MINOT – Spontaneous applause followed moderator John Geismar’s announcement that voters at Saturday’s town meeting had passed a proposal allowing Minot residents full access to the Auburn Public Library.

“A person from Minot will have the same standing as an Auburn citizen. It’s the most reasonable way for the town to buy into a library program,” Selectman Dean Campbell said.

The town’s Budget Committee had recommended against raising $15,000 to provide Minot residents library cards for the Auburn facility. The reasoning ran that now Minot residents can buy a card for $70, and as about 70 Minot residents currently have cards, it should only cost about $5,000 for current users.

Ed Cormier, speaking for a group of Minot residents pushing the proposal, explained that more was at stake than library cards, and that this was an opportunity for the town, which can’t afford a full-service library on its own.

In another show of hands, a substantial majority of the 93 voters in attendance Saturday said ‘yes’ to warrant articles that formalized the town’s entry into the cemetery business.

Voters agreed to take over ownership and maintenance of West Minot’s Riverside Cemetery and the Center Hill Cemetery along Center Minot Hill Road, and to spend $50,000 to purchase a 17-acre lot to expand Center Hill.

Voters approved the full $35,000 requested to complete the funding for a baseball field at Minot Memorial Park, and authorized using $5,500 in recreational impact fee money as a match for another recreational trails grant. This will add another mile to the growing network of walking trails in the park.

Road Manager Arlan Saunders’ $661,000 budget request, which includes $41,700 as the first third of the bill for a fully rigged plow truck, sailed through with little discussion.

Questioned on whether $165,000 of that would be sufficient funding for the winter roads account, given that the town’s budget year began Feb. 1 and storms have been frequent since then, Saunders said he hoped it would be enough, “if the storms stop real quick and if you people will stop doing your snow dance.”

Voters approved a major revision to the shoreland zoning portion of the land-use code and approved other amendments that allow the town’s land-use code and land-use map to conform with the town’s new comprehensive growth management plan.

Also, Summit Drive off Grange Avenue was accepted as a town road.

The School Department’s $4 million budget was approved without any cuts in funding or program proposals. However, there was a great deal of criticism for a new format that broke individual budget lines into new groupings. The state’s new “chart of accounts,” according to school officials, made it difficult to compare the present budget with past budgets.

Despite this, voters agreed to accept the budget for two reasons: It calls for the same level of property tax commitment as the current budget, and because school officials made it clear there will be a special town meeting to revisit the budget this spring once Augusta releases firm figures for the town’s share of state aid for education.

At that time, voters will act on a plan that reduces arsenic in the water at the Minot Consolidated School to acceptable levels.

Selectman Steve French estimated the cost at between $10,000 and $30,000, and noted that with the $3,000 approved Saturday, there is now $6,000 in an account to address the problem.