LEBANON, Maine — The Lebanon Selectboard voted Saturday to hire a law firm to try to stop the town's regional school district from winterizing a vacant school building, arguing the district effectively closed the school without letting Lebanon voters decide its future.

At a brief special meeting Oct. 31, the board unanimously approved hiring Smith Trial Lawyers on a $3,500 retainer, plus $275 an hour once the retainer is used up. Board members said the firm planned to send a cease-and-desist letter to Maine School Administrative District 60 on Monday. MSAD 60 serves Lebanon, Berwick and North Berwick.

Board members said the district plans to winterize the building on Wednesday. The letter is meant to stop that work and, they said, to require the district to keep the building heated and its systems running until the two sides meet.

Fears for a 1952 building

During the meeting, a board member described the risks of shutting down the 1952 building for the winter. The member said water would stay trapped in the low points of its aging steam and hot-water heating pipes even after the main valves were drained, and could freeze and split cast-iron pipes and radiators.

The member also warned that without heat, moisture in the brick walls could freeze and thaw repeatedly, damaging the masonry. Dry plumbing traps could let sewer gas back up into the building, and humidity could trigger a building-wide mold outbreak by spring. "If they just mess up on one thing, that building will be ruined," the member said.

Other members said they suspected the district would prefer to tear the building down. "If it gets ruined, then it's gonna obviously need to be demoed," one said. "That's what they want to do."

Some members raised a concern that a cease-and-desist on winterizing could leave the town liable if a cold snap hit while the building sat unheated. They said they wanted the letter to require the district to maintain heat, and that they would take the question up with the attorney.

Dispute over closing process

Board members said the district moved students out of the building and into the Hanson School without following Maine's formal school-closing process. That process requires a vote in the affected town. They also pointed to the district's legal duty to care for and repair school buildings.

Members said the district has cited "lack of need" as its reason. They said that clashes with the district's push to expand school space in Lebanon. "They use the reason for not necessary, but yet they're busing our kids and they want to build a new school here," one member said.

This is the second school year the building has gone unused for classes, according to discussion at the meeting. One member said the school board had discussed starting the closing process but never voted on it or brought it to the town.

Board members said a formal closing would let Lebanon voters choose whether to keep the school open or take back the building. They noted that if the town voted to keep it open, Lebanon could be billed for the costs the district would otherwise save by closing it. Members said the town paid for the building before the district acquired it, and that they had sent the deeds to the attorney.

"They're taking away our rights to vote for taking that school back, or whether it's the building or the school," one member said.

A meeting with the district had been planned for Nov. 5. Board members said whether it goes ahead will depend on the attorney's advice, and that they want it held in Lebanon with their lawyer present.

Long bus rides

During public comment, a Lebanon parent said their fifth grader rides the bus about an hour each way. Before a route change this week, the child usually arrived between 8:38 and 8:42 a.m. for an 8:40 start, the parent said. The parent added that the change took the district a year to make.

MSAD 60 officials did not speak at the meeting.