MINOT – Selectmen Monday night postponed action on a Planning Board recommendation that the town adopt a development impact fee and dedicate the money to future school expansion.

Code Enforcement Officer Ken Pratt presented a plan that based the impact fee on the number of bedrooms that each new home built in Minot has been designed for.

“The Planning Board found that the number of bedrooms has the most direct impact on the school due to the fact that the square footage or cost of a home make little difference to the cost of sending a child to school,” said Pratt.

Pratt noted that this approach allowed for a clear connection between development and its impact on the school. He said this was an absolute necessity for the validity of an impact fee.

Discussion bogged down on a number of issues, including how to count bedrooms, whether the school was the only municipal service impacted by development and what the amount of the fee should be.

Unable to resolve these issues, selectmen agreed to meet with the Planning Board on May 6 to hash out their difficulties with the implementation of impact fees.

In his report, Road Manager Arlan Saunders told selectmen that the road posting signs are now down and roads are now open to heavy weight vehicles, that the concrete pad for the new fuel tank has been poured and that he expects to have the 3,000 gallon tank in and ready to go by the end of May.

Saunders also said that the turnaround on York Road had been completed.

Selectmen also took a formal vote committing the town to participate in the Maine Department of Transportation’s Jackson Hill project. Saunders said that as a result of some favorable bids, his budget would be able to absorb the town’s 10 percent share of the project’s cost. The town’s share will be $23,000.

Selectmen also named Dean Campbell to serve as their representative on the Androscoggin River Watershed Council.

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