The Wiscasset Board of Selectmen on Monday reversed its decision to ask voters whether they want to eliminate the Wiscasset Ambulance Service and Wiscasset Police Department.
During a March 15 budget workshop, Selectman Jefferson Slack made a motion to place the questions on the warrant. Selectman Benjamin Rines Jr. seconded the motion, and the board approved it 5-0.
At the March 26 meeting, board chairwoman Judy Colby made a motion not to place the questions on the warrant. Rines seconded the motion and the motion carried 4-1, with Slack in opposition.
The vote followed a lengthy discussion on the proposed articles.
Rines said he is in favor of researching the cost of going with a private ambulance service and eliminating the police department in the future when the board has alternatives to offer the voters and the cost to provide those services, which currently the board doesn’t have.
Colby said she had voted previously to put the articles on the warrant, but she would never vote to eliminate the police department.
Selectman Robert Blagden said the savings from going with a private ambulance service would be beneficial to the town, and asked the town manager to arrange a meeting with a representative of Central Lincoln County Ambulance Service Inc. as soon as possible.
At the town’s request, CLC Ambulance has submitted a proposal to provide ambulance service in Wiscasset.
The selectmen approved a Wiscasset Ambulance Service budget of $563,227 with a 3-2 vote, reducing it from $667,613. The ambulance service’s 2018-2019 revenue is estimated to be $375,000, leaving about $188,000 to raise from taxes. Selectmen Blagden and Katharine Martin-Savage voted in opposition.
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