CAMBRIDGE — Voters at Saturday’s Town Meeting will consider authorizing selectmen to start the process of withdrawing from School Administrative District 4.
The meeting, at which voters will consider approving a proposed $353,315 budget, is scheduled for 10 a.m. at Cambridge Town Hall. At the meeting, residents also will be asked to elect by a show of hands a third selectman and town clerk. Ronald Watson currently serves as third selectmen and Donna Sawyer is town clerk.
Michael Watson, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said Wednesday that a group of residents over the years has talked about withdrawing from the school district so last year an exploratory committee was formed to look at the issue. This year, that committee recommended the town withdraw. One of the reasons for withdrawing is to save costs.
Fifty-four to 58 students from Cambridge attend schools in Guilford, Watson said. The committee recommends that, if the town withdraws from SAD 4, students attend the alternative organizational school structure in Harmony. Harmony, which is 5 miles from Cambridge, takes students in kindergarten through grade eight. High-school-age children could attend schools in Guilford, Dover-Foxcroft or Dexter, according to Watson.
In other matters Saturday, voters will be asked to recommend that the Legislature amend the charter of Hospital Administrative District 4. Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft is in District 4, and there is a proposal to merge that hospital with Northern Light Health. The goal of the amendment is to protect towns and give them the right to vote on the merger, selling or renting the district, according to Watson.
“Most people don’t realize the district can lay a tax and we can be taxed for a certain percentage of running the cost of the hospital,” Watson said.
In other matters, voters will be asked to take $38,000 from surplus to build a 4-inch-thick, 80-by-144-foot salt and sand pad on Route 150 near the old town landfill. Watson said the town had to move the municipal pad off private property this year.
The state Department of Environmental Protection “gave us a one-year permit to put it on town-owned property,” Watson said.
Amy Calder — 861-9247
Twitter: @AmyCalder17
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