Selectmen are looking for guidance in interpreting town ordinances.

MINOT – Selectmen will seek a legal opinion on interpreting town ordinances regarding when building permits may be issued for lots along new subdivision roads.

At last week’s public hearing, the board, with George “Buster” Downing absent, split 2-2. Dean Campbell and Ralph Gilpatrick supported the Planning Board’s interpretation that would allow building permits to be issued once a road was judged to meet town standards. Steve French and Eda Tripp held that permits could be issued only after the road had been formally accepted by the annual March town meeting.

The hearing had been called after Dan Carroll and Kurt Youland, developers of the Center Minot Heights subdivision, asked for a clarification of town ordinances.

Although Downing sided with Campbell and Gilpatrick Monday night, the board agreed there was sufficient question to warrant seeking an outside opinion.

Town Administrator Gregory Gill said he had spent 25 hours documenting the history of the four ordinances that deal with roads, establishing the dates for all changes, with identification of exactly what was changed, over the past 30 years.

This information, the board said, was being forwarded to the Maine Municipal Association and it hoped to be in a position to rule on the question of when building permits could be issued at its next meeting.

As follow up to its meeting two weeks ago with Old Woodman Hill Road residents to discuss traffic safety in the Minot Corner area, the board voted to ask the state Department of Transportation to place a sign prohibiting traffic heading from Mechanic Falls toward Auburn on Minot Avenue (Route 121) from making a left turn onto Old Woodman Hill Road. It also voted to place “no thru way” traffic signs on Old Woodman Hill Road – in both directions – and to place a “no trucks beyond this point” sign on Old Woodman Hill Road to discourage truck drivers from exiting onto Minot Avenue.

The board also asked Old Woodman Hill Road resident George Paiton if he would circulate a petition that would request MDOT to place a blinking yellow light to warn motorists of traffic hazards in the Minot Corner area.

Road Manager Arlan Saunders relayed a request from Don Hemond asking that the town close a section of Route 119 on May 9 in order that tests for noise levels at Hemond’s Moto-X track could be conducted without interfering highway noise.

Selectmen authorized Saunders to close Route 119 to all but local traffic on May 9, for approximately 9 a.m. to noon, rerouting traffic off Route 119 onto Center Minot Hill and Shaw Hill roads.

After opening bids for new culverts and the summer’s paving/reclaiming bids, selectmen awarded the contract for culverts to E.J. Prescott with a low bid amount of $8,598 delivered. They awarded the paving/reclaiming bid to Blue Rock Industries with a total bid of $219,339.

Announcing that the concrete pad for the fuel containment area had been poured, Saunders publicly thanked Auburn Concrete for a substantial discount on the concrete mix and Rick Nichols and Sons for the donated reinforcing steel rebar. This allowed him to keep costs for the 10-foot-by-20-foot pad to under $350.

Saunders also publicly thanked G.A. Downing for its donation of a new self-contained portable toilet unit that will be installed in the town’s mobile highway office – the reconditioned castoff school bus.

Hersey Hill Road resident George Buker asked selectmen for a determination on the status of the Old County Road shown on maps as Old Buckfield Road.

Buker wanted to know whether the road was still a town way.

Selectmen said they would research the question and report back to Buker in two weeks.