By Lindsay Tice,Staff Writer

PORTLAND – Two oil companies are fighting about who owns a tank of heating oil.

Caught in the middle: 14 school systems and towns that prepaid for the oil and now need it to heat classrooms and public buildings; SAD 58, headquartered in Strong, is one of them.

The oil in question is stored in a tank in Oakland at Petroleum Products Co-op of Maine. Irving Oil Corp. says it sold the oil to PPCOM, but says the company hasn’t paid for it. Irving attempted to retain ownership of the oil this week by parking one of its trucks to block PPCOM’s access to the tank, according to PPCOM.

School districts and towns that had prepaid the Oakland dealer for the oil were afraid they weren’t going to be able to get it, but, according to SAD 58 Superintendent Quenten Clark, Irving and PPCOM reached an agreement Tuesday while they were at U.S. District Court to argue the matter. Irving agreed to deliver the oil to the customers that had prepaid, Clark said, but the matter of who owns the oil – PPCOM or Irving – will be decided in the Portland court in two weeks.

PPCOM sent a letter to its customers advising them to make alternative arrangements for heating oil – immediately.

The 14 school systems and towns, including Belgrade-area’s SAD 47, Strong area’s SAD 58, Fairfield area’s SAD 49, Waterville and Oakland, aren’t so sure they’d go along with the deal. Taxpayers, they said, could get stuck paying hundreds of thousands of dollars twice for the same oil.

At the hearing Tuesday, their lawyer said the schools and towns might decide to search for oil elsewhere. Or, without the budget for more oil, they might close school and cut services.

Waterville Superintendent Eric Haley said Waterville schools, SADs 47 and 49, and Hall-Dale also have thousands of gallons of prebought oil tied up in the facility. Superintendents from SADs 47 and 49 attended the Portland hearing Tuesday and were unavailable for comment.

If the judge rules in favor of Irving, and Irving refuses to honor the co-op’s agreement, the districts and orphanage that prebought oil through Waterville could be out nearly $100,000 apiece, and in some cases, more. The amount of Waterville school district oil still in the holding tank amounts to “around a $36,000 investment,” Haley said, and “assuming the estimate (of the amount still needed) was accurate and if you go by today’s rate,” Waterville will have to spend more than $50,000 to buy enough oil to last through the spring – a total loss of about $87,000.

SAD 58 is still owed about 19,000 gallons of heating oil it has paid for, said Clark.

Even if approved, the Irving-PPCOM agreement would not pertain to gas and diesel.

A hearing on the full Com case has been set for April 10.

Maggie Gill-Austern contributed to this report.