, and collecting the taxes due from Mason Station, according to Slack.

Slack has lived in Wiscasset for the past 25 years. He is a financial counselor for MaineHealth and he volunteers at the community center, where he umpires Little League Baseball and officiates youth basketball.

“I have loved living in Wiscasset,” Slack said. “I love that my children graduated from Wiscasset High School, but the most important thing I want to see is the kids that graduated from Wiscasset High School that want to come back here to raise their kids, will have good jobs in the area so they can afford to stay and have their children graduate from Wiscasset High School,” Slack said.

“I have two years under my belt, and I have learned a lot. I have seen improvements this past year in the efforts to collect the Mason Station back taxes, in the plans being implemented from the town’s safety audit, some new businesses, and much more. However, there is much more that needs to be done to get Wiscasset back on track,” Slack said.