SKOWHEGAN — Interest-free loans in the amount of $6,500 for college-bound students were approved by selectmen Tuesday, continuing a higher-learning tradition that dates back more than 45 years.

Selectmen approved the loans to three recent high school graduates from the John and Florence Higgins Educational Loan Fund.

The money annually goes to graduates who will use it to attend a college or university. Graduating seniors fill out applications for the loans at the high school, where school officials select the recipients, said Skowhegan Town Clerk/Treasurer Gail Pelotte, who administers the program.

“It’s done every year around this time,” Pelotte said. “The high school determines who the recipients are.”

The fund was set up in 1969 using money from the estates of John W. and Florence S. Higgins. It makes interest-free loans to college bound seniors at Skowhegan Area High School.

Under the terms of the Higginses’ wills, recipients are selected by a panel of school administrators called the Higgins Loan Committee. The town handles the money, including collecting the payments. There is no minimum payment or a set time period in which the loan must be repaid.

The educational loan program “is one of the little gems that makes this community so rich,” a former selectman said in a published report about the loan fund.

Pelotte said the original donation from the Higginses was $50,000, on which the town continues to collect interest. The current amount in the loan fund is about $347,000, Pelotte said. She said $311,000 is currently out in loans. Students have four years plus a one-year grace period to pay the money back.

“The money that comes back from those loans goes back into the revolving loan fund,” Pelotte said. She said her office sends out letters to loan recipients on a regular basis, reminding them of their duty to repay the loan.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com

Twitter:@Doug_Harlow

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