A Wiscasset group wants to know if the town would invest time and possibly money to help explore getting a grocery store downtown.

Merchants and others who have mulled the store idea for months decided Tuesday night to approach the new town planner, Ben Averill, as they pursue a feasibility study and new leadership.

Business owner Lucia Droby said she and the group's other faclitator, Mary Ellen Barnes of the Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission, have been happy to help but do not plan to helm the process going forward.

The town planner would be a logical person to pick up the reins, Barnes said.

Participants said they still are not sure a grocery store would come to the village, or last there, with convenience stores nearby and a supermarket in town.

Whether Wiscasset has the numbers to make it work is still an open question, they said in the meeting at the planning commission's office on Route 1. The feasibility study, possibly costing thousands of dollars, could go a long way toward answering it, participants said.

Keep in mind those studies' tendency to be part-fluff, or leaning toward the result people want, business owner Les Fossel advised. 

Participants Tuesday shared information they gathered from visiting and calling midcoast grocery stores, from high-end ones in the Camden area, to Whitefield's Sheepscot General, which they said serves as a community center, and an Allston, Massachusetts store; many of its patrons get there on foot, Droby said.

The group rejected one model as too similar to Treats downtown; they don't want to bring in a business to compete with Treats, participants said. They may find that the right store would combine stores' strengths, like a friendly staff, some Maine products, a nice layout or a tie to a store chain to help keep prices down, they said.

That link to a larger company gives the Massachusetts store she visited a competitive edge, Droby said. "This apparently at least in more urban areas is a direction some of the stores are going in," she said.

Attendees also talked about a possible questionnaire to gauge what other townspeople want in a store; and the idea of a pharmacy, in or apart from a grocery store, remained part of the talks that began late last year.

Lincoln County Healthcare might be willing to open a pharmacy at its Lincoln Medical Partners building on Hooper Street, Fossel, who serves on Lincoln County Healthcare Board of Trustees, said.

At another point Tuesday night, he and some other participants spoke briefly about one piece of one of the options the Maine Department of Transportation is offering to aid traffic flow and safety downtown: replacing Haggett Garage with a parking lot.

The building, which Coastal Enterprises (CEI) has had on the market, turns 100 this year, Ed Kavanagh said. "I was very surprised," he said about the state's idea to take it down.

Participants have talked about Haggett Garage's possible reuse as a store. In bringing it up Tuesday, Kavanagh called the state's idea the elephant in the room. 

The building contributes to the historic district, which raises issues for the project's funding, Fossel said. Besides, he said, isolated parking lots don't work; parking near businesses does, he said.

The group plans to meet again May 19, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the planning commission's office.