By Winslow Durgin,Special to the Sun Journal

MINOT – A public hearing on an application for a permit to further develop the town’s 160-acre municipal/school/recreation complex this week drew few comments from selectmen and none from residents.

The property contains the town garage, central fire station, town office, school and ball fields. The town wants to add a soccer field east of the school and a three-mile network of walking trails.

The $7,554 cost for the Department of Environmental Protection permit and licensing fees sent the Recreation Committee scrambling to avoid having to dip into $20,000 townspeople earmarked for the soccer field. Local donors kept the project on schedule.

Also Monday, selectmen received a report from the Impact Fee Review Committee, which suggests additional fees to support expansions in recreation and fire and rescue services.

An impact fee of $2,000 is assessed on each new house constructed in town to offset the cost of new school construction. A per-foot charge on new subdivision streets is also under consideration.

Selectman Steve French suggested town department heads and school officials meet to learn what the development impact fee is all about.

Selectman Dan Callahan agreed, “This impact fee stuff is written by lawyers. If it weren’t for lawyers, we wouldn’t need lawyers. What we need is an explanation in layman’s terms of what the impact money can be used for and what it cannot be used for.”

Road Manager Arlan Saunders told selectmen he purchased a roadside mower last Thursday from government surplus in Augusta.

“It cost us about what it cost us to rent one for a week, and we normally rent one for two weeks every summer,” he said.

The next selectmen’s meeting is July 3, and the Planning Board’s is July 11.

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