MINOT – Only a handful of residents attended Thursday night’s public hearing on the potential effects on municipal and education services if the tax-cap referendum passes.

With no questions or challenges forthcoming, members of the School Committee and the Board of Selectmen spoke in general terms regarding the tax cap’s effects on the town.

Selectman Dean Campbell noted that earlier estimates placing the loss of property tax revenues at about $500,000 are about right.

Campbell stressed that townspeople have done a good job keeping taxes down – the current mill rate is 14 – while, at the same time, making good progress in the quality of services the town gets for its money. Cited in particular was the condition of town roads, improvements to emergency services and in what the school is doing for the town’s children.

“We run a tight ship, reflected in the 14-mill rate and we already have our own tax cap – the one we set at the first Saturday in March, at the town meeting. If it (the Palesky tax cap) passes, it takes that option to control our own taxes away from us and could put us back about 10 years,” said Campbell.

Selectman Eda Tripp echoed Campbell’s assessment of the town meeting as, in Tripp’s words: “A town meeting form of government is the purest form in the world. We just spend what you give us.”

School Committee Chairman Colleen Quint noted that the whole tax cap debate has accomplished one very important thing – it has brought the School Committee and Board of Selectmen much closer together.

There were also a few questions regarding the request for the town to borrow up to $55,000 to install a new water supply system including a water filtration system and a heated building to enclose the filtration system, to handle water for the Minot Consolidated School.

This request will be placed on a special referendum ballot at the Nov. 2 elections seeking approval to borrow the money, most of which would be forgiven through a grant from the Department of Education. The estimated cost to the town would amount to a little over $22,000.

Quint noted that Selectman Steve French and Union 29 Building Manager Gordon Murray are still developing a cheaper alternative for securing water for the school, but townspeople need to act on the bond issuance.

Quint said that, with approval for the $55,000 bond, the School Committee will still be in a position to determine whether to go for that option for a new water system or for a cheaper system if the option being investigated by Murray and French turns out to be the better solution over the long term.