MINOT — Selectmen learned Monday that their appointment of Julie Rioux to fill Ellie Biron’s recently vacated seat on the Regional School Unit 16 School Committee was only good until the March 2014 annual town meeting.
“I received an email from the RSU,” Town Administrator Arlan Saunders said. “State law has been changed and we will need to elect someone then to fill out the balance of the term.”
When selectmen appointed Rioux at their last meeting, they were under the impression that she would serve through June 30, 2015, the date Biron’s term was scheduled to expire.
“Not so,” Saunders said. “Apparently, when they they wrote the new school consolidation law, they changed it to the effect that selectmen can appoint until the next regularly scheduled municipal election.”
In Minot, the annual town meeting is held, by tradition, on the first Saturday in March, with voting for the Board of Selectmen and School Committee taking place the day before.
In other business:
* Selectmen awarded a bid on a tax-acquired woodlot off Hadfield Road to Conrad Soucy who bid $10,552 for the landlocked, 25-acre parcel.
Selectmen received a total of eight bids, ranging from $2,500 up.
Three of the bids, including Soucy’s, came from abuttors who live on Hadfield Road.
* Code Enforcement Officer Ken Pratt reported that he and Saunders met with James Hakala and Ian Wallingford last week and came to an agreement on the location of property lines for the lot Hakala purchased from developer Chuck Starbird on York Road Extension.
With questions regarding the property line resolved, Hakala was issued a building permit.
* Highway Supervisor Scott Parker reported that he has begun construction of the 38-by-44-foot addition to the Town Garage.
Town meeting voters approved spending up to $35,000 for the addition, which will house equipment that currently is parked outside.
* Fire Chief Dean Campbell announced that the West Minot Fire Co. will hold a Community Day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 10, at the Central Fire Station on Woodman Hill Road. There will be games for kids and a food sale, part of a fundraising effort.
The department’s firefighting equipment, featuring the recently acquired mini-pumper, Engine 1 and Mechanic Falls’ ladder truck, will be on display.
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