Ogunquit News
Wells responds to Ogunquit school buyout proposal
By Melissa Wood
OGUNQUIT - The town of Wells has responded to Ogunquit's $40 million school buyout proposal by asking for more money, a beach parking lot and a delay in the school funding proposal going before the legislature.According to Acting Town Manager Loring DeAgazio, Wells' counteroffer asks for $44 million and ownership of the parking lot at North Beach, which runs along the town line between Ogunquit and Moody, but is actually in Ogunquit, said DeAgazio.
He said that Wells also asked that Ogunquit postpone the Maine State Legislature's hearing of Legislative Document 1123, a bill on the Wells-Ogunquit School District, by carrying it over to the second session of the legislature.
That legislation would change the current method for school funding from a two-third property valuation, one-third pupil count to a method that uses one-third for property valuation, two-thirds for pupil count.
"They want us to delay going any further with it for right now," said DeAgazio, who added it may be too late to move the proposed legislation from the first session of the legislature - when it decides on most laws - to the second session, where it mostly addresses unfinished business.
DeAgazio said he did not know when the Ogunquit Board of Selectmen would be ready to respond to the Wells offer.
"They have begun the deliberative process," he said, "but have not formed a formal proposal yet."
Ogunquit currently has between 48 and 52 students in the Wells school system and pays approximately $90,000 per student to the town of Wells for those children to attend school there.
