School Committee and selectmen salaries were cut in half.
MINOT – Residents on Saturday approved spending money to make the school entrance more secure while cutting the salaries of School Committee members and selectmen in half.
They also jumped all over the highway department’s budget requests, eliminating more than $88,000 from the $642,000 requested.
The $20,000 for the Minot Consolidated School entrance was appropriated after a plot to shoot specific teachers and students was made known to officials recently. Two 15-year-old boys who attend the school were arrested last weekend in connection with the threat.
In one of its first actions of the morning, townspeople eliminated $9,800 for salaries for the selectmen and the School Committee. Selectmen went from $2,000 a year to $1,000; committee members from $1,700 to $700; and the committee chairman from $2,200 to $1,200.
Selectmen’s salaries were cut because voters thought the new town administrator would be doing a lot of the duties selectmen previously handled. The committee stipends were reduced to place them more in line with what area towns’ school committees receive.
The cutting frenzy continued after lunch when Budget Committee member Matthew Callahan called the packed gymnasium to task for failing to heed the committee’s advice on what it thought should be trimmed from the school budget.
Targeted first was the common roads budget where $35,000 was cut.
Harold Bridgham took issue with road manager Arlan Saunders’ plan to put more money into Jackson Hill Road. Saunders said it was a necessary prelude for the state to take over maintenance of the commuter runway that goes from the Auburn town line up Jackson Hill Road and Center Minot Hill Road to Route 119.
Bridgham said there was no guarantee the state would take over the road anytime soon.
Townspeople reduced the winter roads budget by $11,000 and the paving account by $42,000.
Townspeople also followed the Budget Committee’s advice by keeping the Fire Department’s funding at the 2003 level of $45,285. That amount was about $2,600 less than what Fire Chief Steve French had requested.
In the school budget, a request to add a modular classroom unit was eliminated along with $40,000 associated with the lease option payment and operation and maintenance.
Voters agreed to form a committee to take a fresh look at the best way to address the school’s needs.
For the first time voters approved funding to participate in the Poland Mechanic Falls adult education program with a $4,539 allocation.
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