MINOT – The Board of Selectmen announced Monday night that a public hearing will be held next week on the status of the Old Buckfield Road

It is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9, at the Minot Consolidated School gymnasium.

Four months ago, George and Mary Buker asked selectmen for an official ruling on the road’s status.

The stakes are high on both sides. If the road is an official town way, then the Bukers and others who own frontage along the approximately 1.5-mile road have some prime developable land, and the town would be obligated to improve the road to at least “passable.”

Two weeks ago, selectmen asked Road Manager Arlan Saunders to prepare an estimate of what it would take to make the road passable. On Monday night he presented his findings: $115,000 to cut the right of way and build a 16-foot-wide gravel road along the 3,650-foot section from the Turner town line to Buker Farm and 3,370 feet from Buker Farm to the Murphy house near Brighton Hill Road.

Also Monday, selectmen voted to hold a referendum in conjunction with the Nov. 2 general election asking townspeople to authorize tapping the Maine Bond Bank to pay for the school’s new well filtration system.

The state Department of Education has reserved up to $55,000 for Minot’s project through the revolving renovation fund. Money coming through this fund is about 60 percent grant and 40 percent loan. Townspeople will be asked to repay a little more than $22,000 at no interest for five years.

Saunders also told selectmen that the group bid for road salt, made through the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments, came in at $41.80 a ton. This is an increase of $9.15 per ton over last year’s bid amount. Saunders said that this could increase the town’s budget by about $9,000 unless the town is very careful with its application of salt.

Saunders said he was looking into retrofitting town equipment to use calcium in a pre-wet compound, which he believed could save the town significant money. He said it would cost about $1,500 per truck and he ought to gain a 25 percent reduction in the amount of salt, but noted he was still considering his options.

Resident Dennis DeCoster asked selectmen what the town is going to do about the impact of the tax cap, and he wondered why selectmen had been so quiet about how it might affect the town.

Board Chairman Dean Campbell said if the tax cap passed, it probably would mean a 40 percent cut in all town services.

Selectman Ralph Gilpatrick added that the board didn’t want to come off sounding as if it was trying to scare people.

Campbell said everything and everyone in town will obviously be affected. With further prodding he agreed that perhaps it would be a good idea if the town held a public hearing in October on what the effects might be.

Selectmen accepted, with extreme regret, Mike Hricko’s resignation from the Planning Board. Hricko cited family obligations that would keep him from focusing sufficient attention on board work.

The board also appointed Gilpatrick to serve as vice chairman following the resignation of Selectman George “Buster” Downing.