Voters approved cutting and selling timber, but not how the proceeds should be used.

MINOT – The school committee Tuesday night considered its response to an e-mail received earlier in the day requesting selectmen ask the committee to hold off logging the 70 acres of land the town purchased a little more than a year ago.

The land, adjacent to the Minot Consolidated School, was purchased as prelude to the expansion of the school and to the development of some athletic fields.

However, in a referendum vote taken last November, townspeople rejected the school committee’s plans for additions and renovations to the school building and the development of the fields. Voters also failed to fund designs for the school renovation work and to complete an engineering design for an access road to the athletic fields.

Full implementation of the plans was estimated to cost $3 million dollars.

However, one of the items on the referendum ballot did pass, authorizing the cutting and selling of timber on the land, with the proceeds to be placed in escrow for the development of the athletic fields.

Believing it had approval, the school committee in early spring advertised for bids on the harvesting and a month ago awarded the bid to Harold Bridgham.

The e-mail questioned the school committee’s authority to order the cutting and expressed concern that, as there is no officially accepted overall development plan for the land, trees that shouldn’t be cut might be cut.

“Selectmen have a number of concerns and we really need to sit down and compare notes before we go any further,” said Steve French, the board of selectmen’s liaison to the school committee.

School committee member Colleen Quint defended the school committee’s action, “I believe the job to bid out the work was given to the school committee.” Board Chairman Lisa Bridgham expressed frustration, “We have gone through a legal bid process. Where was the select board during this process? I wish your (French’s) board came forth a month ago.”

Discussion concluded with Bridgham asking French to put the matter of timber harvesting on the agenda for the next selectmen’s meeting.

In other business the school committee approved hiring MaryBeth Koletsky as full time social worker and Heidi Strait as fifth grade teacher. It also approved hiring David Snell Sr. to serve as head bus driver and approved hiring for the summer school session. Barbara Rimmer and Brenda Williams were hired as reading teachers and Jenn French as math teacher with Ann Turgeon as her assistant.


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