WILTON — The Select Board on Tuesday voted to purchase nearly $5,000 of equipment to mark off permitted swim areas in town.

The board approved bids totalling $4,941.34 for pool safety ropes and floats as well as boat anchors and pallet that would be used to designate where swimming is allowed at Kineowatha Park and the head of Wilson Pond, across from Bass Park.

Safety ropes with locking floats from poolweb.com will cost $4,750.08, and boat anchors and pallet from Gagne & Son Concrete Products of Belgrade cost for $191.26. The money is to be taken from three dedicated recreation accounts.

The town has two swim area permits on Wilson Pond. Both are not to extend beyond the water safety zone of 200 feet from the shoreline. The permits were approved for July 2021 and expire in July 2026.

Jordan Schanck, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, said the ladder at the head of the lake will need to be moved to be within permitted swimming area.

In other business, selectpersons also voted 3-2 to allow a resident to dedicate one of the walkways and railings entering the Town Office to the late Michael Flagg. Flagg and fellow Boys Scouts in Troop 518 built the ramp for people with disabilities to access the office as Flagg’s Eagle Scout Service Project in 1983, his mother Hazel Flagg of Wilton said. He died Feb. 29 from pancreatic cancer at age 59.

The 20-foot long ramp with an 8-inch grade was conceived by Michael Flagg prior to building it,  according to an article in The Franklin Journal years ago.

The close vote was due to a legal opinion from the Maine Municipal Association on whether the Select Board could allow the family to install a dedication plaque at the Town Office. Town Manager Maria Greeley could not find a town policy on dedicating town property and requested a legal opinion.

Susanne Pilgrim, MMA staff attorney, wrote that the legislative body “must approve the naming or dedication of town property/facilities because the name or designation of a town property is generally a legislative decision. In Wilton, the legislative body is the town meeting.”

“In addition to legal issues, there are often strong political reasons for requiring the legislative body to approve names or dedications of town property, even if it were not legally required,” Pilgrim wrote.

Select Board Vice Chairperson Michael Wells disagreed with the attorney’s opinion. He didn’t think it needed to wait a year for the next annual town meeting to see if voters approve the dedication. He said you could ask five other attorneys and their opinions would differ.

Wells said the voters gave selectpersons the authority to act on behalf of the town. His opinion, he said, is that the board approve the “good will effort of Michael Flagg” and the work he did for the town and that the board vote on it as a Select Board.

Chairperson Tiffany Maiuri said she was conflicted, not because it wasn’t a worthy project, but if they move forward she thinks there should be a process in place in case other requests come up.

Selectpersons Wells, David Leavitt and Phil Hilton approved the dedication while Maiuri and Keith Swett opposed it.

Board members also authorized Greeley to review the inscription and plaque for approval.