MINOT – Selectmen Monday night formally accepted the warrant for the March 5 town meeting. Funding requests contained in budget articles totaled $4.7 million – education requests account for about $3.2 million, with town funding articles amounting to $1.5 million.
Town Treasurer Connie Taker indicated the materials for the town report, which include the town meeting warrant, have been gathered together and almost everything is at the printer.
Taker said she expects copies of the town report to be availble by the end of February for residents to pick up.
Sometime after discussion on the warrant, Hersey Hill Road resident Mary Buker presented a petition asking selectmen to include an article calling for the town to accept a portion of the former Old Buckfield Road as a public way, and to provide funding to fix up the old roadway.
The portion of the road in question, which selectmen declared “presumed abandoned” a few months ago, extends from just off Brighton Hill Road to Hersey Hill Road. No dollar figures were included in the request.
As the deadline for submitting warrant articles was passed about two weeks ago, selectmen indicated it was unlikely they could include it at the March town meeting, whereupon Buker offered a petition calling for a special town meeting.
Selectmen said they would take the matter into consideration and respond in two weeks.
Road Manager Arlan Saunders told selectmen he expects notification that the state Transportation Department has approved the reclassification of Jackson Hill and Center Minot Hill roads, in preparation for state takeover, effective April 1, 2005.
“This is 3.88 miles of road that we no longer have to maintain. Our obligation is to do snow and ice removal only,” said Saunders.
Saying that he had heard nothing from Old Pottle Hill School Road developer Chuck Starbird or his attorney, Scott Lynch, Saunders also asked the board whether he should forward to them the name of an engineer who might be interested in evaluating the condition of the proposed roads’ sub-base.
Two weeks ago, some questions arose about whether Starbird and Lynch wanted to deal with Saunders as he, Saunders, had questioned whether two candidates they had proposed were suitable.
At that time, Lynch said they would bypass Saunders and simply give the Board of Selectmen reports for engineers of their choice.
Selectmen advised Saunders that he should contact the engineer to determine whether he was interested and, if so, to forward his name to Starbird.
The board took under review Fire Chief Steve French’s proposed policy for billing insurance companies for services that Minot Fire and Rescue might provide at vehicular accident scenes.
According to the policy, money raised from the source, pending March town meeting voter approval, would go into a capital reserve fund to purchase equipment for the department.
In other business, selectmen approved the Community Club’s request to hold a bingo night on April 9 to benefit the Minot Consolidated School, and accepted Taker’s request to rescind her earlier resignation as town treasurer.
Selectmen also took note that the Planning Board will hold a public hearing today at 7 p.m. at the town office for comment on the consolidation of the town’s land-use ordinances into one document.
Comments are no longer available on this story