PERU — Citing work and family obligations, Selectman Corey Jacques resigned from the board Monday night. His resignation was accepted with regret from the board.

Jacques is a police officer in Lewiston and head of the DARE program.

Jacques’ term expires in June, and papers for his replacement may be taken out now, according to Town Clerk Vera Parent. The board voted to waive the required two weeks in order to get a replacement vote on the November ballot. The term will be until June 2011.

In other news, after considerable discussion, the board voted to have Acadia Construction clean the mold from the former elementary school building for a cost of $2,575.

The board will be asking for estimates to do a permanent fix to the mold problem. Selectman Rick Vaughn said he has been through the building. “We need to fix the problem,” he said.

He thinks digging needs to be done and drains put in front of the building, where water seems to be seeping in and causing the mold to grow. The board agreed to have contractors see what it would cost to do a complete job.

Board Chairwoman Laurieann Milligan said that the people of the town had voted to keep the school open for a community center and indicated there would be volunteers willing to do cleaning, but no one has come forward, according to the board.

Parent said there is no money to do the work needed to address the mold problem except the temporary fix with Acadia.

The school is not used enough, according to the board. Secretary Kathy Hussey suggested that it was a wonderful place for people to get in their walking exercise in the winter because there is so much room on the several floors.

In a separate issue, Animal Control Officer Dan Carrier says that cats living at the Holmquist home on Auburn Road are going next door to Val Gurney’s, making the yard unsafe for her children to play.

Holmquist says the cats are strays, but Carrier said that Holmquist is feeding the cats, so they are his. “If you feed a stray cat, it’s your responsibility,” Carrier said.

Milligan said the board needs to come up with some kind of ordinance to address the growing problem. Hussey said she would draft something for the board to consider.

The board agree to have Parent ask voters to approve getting a new computer and software. Parent said the money would come out of capital reserves, not out of taxes.

Parent said the new software would allow her to have a budgetary accounting system, do payroll, tax billing, assessing, motor vehicle registration and much more all on one program. The office computers would be networked.

The board agreed that an update was needed after so many years of just getting by. Milligan asked Parent to try to keep the cost under $30,000.

Parent said the initial outlay for the programs is $22,887 with an annual maintenance fee of around $4,000. A new counter computer would run around $1,000, Parent said. Parent said that increasing the vehicle registration from $2 to $4 would take care of the maintenance.