WEST PARIS – Town Manager John White told selectmen Thursday that the highway department fuel budget has been used up. Other accounts will have to cover costs for the rest of the year.

“Due to the stormy winter and rising cost of diesel and gasoline, we have expended all of the funds budgeted for vehicle fuel in the highway equipment account. Funds in remaining line items can be used for future fuel purchases however, and the road foreman and I will be closely watching the expenditures for roads,” said White.

He said the town budgeted $20,000 for the department’s fuel, “but because the costs rise practically every day it just was not enough.”

In other matters, White said he filed an application for a USDA grant from the Federal Rural Development Fund that will help defray the cost of a new fire truck ordered from the Southern Fire Equipment Co. of Jasper, Ga.

He said the grant would be for $30,000 and would cover most of the equipment that will be installed on the 2008 Freightliner that will be joining the town’s fleet later this summer.

Finally, the board voted to schedule a public hearing for 5:30 p.m. in the town office meeting room on Thursday, May 22. At the hearing people will have a chance to learn the specifics of a proposed ordinance regarding posting weight limits on town roads in the spring and to comment.

“The selectmen can enact the ordinance on their own, but a public hearing is required by law to give people a chance to enter into the discussion if the wish. In this case there does not need to be a vote taken at a town meeting as long as a hearing is held,” said White.