The Waldoboro Select Board gave Town Manager Julie Keizer authority to accept an offer of more than $300,000 for Friendship Street School after an executive session on Tuesday, May 10.
Keizer confirmed during a Wednesday, May 11 phone call that there is an offer she plans to accept that is worth more than $300,000.
“We accepted the highest offer,” said Keizer.
Keizer said she couldn’t release any more details at this time. Residents will vote on whether to approve the offer during the June 14 annual town meeting by referendum.
The Waldoboro Select Board amended the warrant article for the annual town meeting related to the sale of Friendship Street School during its meeting on May 10. The amended article will ask voters to authorize the town to sell the building to the “highest bona fide offer on the open real estate market and on such other terms and conditions that the select board deems to be in the best interest of the town.”
A previous draft of the article asked voters to give the board the option to sell to developer Ron Phillips, the only respondent to a request for proposal if the town did not receive a “bona fide offer.” Keizer said the town has received many offers on the property.
The annual town meeting by referendum will be held Tuesday, June 14. Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
In other business, the select board gave unanimous approval to Emergency Medical Service Chief Derek Booker to enter into a purchase agreement for a new ambulance.
After providing the select board with quotes from Sugarloaf Ambulance/Rescue Vehicles, of Wilton, and Professional Vehicle Corporation, of Rumford, Booker explained why the town needed to start an order now for a vehicle that will not be available until 2024.
“If we wait until 2024, with the way the leads are now, we won’t see it until 2026,” Booker said. “Not to scare anyone but if I wait it could jump to 36 months. We do not pay a cent until we get the truck. If I get the OK we would enter a purchase agreement that locks in the quotes.”
During the select board comments, Selectman Bob Butler discussed electric charging stations and the need for them in the near future. Butler said he and Town Planner Max Johnstone have been researching stations for Waldoboro.
“They are expensive. The pay back is long. The tide is coming. People are going to be using them more frequently and more often. It’s inevitable,” Butler said.
No action regarding electric charging stations was taken.
