Gorham voters in November will decide whether to approve borrowing money for school repairs and road rebuilding, but a question about replacing an old fire truck won’t be on the ballot.

The two referendums total $1,775,500.

The Town Council on Tuesday unanimously sent to referendum a school request for $1,175,500. The money would be used for school building repairs and upgrading classroom door locks. A public hearing on the referendum will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 6.

Last month, Gorham councilors put a street reconstruction project on the ballot.

Voters will be asked to approve borrowing up to $600,000 as the town’s share of a $2.2 million rebuild of Main Street in Gorham Village that includes replacing century-old water mains. The town will partner in the project with Portland Water District and the Main Department of Transportation.

The water district will pay $500,000 as its share and the state will kick in $1.1 million.

But the Town Council Tuesday postponed to January a decision on whether to authorize a referendum asking voters for $800,000 to replace a 27-year old ladder truck for the Gorham Fire Department. A new ladder truck could be on the ballot next spring.

“We can live with going to June,” Gorham Fire Chief Robert Lefebvre told councilors, but said the price of the truck could rise after Jan. 1.

The street reconstruction will run from the intersection of Johnson Road through the downtown to the square. Then, it would continue up State Street to just beyond the entrance into the University of Southern Maine campus.

In the referendum request, the Gorham School Department had sought funds that would have upgraded the high school intercom and school security cameras. But Town Councilor Matthew Robinson made a motion, which passed, to amend the order to include roofing repairs, door locks and mechanical projects. New locks would eliminate the need for teachers to go into halls to lock down classrooms in case of emergencies.

Town Councilor Shonn Moulton pointed out that if new security cameras were financed by a 20-year bond, they could become obsolete before they would be paid for.

Resident Craig Stirling of Canal Street urged the Town Council Tuesday to trim the security cameras from the School Department’s referendum request. Stirling said cameras are not real security.

“It’s window dressing,” Stirling said.

But, Dennis Libby, School Committee chairman, said Public Safety has access to cameras. Under the initial borrowing request, 60 cameras at Gorham High School would be replaced, Norm Justice, director of the Facilities Department said.

In other action, the Town Council after a lengthy debate unanimously, postponed action on a measure to divide the town’s Ward 1 into two voting districts. The proposal would add the Little Falls Activity Center as an additional polling place for Ward 1, whose residents now vote at Gorham Middle School on Weeks Road.

Adding another polling place would shorten travel distance for residents in the northerly area of the ward. Under language on Tuesday’s agenda, Ward 1 voters who live north of Little River would have voted at the Little Falls location.

But town councilors didn’t agree that Little River should be utilized as the ward’s dividing line, and Town Council Chairman Michael Phinney thought it would be confusing.

Other ideas councilors bandied about as the dividing line included Huston Road, Queen Street and Main Street. Adding a polling location would cost an additional $4,500 per election, Town Manager David Cole said, without counting initial start-up costs of notifying voters by mail and the expense of another ballot machine.

With the measure postponed, the June 2016 election would likely be the earliest adding another polling place could be implemented.

At Tuesday’s Town Council meeting, Libby announced school start dates. He said the first day of school for kindergarten and grades 6 and 9 would be on Monday, Aug. 31, and all other grades will start on Tuesday, Sept. 1.

Libby also told town councilors that Stacey Sawyer has been appointed as assistant principal at Great Falls Elementary School. Sawyer previously taught grades 3 and 4 for several years at Village and Great Falls schools. Sawyer has been the lead literacy/math teacher at Great Falls the past three years at Great Falls.

Gorham Town Council Chairman Michael Phinney refers to the town’s voting map during discussions Tuesday to divide Ward 1 into two voting districts. The measure was postponed. Staff photo by Robert Lowell

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