A Westport Island businessman is making Wiscasset a limited time offer. Put in bathrooms at the Main Street, or Creamery, Pier by June 1, 2019, and he will chip in $3,000.

The bathrooms would have to be ready to open by that date, E. Davies Allan explained in email responses and a phone interview Nov. 20. He hopes other offers follow his.

"I know it will take some planning, which is why I think the selectboard should act now," Allan wrote about permanent bathrooms at the pier. “My interest is in getting the downtown to be more welcoming to the public, in keeping with the improvements now being done by the (Maine Department of Transportation).”

Allan shared an email response he got Nov. 15 from Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission executive director Mary Ellen Barnes. The email called Allan’s offer generous and “an excellent ‘carrot’,” and stated Barnes will keep in touch with Town Manager Marian Anderson, Wiscasset Area Chamber of Commerce and others to see how to help make the project happen.

"Additional public bathrooms are really important – especially on/near the Creamery Pier – for the many thousands of visitors who shop and dine in Wiscasset. I know personally from working on Water Street for years how challenging it's been for visitors to make their way down to the Recreational Pier bathrooms," Barnes wrote to Allan.

Allan said the town has an obligation to visitors spending money, and it should put in bathrooms whether or not MDOT helps. "It's a very parochial issue and should be approached head-on."

Selectmen's Chair Judy Colby said in a phone interview Nov. 20, bathrooms have been under consideration, are being researched and will be looked at during the budget process.

In the long run, they cost less than portable toilets, Colby said. Asked for comment on Allan’s offer, Colby said it will be part of all the town considers.