Owning two hangars at Wiscasset Municipal Airport and a property next door, Steve Williams said he pays Wiscasset more in property taxes than he does Georgetown, where he lives.

For the last several years, the pilot and flight instructor has tapped his experience with aviation groups and other topics as a member of Wiscasset's airport advisory committee.

In an interview after the panel met Feb. 17, Williams said he would like to keep serving; but, as members and other attendees discussed minutes earlier, it's unknown whether he'll be able to.

A Wiscasset ordinance that predates Williams' service calls for five members, all residents. A non-resident can serve as a non-voting adviser, however, Selectmen's Vice Chairman Judy Flanagan said.

Flanagan said she hadn’t planned to discuss the ordinance that had come up at a recent selectmen's meeting, and, in discussing it with the committee, she said she wasn’t speaking for the board. She's been wanting to attend a committee meeting and tour the airport, she said.

The committee's chairman, Ken Boudin, brought up the ordinance. He heard about the selectmen’s discussion from Williams, who had seen a news article, Boudin said.

Boudin, who has served on the committee for three decades, said it was disturbing to find out that way, not from the town; but that’s how it's been going lately, and he’s frustrated, Boudin said.

The committee isn't being kept in the loop on things like the airport's furnace replacement, Boudin said. That's the sort of project where the panel, historically, would have helped review bids and offered its input, but that didn't happen, he said.

At another point, fellow member Bryan Buck told airport manager Frank Costa: “You don’t listen to the committee.”

Near the end of the discussion, Costa said he looked forward to working with the committee to better coordinate communication. In a telephone interview Feb. 18, Costa said he listens to the committee, but works with Town Manager Marian Anderson on purchases or to get other things done.

It works that way because the town owns the airport, Costa said. “They don’t own the airport,” he said about the committee.

Boudin said at the meeting that he might not seek to renew his membership. His latest term ran out in December 2015; he got the paperwork for renewal, but had been sick, hadn’t completed it, and wasn’t sure he wanted to, he said.

“And I’m really at the point (that) if things don’t change, I don’t really want to be on the committee anymore ... I don’t know what’s going on downtown, and I’m really glad that you are here to hear this,” Boudin told Flanagan.

Flanagan said she could relay the concerns he was raising about communication, but she also recommended the committee decide what next steps it wants to take.

The committee could ask the town planner or selectmen to pursue a change in the residence rule, Flanagan said; a change would take a town vote, she said.

Hangar owner Mike Muchmore asked the committee to seek the change.

“We are definitely going to fix that ordinance,” Boudin said. Members plan to talk further in March.

He said the residence rule also came up in 2007, when some other committee members weren’t happy with his point of view. He owns three homes in Wiscasset and votes there, but chooses to sleep in Edgecomb, he said.

In 2007 he asked to meet with selectmen, and it was decided that he could keep serving because he paid taxes and owned a home in Wiscasset, Boudin continued.

Boudin praised Williams’ service. “He’s put a lot of effort into this airport over the years.”

Williams’ current term ends in December 2017, according to materials provided at the meeting.

Reached Feb. 18, Anderson said she and selectmen didn’t know in advance that the town’s rule on airport committee membership would come up at the selectmen’s meeting; it occurred because the waterfront committee asked to put a non-resident on that panel; the ordinance doesn’t speak to whether a non-resident can be on the waterfront committee, Anderson said.

“The positive is that the board is reviewing this ordinance,” Anderson said.

Williams and the rest of the airport committee have been tremendously helpful to her, she said.

As for the furnace bids, Anderson noted it was a public process. She might contact Boudin to ask about his concerns, Anderson said.