Board: Minot Selectmen

Met: Monday night

Town clerk resigns

The scoop: Selectmen Monday night accepted with regret the resignation of Town Clerk Nikki Verrill, effective Aug. 10. Verrill was hired in 1991 as deputy town clerk and became town clerk in 1999. She is leaving to work for the town of Turner as bookkeeper, deputy tax collector and deputy treasurer.

Up next: Selectmen are accepting applications for the town clerk position.

Dispatch services

Issue: The plan for a single countywide emergency dispatch center’s effect on what it costs Minot for emergency dispatch services.

The scoop: Fire Chief Steve French told selectmen he found a report that Minot could pay $53,000 a year “quite discouraging.” French said Minot’s fire and rescue calls are dispatched from the sheriff’s office on a contracted hourly rate for about $2,000 a year, and he estimated it costs about $7,000 for the sheriff to dispatch police services to the town, with a payment for that included in the town’s county tax payment. For comparison, French noted that this year’s voter-approved budget to run Minot’s fire and rescue departments, including dispatch, is $68,000.

Up next: Selectmen, noting that it appears that Lewiston and Auburn will save more than $800,000 annually by shifting costs to the smaller county towns, suggested the town might reconsider the option of having two emergency dispatch centers in the county, as the law allows, in discussion at the Aug. 23 county Public Service Answering Point meeting.

Site location permit

The scoop: Town Administrator Rhonda Irish has received word that the town will officially receive its DEP site location permit to continue development of the athletic fields parking lot and walking trails on the town’s 160-acre parcel.

Up next: The recreation committee will hold a work day Aug. 18 that will bring in some heavy equipment to complete work on the access road and the parking lot for the new athletic field complex behind the Minot Consolidated School. This will make usable the new soccer fields which will open for play this fall.

Baseball field

The scoop: Selectmen signed a project certification form allowing the town to apply for a $25,000 grant from the Maine Department of Conservation’s land and water conservation fund. The money would go toward a regulation-sized Babe Ruth baseball field.

Road paving

The scoop: Road Manager Arlan Saunders reported that paving on Hersey Hill School, Brighton Hill and Harris roads is complete, as is the parking lot at the Minot Consolidated School. Saunders noted that the parking lot has been expanded for about 15 more vehicles. Saunders also said he probably will not wait a month, as he customarily does to allow the paving the set, before beginning the road shouldering program.

– Winslow Durgin