MINOT — Selectmen, responding to a letter from Regional School Unit 16 Superintendent Tina Meserve stating the town’s July payment was $6,741 short, agreed on Monday to take care of the problem at their Aug. 3 meeting, by which time the district will perhaps have passed a budget.

The town received a bill from RSU 16 for July in the amount of $155,362 but approved paying the district $148,621.

Selectmen did so because that was the monthly amount the town had been paying under the contract for the 2014-15 school year and voters had failed to approve a budget for the 2015-16 school year.

Meserve’s letter pointed out to the board that although voters had rejected the $20.7 million budget at a referendum held on June 9, residents who had attended May’s districtwide budget meeting had approved a budget at the $20.7 million figure and that state law says the district can bill district towns at the amount approved at the last districtwide budget meeting until such time as a budget finally passes a referendum vote.

That meant that Minot owed RSU 16 some $6,741 for July and that that amount was due by the end of the month, Meserve wrote to the board.

Selectmen noted that there was no provision for paying the $6,741 on the warrant for the meeting, but agreed to make sure the problem would be addressed at the board’s Aug. 3 meeting.

Selectmen also noted that, as a revised 2015-16 school budget is scheduled for a referendum vote on July 28, it is quite possible the district will have an approved budget prior to Aug. 3 and they can cut a check for the exact amount owed.

In other business, selectmen honored two Boy Scouts for public service projects that benefited townspeople.

Evan Gallagher and Nick Santos recieved plaques and the personal thanks of the selectmen. The projects as part of their Eagle Scout requirements.

Gallagher designed and constructed an 11-by-11-foot sand shed in the public works yard and Santos built and installed more than 20 bat houses around the town’s athletic fields.

Town Administrator Arlan Saunders told the board the new culvert for Cool Brook’s crossing at Goodwin Road had arrived earlier in the day and that he expected it will be installed the week of Aug. 10.

Saunders noted that this fits well with plans for the summer paving program, which includes Grange Avenue and Goodwin Road, scheduled for sometime in September.

Saunders also reported that Russell Brown completed work on Center Hill Cemetery and had been able to do a little more than he had anticipated.

Brown straightened a number of stones in the oldest section of the cemetery.

Steve French, reporting in the absence of Fire Chief Dean Campbell, told the board that work on the foundations for additions at the town’s Orchard and Central fire stations is off to a fine start. Frost walls and concrete pads have been poured and, French said, major work on the Central Fire Station addition should begin this week “with the pounding of nails.”

Selectman and Chief Assessor Eda Tripp reported that 68 tax liens were recorded at the county registry of deeds last week, at a cost to the town of $1,300.