Cape Elizabeth officials are exploring hiring a lobbyist to help the town identify, pursue and receive federal stimulus money for which it is eligible.

Town Manager Mike McGovern, Superintendent Alan Hawkins and several town councilors and School Board members met Thursday morning with James Cohen, partner with Verrill Dana law firm of Portland.

The Cape officials peppered Cohen for an hour with questions about how his firm could help the town qualify for and receive stimulus money.

They then agreed to allow McGovern to begin negotiating a “reasonable” fee for Verrill Dana’s help in pitching the town’s project proposals to the state, McGovern said. The decision to hire the law firm is in the exploratory stages, McGovern said. Costs would be paid from the town’s legal-service fund.

The overall costs to hire a lobbyist are not known yet and there are no estimates as to how much money Cape could receive or qualify for, McGovern said.

Cohen told officials that the town’s best chance lies in applying for energy assistance, for which $9 million is currently allocated to Maine for competitive bidding.

“You need to focus on a handful of projects that you can make a good case for,” Cohen said. “You need to put together a package that will show how your town will benefit and how it’s going to put people to work. Then you need to take that proposal to as many people as possible.”

Among projects that Cape could use stimulus money for is installing windmills on municipal property and certain residential properties. The council has already approved a set of zoning ordinance amendments that would allow windmills of up to 100 feet tall on both municipal property and qualifying residential properties.

“I think finding ways to use stimulus money to fund energy projects makes sense,” Town Council Chairman James Rowe told Cohen on Monday. “I know the state is looking for shovel-ready projects and we have already conducted an (energy) audit and have an Alternative Energy Committee report on alternative energy.”

The state allotted money to the 10 largest towns in Maine to use for energy projects. Cape, with fewer than 10,000 residents, has to compete for any energy funds available, McGovern said.

“A lot of this is political,” McGovern said. “We’re not one of the biggest towns in the state, so we didn’t qualify for that money. We need to compete for it, which is where Mr. Cohen’s firm could help.”

A lobbyist would also help the town identify deadlines and areas where it could qualify for stimulus money, as well as explain any stipulations attached to the money. The Build American stipulation, for example, states any steel used in a project must be American-made.

Education funds were also a concern at Thursday’s meeting.

In late March, Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron informed Hawkins that Cape Elizabeth would be receiving $504,000 less in general purpose aid than it did last year.

Hawkins said he has been trying to contact state education officials to get an explanation for the decrease and to see if it could be changed before the Legislature votes on its final budget this week, but to no avail.

“It’s frustrating,” Hawkins told Cohen. “It seems like the state’s communications with us have just shut down.”