MINOT – Ending a yearlong effort to secure a safe source of drinking water for the town’s schoolchildren, the School Committee on Tuesday night approved a plan to provide the Minot Consolidated School with water from the town’s highway garage well.
School Committee member Larry Bates called the decision “a no-brainer.” Member Steve Holbrook credited Selectman Steve French for first directing the committee’s attention to the possibility of piping water the half-mile from the garage well to the school, and for cutting through the lengthy testing and bureaucratic red tape involved in a well intended as a source for public drinking water.
A year ago, the committee was saddled with a well at the school that had plenty of water loaded with plenty of radon gas, arsenic and alpha-particle-producing uranium, and the prospect of a $55,000 bill to render the water safe. In the intervening year, that cost escalated to more than $71,000. The board was asked to choose between paying that amount or the $12,000-$15,000 price tag that French’s option carries.
“We were lucky,” French said. “The wheels of municipal projects move slowly, sometimes so slow you can see the individual spokes, but in the end, what we have is a source of water that apparently doesn’t need any treatment and we’re all better off for it.”
French stepped forward with his plan last September and, since then, has worked with Gordon Murray, Union 29 director of operations, and Minot Road Manager Arlan Saunders to work out the details.
In other business, Quint, School Committee member Karen Whalen and Minot Consolidated School Principal Margaret Pitts were assigned the task of planning a community pig roast, a celebration of school and school-in-community events to take place in early June.
The committee also approved the calendar for the 2005-2006 school year. Staff will begin work on Aug. 29 and students attend Aug. 31. The last day of school, with five storm days worked in, will be June 14. School Superintendent Nina Schlikin noted that if more than five days are used, the extra days will be made up during April vacation.
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