MINOT — Selectmen Monday reviewed and approved the warrant articles for the annual town meeting scheduled for Saturday, March 5.

The selectmen’s recommendations stand at about $1.4 million, which is about $52,000 less than the amount budgeted for the current year.

The town Budget Committee, as of Monday night, had not completed its final recommendations. From questions the Budget Committee posed to selectmen, it appears the panel is concerned with the reduction of money coming to the town from Augusta and doesn’t want to come back with recommendations that would raise property taxes.

Selectmen noted that the list of residents who have not fully paid their real estate taxes will be longer than usual in this year’s town report and that the town is now in the process of foreclosing on a total of four properties because of unpaid 2008 taxes.

Town Administrator Arlan Saunders noted that it appears six town accounts will show overdrafts for the town’s fiscal year that ends Jan. 31. The overdrafts totaled $2,083.91 with $1,555 of that occurring in the amount appropriated for the audit, something that Saunders attributed to extra work needed to complete a final closeout of the school accounts.

“That’s a remarkably small amount. Credit is due to Scott Parker for keeping the highway accounts within budget,” Saunders said.

Saunders also reported that he had received a work order from Spugnardi Signs for replacing the “Welcome to Minot” sign destroyed just before Christmas by a vehicle that went off the road on the approach to West Minot Village.

He said he had sent a letter to the driver of the vehicle, informing him that either he or his insurance company would have to come up with the near $500 cost for the replacement.

In the report of the Code Enforcement Officer Ken Pratt noted that he had met with Daren Nichols last Friday and, as a result, expected Nichols will apply for a building permit this week to convert the old mobile home on his Old Woodman Hill Road property. According to Pratt, Nichols has agreed to place T-111 siding on the existing building by the end of April and intends to add a shed roof during the summer.