OAKLAND — The Town Council swore in a new chairman and authorized travel expenses for the Police Department’s school resource officers at its meeting Wednesday night.
The council voted to appoint Michael Perkins, who was re-elected last year, as chairman and Dana Wrigley as vice chairman. Harold Buzzell, who was on the Budget Committee, also was sworn in as a councilor.
The council also voted to pay for the Oakland Police Department’s two school resource officers, Tracey Frost and Adam Sirois, to attend an out-of-state training in July. The school department is paying the $900 application fees for the weeklong training, which is held by the National Association of School Resource Officers, and the town will pay between $1,700 and $1,900 for room and board costs.
Town Manager Gary Bowman said the training is helpful because “our world’s changing in our schools,” as drug abuse and instances of gun use become more prevalent.
The councilors also received the annual fiscal report from the Kennebec Regional Development Authority, a quasi-municipal group representing 24 communities that provides financing solutions for developments in the greater Kennebec region. FirstPark, a business and technology center located off Kennedy Memorial Drive in Oakland, is the flagship project of the development authority.
According to the report, member communities received $245,460 in revenue distributions from the KRDA over the past fiscal year. Brad Jackson, executive director of KRDA, said Oakland received $18,789 for fiscal year 2015-2016 based on a formula that takes into account the town’s contributions and property values.
The organization also has won a federal grant to go toward its marketing efforts to attract businesses to FirstPark. Jackson said the organization’s next step is to “address the building shortfall” in central Maine by developing FirstPark so smaller businesses can lease buildings easily.
Madeline St. Amour — 861-9239
mstamour@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @madelinestamour
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