HOULTON, Maine — Town Councilors on Monday evening appointed a new member to the RSU 29 school board and accepted a grant that will supply additional ballistic vests to the Houlton Police Department.
Ellen Askren, a retired longtime teacher in the district, was appointed to the school board. She was the only applicant and will serve until November.
The appointment was necessary after Karter Kenney stepped down during a school board meeting last month after he was hired as coach of the middle school girls soccer team and was no longer able to serve on the board.
He had served on the board since 2015 and was re-elected to a three-year term in 2016.
Councilors also accepted a grant of $1,236 from the federal Department of Justice to buy ballistic vests for the police department.
Houlton Police Chief Tim DeLuca said that the department bought four vests and got a fifty percent match for the grant using forfeited funds seized by police from criminals over the past couple of years.
