MINOT – Selectmen initially couldn’t quite believe what they were reading in a certified letter the board received from Adelphia, the town’s cable television provider.
The letter, which selectmen discussed earlier this week, informed the board that unless Adelphia was told otherwise, it would conclude that the town was satisfied with the terms of the present agreement and, that being the case, the agreement would remain in effect unchanged until Dec. 10, 2019.
“It’s quite ludicrous for them to resort to that type of negotiation when, for more than two years, we have tried to get them to sit down with us and talk about some of the problems we have with the existing contract,” said Selectman Eda Tripp.
Tripp noted that, on several occasions, the board has set up appointments to have local Adelphia representatives at regular selectmen meetings, “and then for some reason, they don’t show up.”
In response to the Adelphia communiqu, selectmen ordered a certified letter be sent to Adelphia, informing the town’s cable television provider that the board wanted to meet as soon as possible to renegotiate the present contract, and that it certainly does not want the present contract extended without change until 2019.
In other business, selectmen and George and Mary Buker resolved their dispute over when the town would vote to accept a portion of Old Buckfield Road as a public way. The matter will be taken up at the annual town meeting in March 2006.
The dispute arose in mid-February. Selectmen ruled that a petition calling for a vote to accept Old Buckfield Road between Brighton Hill and Hersey Hill roads and to provide funds to fix the old roadway was submitted two weeks after the deadline for articles for the March 5 town meeting.
The board’s ruling produced a legal quandary. On the one hand, Maine law states that selectmen have to put a citizen petition article on the town meeting warrant or call a special town meeting within 60 days. On the other hand, the petition specified that the matter be brought up at the annual March town meeting.
After George Buker made it clear that he wanted the vote on the acceptance of the road to take place at the March 2006 town meeting, the board voted to place the article on the next town meeting warrant.
The board also appointed Candace Benwitz as a full voting member of the Planning Board, named Deborah Collins as interim Emergency Management Agency director, appointed Brad O’Connor and Edward Haley Jr. to the Budget Committee, and named Dennis DeCoster as an alternate Budget Committee member.
Later this week, selectmen will be interviewing candidates for the town administrator’s position, in hopes of filling it within a month.
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