MINOT – The School Committee on Tuesday night signed onto the concept of a Tri-Town Emergency Response Plan that links Minot with Mechanic Falls and Poland.
The plan designates Minot Consolidated School as an emergency shelter for Minot residents and others if Poland Regional High School were full. It also says that in a declared emergency, officials can commandeer Minot’s school buses to evacuate residents.
Minot Fire Chief Steve French noted the plan is comparable to mutual aid agreements among towns for fire protection services and eliminates a great deal of dilly-dallying.
“If Minot has a reason to relocate, you just call Poland and say we’re coming over,” said French.
Following the lead of Mechanic Falls and Poland school committees, Minot’s adoption of the plan was “conceptual.”
Union 29 Superintendent Nina Schlikin explained that conceptual approval allows the school committees to avoid the problem of committing blindly to financial obligations that may arise as the degree of emergency preparedness increases.
Schlikin noted that the three towns likely may be asked to split costs for an emergency generator for the high school in Poland.
Last December’s tri-town emergency planning session, headed by Mechanic Falls Town Manager Dana Lee with the help of about 20 local, appointed and elected officials, identified the lack of a generator at the high school as a critical problem for a regional shelter.
The Poland Community School does have an emergency generator, but Mechanic Falls’ Elm Street School and the Minot Consolidated School do not.
In other business, the School Committee approved a contract with teachers at the Minot school. The agreement is retroactive to September 2005 and runs for three years to 2008.
Union 29 Director of Operations Gordon Murray told the committee that the budget for electricity and fuel oil will be overspent by the end of the year, probably by as much as $5,000.
Murray noted that the shortfall would have been more except for a mild January and building custodian Ray Files’ work programming monitors and other efforts to conserve oil.
Principal Margaret Pitts said she is working out details with Honeywell for a safety alert system that allows parents to be notified if she has to call off school early for any emergency.
Community Club member Wendy Simard told the committee she has decided to run as a write-in candidate for one of the two committee seats in Friday’s municipal election. Simard joins George Buker and Earl Futch, who recently announced that they are also running as write-in candidates.
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