Tuesday's election of a fifth Wiscasset selectman will put one of the town's hottest issues back on the selectmen's agenda. Operating with a four-member board following the resignation of Alex Robertson, the board has put off action on a number of issues.

One of the most controversial is requests from residents to lower their property assessments. Last fall when a new town-wide assessment was completed by Tyler Technology, Inc. many property owners, especially those who own waterfront land, protested that the assessments were unrealistically high. However, since reductions, or abatements as they are called, are made by the selectmen, board members decided to wait until the board vacancy was filled before starting the process.

Phil DiVece, Bob Fairfield and Prior Morrell, the three candidates on the ballot, all have similar opinions about the recently completed assessments.

Prior Morrell is calling for the most drastic action - reducing the assessments across the board by 30 percent.

"Tyler did a very poor job," Morrell said. "Their values were not realistic for our town. This is not Connecticut," he said, referring to the location of Tyler's corporate office.

Morrell wants the town to keep the position of full time tax assessor, a position now held - until January 25 - by Sue Varney. Varney has worked for the town for nearly 30 years with responsibility for many different functions within the town office. However, budget cuts in the assessing department last fall meant there would be funding for her job only until the end of this month. A petition effort is now underway to restore the full time position.

"We don't need to hire a so-called professional company to do the assessments," Morrell said. "We have a qualified assessor - Sue Varney."

Morrell said he is also not in favor of hiring Tyler to assist with abatements at a per diem rate of $400.

Asked how he arrived at the 30 percent figure, Morrell said this reflects how much property values have dropped nationwide in the last year or two.

"It's blatantly obvious here in Wiscasset, looking at the number of houses that are for sale, and how long they have been for sale, that the assessments are too high," he said.

Fairfield, who had served on the board last year, but resigned after his wife passed away, also criticizes the job Tyler did.

"I don't think they did the job we paid them to do," Fairfield says. "The land values are way higher than they should be. When I saw what they did to the mobile home parks, I went right down and talked to them."

Fairfield said the assessing firm agreed to reduce the valuations.

"It wasn't fair at all to those people," he said.

DiVece agrees with Morrell's opinion that the town would be better served by paying for a full time assessor.

"It seems to me we would be better off continuing to support Sue Varney's position," DiVece said. "It seems like every time we have a professional firm do it, we have problems. I have yet to see anyone coming to my house."

"I think it's absolutely vital that we have a full time assessor at the town office. When people have questions, who are they going to go to?" he asked. "It's not just property owners, it's Realtors, and lawyers and developers - we need this service."

Service to the townspeople is something that DiVece says he values very highly. However, after visiting several department heads, DiVece said he found a certain lack of morale among town employees because they don't have the tools and equipment they need to do their job properly.

To that end, he's in favor of taking some money from the town's reserve fund to buy items that are critical to providing good services. He noted that the town of Freeport recently debated whether to take $30,000 out of its reserves - about $137,000 - to buy an item. Wiscasset's reserves, once at $15 million and now about $10 million, should not be used only to lower taxes, but to buy some of the things the town needs, he says.

The fire department, the treatment plant, the transfer station, and especially the highway department all have needs that selectmen should start addressing, he says.

One example he cites is the truck the transfer station uses to transport solid waste to Orrington. He said when he visited the transfer station recently, Superintendent Woodie Freeman was underneath the truck trying to re-install an old part because he couldn't get a new one.

"It just doesn't make sense to keep that old truck running. Woodie told me a new truck would get at least one or two miles more per gallon - which would amount to a savings of $25,000 to $27,000 a year on the cost of fuel."

"I really can understand people's concerns about taxes, but we may need to make some compromises to pay for the equipment we need - do with a few less services," he said.

"I'm not saying we should go out and buy everything new. But some of these capital expenditures can't wait."

The condition of the town's waterfront is another issue that concerns all of the candidates.

Fairfield said he would like to have a disabled-accessible walkway built from the Creamery Platform, behind Sarah's Cafe, to the town docks near LeGarage restaurant. He said he got a great reception from town manager Arthur Faucher when he proposed the idea to him.

"Work needs to be done to preserve the waterfront infrastructure," Fairfield said. Of the estimated $287,000 needed in repairs, about $150,000 may be paid for by a grant the town has applied for. Fairfield suggests the balance be budgeted over a two-year period.

Morrell would like to see some standards set for the waterfront.

"We have the second deepest harbor in Maine - what are we doing wrong?" he asks. He criticizes the current practice of allowing small vendors to set up shop during the summer on the Creamery Platform, which residents paid $400,000 to build.

"Let's not block everyone's view," he says. "Let's get the pier in shape, provide more space for bigger boats, and enforce the rules down there."

DiVece agrees the waterfront is one of the town's biggest assets.

"We're very lucky to have a deep water harbor. We have one of the last unspoiled harbors in Maine, but it needs some attention," DiVece said, referring to the condition of the docks and floats. The harbor is formed by the joining of the Sheepscot River and the Back River.

"There will be development along the rivers," he says. "The challenge is to manage it. We need to strike a good balance between commercial and recreational use. It's important to protect the town's traditional marine industries like worm digging, clamming, and lobstering."

The proposed bypass is another subject all the candidates seem to agree on - none of the proposed routes really bypass the town, they say - they simply bisect it.

But if one of the routes has to be chosen, Fairfield said he would favor a route that doesn't disturb a new high-end housing development on Clark's Point.

"I think they've done a marvelous job up there," he said. "I was on the Planning Board when they brought their proposal forward. It's a good development and should be allowed to proceed."

Moreover, the town would realize significant tax dollars over time if the development goes forward, he added.

It's not just the fact that residents didn't favor any of the proposed routes at the ballot box, Morrell said the state would be spending too much money "to solve a limited summertime problem - which amounts to an eight minute drive between Big Al's and the bridge."

DiVece agrees.

"Taking out homes and businesses to make way for the proposed routes doesn't seem fair to me," DiVece says. "The state wants to spend millions of tax dollars on this when it can't keep up with the maintenance of existing roads like 218 and 27."

"I commute 60 miles to Freeport," DiVece said. "At no time, including weekends, have I waited more than 10 minutes - I can live with that - it's not that much of an inconvenience."

"I think there's more we can do locally to solve this problem," he continued, including putting up signs to show where public parking areas are, and making some of the streets in the village one way between Memorial Day and the end of September. Getting the state to improve Railroad Avenue so that some of the traffic can be diverted is another idea that's been proposed, never pursued, but should be, he said.

The coal gasification plant proposed last fall by National RE/sources is opposed by both Morrell and DiVece, and supported by Fairfield - but only if the federal and state agencies say the technology is safe. The project is now on hold after residents voted down an ordinance change which would have allowed the project to start the permitting process.

"We need the work," Fairfield said, referring to the need for more jobs, "but I don't want people or kids exposed to chemicals." As for coal barges interfering with fishing on the rivers, Fairfield said their traps can be put on the edge of the channel.

"The lobsters will go wherever the food is," he said.

Morrell is probably the most vocal opponent of the gasification plant, saying the proposed ordinance change would make it possible for a trash plant or a "cracking plant" (converting oil into gas).

Morrell would like to see Wiscasset return to nuclear power. Instead of a 950-megawatt plant like the former Maine Yankee, however, Morrell said he would like to see two smaller, 400-megawatt plants built, so if there are problems with one, the other one can produce power. He notes that 70 percent of the electricity generated in France is from nuclear plants.

"My wife and I both voted against the gasification plant," DiVece said. "It was just too much too fast." However, he said he would like to see another proposal made, one which is more environmentally friendly -- perhaps tidal or wind energy.

"Wiscasset has a history of power plants," he said, beginning with the opening of the coal-fired Mason Station during World War II and later the construction of the state's only nuclear power plant, Maine Yankee. The plant closed in 1997 and has been dismantled.

"We already have the transmission lines," DiVece said, referring to the lines at the Mason Station and on the Maine Yankee land where spent fuel is stored. "And, a power company is a stand alone business, supported by investors and stockholders." Electricity costs have increased 55 percent since 1990 in Maine, compared to 35 percent nationwide, he said.

Asked about another nuclear power plant, DiVece said he's not sure residents would support it, given some of the opposition in the past. But, he said the plants in Vermont and Connecticut are being re-licensed, so people's opinions may have changed.

The candidates weighed in on whether the town should continue to have its own police department.

DiVece said the town can't continue to cut the police budget and expect the same level of service.

"We're down to three officers now and a secretary, but the town's population has never been higher. The town has to decide what it wants - it can't keep cutting the department back. We don't even have 24/7 coverage any more. We have no police chief. But we are very fortunate to have someone like John Allen to assume the administrative duties."

Fairfield said when he was on the board of selectmen, they decided not to replace the chief when he left.

"We decided to give this a year to see how it would work with no chief," he said. The year is up in June.

"I've heard very good comments about how the police department is doing. John Allen is doing a good job, and everyone seems to work well together.

Morrell would like the town to look at the possibility of working with the county sheriff's office - perhaps integrating the two entities. As for the jail prisoners, Morrell said he would like to see all the prisoners in the United States sent to jails in China and Russia.

"I'm tired of paying 46 grand a year to pay for these guys to watch TV and play basketball," he said

Morrell had several issues other candidates did not mention, including why the town is "a poverty town." Morrell said he was told by Superintendent of Schools Jay MacIntire that 42 percent of the meals served in the town's three schools are subsidized.

"I want to know why," Morrell says.

"I would also like to see taxes frozen for our senior citizens, like they do in other states, like Rhode Island, New Jersey and Florida.

And Morrell would like to see the town go to a purchase order system, something that has been proposed here for years. Morrell said he doesn't think most people are aware of the accomplishments he has made, including changing the planning board's protocol on seeking attorneys' opinions, winning a Right to Know case against the town, saving $70,000 by putting the town's reserve funds out to bid, switching to referendum style voting, and lobbying against the proposed gasification plant.

DiVece said he would like more residents to get involved in town government.

"A lot of people think Wiscasset is losing its sense of community, and they think the government will solve the problem. That's backwards -people have to work together for the common good," he says.

Fairfield says he has the heart to be a selectman - something that requires "compassion and understanding on the many issues that a community can face."