Selectmen are "moving forward" on resolving the future status of the town's police chief, Wiscasset's chairman of the board of selectmen said Tuesday night.

The selectmen have had two closed-door meetings on Police Chief Mike Emmons in the last month, at the suggestion of Town Manager Arthur Faucher, who began work here January 2. The previous town manager, Andrew Gilmore, told the chief before he left his duties in December that the selectmen were not going to renew his contract, which ends in June. However, two of the selectmen said they had no part in Gilmore's actions.

The question of the chief's status was raised by a resident, Steve Mehrl, during the public comment section of the selectmen's meeting.

"Last year there was a lot of turbulence in the town," he said. "Part of the reason was the citizens did not know what was happening between the police department and Andrew. That's pretty hard for people to get over. I thought this was all put to rest last July when nothing was found," he said, referring to statements released by the town after the chief and one police officer had been on paid leave for five weeks.

"There's got to be some factual information from the selectmen to narrow the scope of rumors." Gilmore's action in December "throws us back into the realm of rumors - we need to move beyond this," he said.

"That's what we're trying to do," said selectman chairman Duane Goud.

"We've got a town manager who's going to be with us for awhile," said selectman Bill Barnes.

"We're moving forward," Goud said.

Mehrl told the selectmen he had sent them an E-mail on his review of the current contract with Tyler Technology, Inc., the firm hired to do a complete town wide revaluation. He said the company "is remiss in the execution of the contract." He said he has not been given a description of the standards the company is using, which a company representative said he would receive the day after the last selectmen's meeting. He also asked the selectmen if they had received a status report from the company, since their inspections were to be completed by the end of January. Some neighborhoods have not been visited yet, he said.

"If they're a week or two behind, it may be because of the cold weather," Goud said.

In other comments raised by the public, budget committee member Tony True asked that the selectmen look into use of school buildings by groups who want to use the high school gym or other school facilities.

"It took Jeff Slack three days to get permission to use the gym for one hour," True said. "Someone should call the school department and tell them the town owns the buildings. I would like to see all the gyms and tracks taken over by the town's recreation department."

True said he would also like to know why the dropout rate at the high school is so high.

"They only have an 80 percent completion rate - that's wrong," he said. He asked the selectmen to find out what the town can do to cut back on the number of dropouts, and find out if there is still a school committee formed to address this issue.

"If the school committee won't do it, we should get involved," he said.

True also questioned why seventh and eighth grade students only have 40 minutes of physical education a week.

"The rest of the week is French, and I think phys ed is more important than French. Every time you turn on the TV, you hear about all the fat kids in this country."

Goud said he would call School Superintendent Jay McIntire about both issues.

Other residents questioned why the salaries of town employees and school system employees were left out of the last two town reports. Goud said it was the former town manager who made the decision to leave them out, as a cost savings measure. Faucher said there are basic items that must be in a town report, but salaries are not one of them. One report that was somehow omitted from the town report was the one from the police chief, Faucher said. The chief told him he had written one. "It's a mystery to us," Faucher said.

George Green asked if there is some way the town can inform residents if there is a sex offender living nearby. Selectman Alex Robertson agreed this should be done, asking if Green had any suggestions on how to go about it.

True agreed something should be done, saying he and his wife, who operate a day care center, found out recently that there was a pedophile living only a quarter of a mile from their house.

Wastewater treatment plant supervisor Buck Rines reported that a pump station on the Birch Point Road, near the water district office, must be replaced this year. This has been a project on the back burner for some time, he said, and must be done regardless of whether the Point East Maritime Village goes forward. Dirigo Engineering put out a request for proposals to replace the pump, which came in between $154,000 and $227,000. The town has 60 days to respond to the low bidder, and in the meantime, will investigate funding sources, Faucher said.

Asked if Point East has paid an impact fee, Rines said the company has paid for one house. "They offered to give us $100,000 up front," Rines said. Former selectman Bob Bladen suggested the town take the company up on its offer.

The selectmen approved a purchase and sales agreement to give a quitclaim deed to Al Gagnon for Red's Eats, a small takeout restaurant on Main Street.

Signature rights for the accounts managed by Edward Jones Trust Company were approved for the town treasurer, town manager and chairman of the board of selectmen.

The selectmen accepted the resignation of Debra Delano from the Budget Committee, and appointed Nicole Viele to the committee.

They approved changing the lunch break for a public works employee from 45 minutes to 30 minutes, to be consistent with others in the union. They accepted the resignation of police officer Ken Latulippe as a reserve officer.

They approved releasing money collected from snowmobile registrations to the Sno-Goers snowmobile club, and approved Faucher's spending $40 to become a member of the Maine Town & City Managers Association. The selectmen tabled action on setting the rate of interest for delinquent taxes.