Alna Third Selectman Doug Baston said Aug. 16, residents want the board to fight for year-round residency of students’ families, so it will fight, he said. Otherwise, said First Selectman David Abbott, property taxes could eventually “skyrocket” due to a higher education tab based on the town’s student count. “You ain’t seen nothing yet ... We are going to have a mil rate of 54 instead of 20.”

Alna has school choice for kindergarten through grade 12. The board was discussing a letter from Maine Department of Education Commissioner Robert Hasson Jr. Hasson said requiring property ownership or a long-term lease is inconsistent with state law.

“(Those) should only be considered as one piece of the evidence ... superintendents use to make a residency determination,” Hassan writes in the Aug. 14 letter to the board. “The key is whether the parent actually lives in the (school) unit in which they are seeking to enroll their child in school.”

Hassan tells the board, if someone owns property in Alna but doesn’t live there during the school year, they are not entitled to enroll their child; and someone who lives in Alna, but neither owns property nor has a 12-month lease, is eligible.

“Although determination of residency can be a difficult and inexact task ... the ultimate goal ... is to ensure access to education...,” Hassan writes.

Selectmen said they will draft a response. They planned to cite an Alna tuition policy they said was part of the reorganization plan for Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12 more than a decade ago. It states in part, no tuition payments will be made on a student’s behalf unless an approved Alna residency form is on file at the district’s central office.

In a phone interview Friday, SVRSU 12 Superintendent of Schools Howie Tuttle said there may be work to be done for both Alna and the district on handling residency. He concurred with Hassan’s point that residency is superintendents’ call. Tuttle said he looks for red flags of possible residency fraud, and a town’s refusal to approve a residency form would be one of those flags that would warrant further checking.

“The town of Alna and the officials of Alna have been very helpful and supportive” in the effort to detect fraud, Tuttle said, adding, while it has been under discussion in Alna lately, the question of residency is not new.

Asked via email if the board had completed its response to the commissioner’s letter, Baston replied on Sunday, “It will probably be a while. We need to consult with the town attorney, and possibly an attorney with school law expertise.”

Also Aug. 16, selectmen unanimously approved the contract with Atlantic Salmon Federation to remove an abutment, build a platform and do other work at Head Tide Dam and an adjacent lot the town also owns. Selectmen planned to sign it later, but said that night’s vote was the final one. According to the discussion and a draft the board provided, if the town and ASF disagree on drawings, the town, as owner, has final say. ASF will provide funds for maintenance, according to the draft. The endowment will be $14,500, Baston said.

Selectmen said Whitefield selectmen have told them part of the Whitefield portion of Bailey Road might be moved. In 2015, Alna selectmen had voiced concern the road might be discontinued in Whitefield, making a dead end.