Boothbay day care expansion gets conditional nod in Wiscasset

Tue, 08/15/2017 - 7:45am

Kim Hilgendorf of Boothbay said Monday night, she hopes to open a day care at the former NAPA store on Wiscasset’s Route 1 in January. The center, also with pre-school and after school programs, expands on her and husband Michael Hilgendorf’s Lighthouse Learning Center in Boothbay. The Wiscasset Planning Board passed the proposal Monday, on the condition the Hilgendorfs get the State Fire Marshal’s OK.

Kim Hilgendorf has said she could not get the fire marshal’s approval until she had the town’s. She said after Monday’s meeting, she expects no problem getting the fire marshal’s approval. She expects to close on the seven tenths of an acre property at 179 Bath Road on Sept. 1, she said. Then come renovations before opening the center to 49 children in two toddler programs, a preschool and an after school program for children up to fourth grade, she said.

She told reporters the Wiscasset center will have six full-time and two part-time staff. The couple first met with the planning board in April and had hoped to open in September. Asked about the move to January, Hilgendorf said it has taken time to get a professional survey done to give the town. Children on a waiting list for the Wiscasset site are attending the Boothbay center for now, she said.

Also Monday night, member Karl Olson said a proposal for six condominiums as business units at Maine Heritage Village has been officially withdrawn. Olson, a land surveyor. had represented Lady Marian’s Trust in the board’s pre-application review in June.

Chairman Ray Soule briefly brought up an item involving the Sea Basket on Bath Road. He said the restaurant heard from someone claiming to be from the planning board and commenting on a sign. Soule doubted it was anyone on the board; and he told members, “You can’t ever say that you’re from the planning board, as one member. Because we’re nothing as one member.”

The board meets at 7 p.m., the second and fourth Mondays of the month, if it has business.