Organizers are following through on plans announced earlier this fall for an open meeting on the idea to bring grocery shopping back to downtown Wiscasset. The discussion is on for Tuesday, Dec. 8, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission’s new office, at 297 Bath Road opposite Big Al’s.

It will be a chance for people to share what they think makes sense about the idea, and what doesn’t, as well as any interest people have in seeing other types of goods sold along the waterfront or elsewhere downtown, the commission’s economic and community development director Mary Ellen Barnes said Monday.

“We’re looking to openly discuss (ideas’) strengths and the weaknesses,” she said.

Barnes will lead the session; she plans to start with a brief background on downtown retail business in Wiscasset then touch on demographics, the village’s assets and other factors in development. Then comes a broad, nonjudgmental discussion among attendees, Barnes said.

The groceries idea could be discussed as either a co-op or a store, along with other ideas, she said. “I don’t want to limit it if there are other retail uses that might spring off from the waterfront,” involving boating or anything else, Barnes said.

During the meeting, Barnes expects to point out that pursuing any idea would take a business plan; market demand, competition and other factors would need to be taken into account, to determine if the business could succeed, she said.

Barnes and a local business owner, Lucia Droby, decided more than two months ago to hold the meeting. After they shared their plans in a Wiscasset Newspaper article and within the business community, feedback ranged from comments very supportive of a grocery business, to responses that it might not be feasible, Droby said Monday.

Asked for a fresh read on momentum for the groceries idea a week before the meeting, Droby said: “As we’ve pulled further away from the summer tourist season, the momentum has slowed, but I believe that the interest is deep and is still there.” She’s been hearing the idea in town for two years, she said. “It’s not just sort of a passing thing.”

Like Barnes, Droby wants the meeting to be an open exchange of opinions. “I think it’s going to be fascinating,” she said.

Alna businessman and restoration expert Les Fossel has said he may be willing to help make a project happen, involving a local foods market and a pharmacy possibly in the complex CEI has had on the market. He’ll be away when Tuesday’s meeting happens, but in an email to Droby on Nov. 30, he offers to have someone from Fossel Preservation Partners attend.