School Committee officials said they support a parent group’s efforts to push forward a $2 million expansion at the Minot Consolidated School and that they have no problems with selectmen dealing directly with a parent group.

Selectmen Dean Campbell and Steve French told the School Committee that their board had received a draft copy of a petition that would place the expansion plan on the March town meeting warrant.

Selectmen were asked to determine whether the petition’s wording passed legal muster.

“We are feeling stuck in the middle. If you folks aren’t thoroughly behind us, we want to know,” Campbell said.

Lewiston:

Warren man’s charges reduced

LEWISTON – Charges were reduced against one of two suspects nabbed a day earlier in a stick-up at a Lisbon Street pharmacy.

Originally arrested for robbery, 35-year-old Stephen Peterson was charged instead with hindering apprehension.

Police believe the Warren man waited in the car while Asa Troy Thorn, 30, went into Rite-Aid and demanded OxyContin from a store clerk.

The two men drove away from the scene moments before police arrived at the scene, according to witnesses. Investigators believe Peterson may have driven the getaway car at some point during their escape.

The pair was caught when a police officer pulled over the vehicle at Ferry and Apple roads minutes after the heist was reported.

Farmington:

Arts grants spread across state

The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded grants to the Alice James Poetry Cooperative in Farmington.

The $24,000 award to the poetry cooperative will support the publication and promotion of poetry titles selected from three annual competitions.

Bates College in Lewiston also received a grant of $20,000. It will allow summer dance festival troupes to stay in town for the duration of the festival to participate in workshops and attend community events.

The NEA has awarded a total of $99,000 to six Maine agencies in its latest round of funding.

The other grants are:

• $10,000 to support the 40th anniversary season of the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival in Brunswick and the commissioning of new works;

• $25,000 to support a three-tiered approach for the development of new work at the Portland Stage Company;

• $10,000 to support the Bangor Symphony Orchestra’s production of “Back to the River – a Penobscot River Tour;”

• $10,000 to support a production of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” at the Penobscot Theatre Company in Bangor.

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