WALDOBORO – Lincoln County may be the third-smallest county in Maine, but it is growing faster than all but one.

For Steve Cole, project manager for Coastal Enterprises Inc. of Wiscasset, it’s right in the middle of things. “It’s a very convenient place to live,” he said.

That convenience and location may be among the chief reasons Lincoln County has seen its population climb 11 percent in the past decade.

It is flanked by Maine’s two smallest counties – Sagadahoc to its southwest and Knox to its northeast. And it is an easy commute to plentiful jobs in Bath, Portland, Augusta or Rockland, Cole said.

Figures from the 2000 census show Lincoln County’s population at 33,616, ranking it second in population increase among the 16 counties. Ten years ago, the figure was 30,357, and in 1980, 25,691.

Only York County is growing faster.

Waldoboro stands out among county towns in landmass and people. In the past 10 years, the town has grown in population to 4,915, up 6.8 percent. Its 72 square +miles make it the largest of 19 towns in the county.

Over the past decade, according to Town Clerk Rebecca Maxwell, the added population has resulted in increases in town services. There is a full-time Police Department, which has grown to seven officers, and a full-time ambulance service, staffed 24 hours a day.

A full-time public works department also has expanded to about eight employees.

Growth is evident by the increasing numbers of building permits being issued by the town’s code enforcement officer for housing. According to Code Officer John Black, only 19 permits for new single-family homes were requested in 1990, compared with 31 in 1999.

Waldoboro has three public schools – Miller Elementary, A.D. Gray Middle and Medomak Valley High schools – which are part of SAD 40.

The district, which is made up of Waldoboro, Warren, Washington, Union and Friendship, is in the early stages of planning either renovations to the middle school in Waldoboro, building a new seventh- and eighth-grade addition or a districtwide facility. Adding a classroom wing to high school is also under review.

Enrollment figures over the past decade have actually decreased in most of the elementary grades in Waldoboro, but have risen at the middle school level.

Signs of a growing population are plans to build a $600,000 addition to the town office and a multimillion-dollar community recreation center.

The surge in population in Lincoln County has had an effect on Miles Memorial Hospital in Damariscotta, which is about to start a $10 million expansion.

“Our hospital has had a significant increase in inpatient volume,” said Scott Shott, director of development and community relations for Miles Health Care. In the past five years, there has been a 60 percent increase in outpatient services, he said, and a 28 percent rise in inpatient volume.

The 32-bed hospital will have six beds added and a new intensive care unit, he said.

Between the hospital, a nursing home, assisted living community, retirement community and home, health and hospice services, and Miles Medical Physicians’ Practice Group, Miles Health Care employs about 730.

Shott attributes the hospital’s growth to more people moving into the area, as well as the closure of Bath Memorial Hospital, which was phased out over the past few years.

In two Lincoln County towns, populations slightly decreased over the past 10 years.

One of Maine’s biggest tourist havens – Boothbay Harbor – dropped in population by 3 people, and Monhegan Plantation, another summer resort, went from 88 residents to 75.

Jaimie Kleinstiver, executive director of the Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce, pointed out that the area’s population swells in summer to an estimated 50,000 to 55,000.

Perhaps because of increasing property values along the coast – from Route 1 to the water – people are going inland, Steve Cole said, where land is more affordable.

The shift inland is evident in the population increases seen in Alna, Dresden and Whitefield, increases of 18.2 percent, 22 percent and 17.7 percent, respectively.

Both housing and land are more affordable, he said, and those towns are close to larger communities like Bath, Brunswick and Augusta.