A nonprofit school has apologized to Alna selectmen for posting 15 mph speed limit signs on a local road.

Selectmen had wondered what led to the signs' appearance along Golden Ridge Road, near the Juniper Hill School, after Fire Chief Mike Trask told the board about them November 15.

“This is the first I've heard of it. I think (the signage) needs to come down,” Second Selectman Jonathan Villeneuve said.

“It's an illegal posting,” former selectman and longtime town meeting moderator Chris Cooper said.

The signs could confuse motorists who are “screaming right along” at the road's 45 mph speed limit, with no signs warning of a reduced speed limit ahead, Trask said.

Selectmen said no one had asked them for permission to make that area 15 mph.

In interviews November 16 and 17, Alna Road Commissioner Jeff Verney, Maine Department of Transportation officials and Alna Planning Board Chairman Doug Baston all said they had not been asked, either.

A message left November 16 for Juniper Hill School's founder Anne Stiles was not immediately returned. However, a member of the school's board of trustees later began a series of emails with Villeneuve.

“Putting (the signs) up was not fully thought through, just a mistaken extension of putting up signs along the school driveway.

“The Wiscasset Newspaper has called and we just want to know if there is anything else we need to know about the situation, other issues (or) punitive measures,” Willard Morgan wrote. “We have no desire to cause any problems here …. We will take them down for now and wait to understand the best process.

“We apologize for stirring the waters without coming to the board first.” Morgan wrote.

Villeneuve wrote back to Morgan that he “could not imagine any punitive actions nor would I support them.” He would let the school know when the board had done more research into the process for posting speed limits, Villeneuve wrote.

Speed limits typically need MDOT approval, but school zones are an exception, MDOT officials said. Towns have the authority to create 15 mph zones around schools, according to Peter Coughlan, director of MDOT's community services division. “(A) school needs to request that through the town officials … ” Coughlan wrote to the Wiscasset Newspaper.

The signs have to include the times of day the 15 mph limit is in effect. The ones on Golden Ridge Road did not.

If selectmen support having the signs there, those times would need to be added, MDOT officials said.

Susan Johns can be reached at 207-844-4633 or sjohns@wiscassetnewspaper.com.