LINCOLNVILLE – Dec. 18 looms large with two key issues that face the town.

That’s the date of a special town meeting at which residents will be asked to vote on at least two questions determining the fate of the old school and on at least one question on the future of the town police department.

Selectmen voted Monday night to call the meeting, but will refer their intent on the questions to the town attorney to refine the wording. The board is expected to complete the warrant for the special meeting when it meets Nov. 27.

Selectmen were scheduled to address both the school and police issues at their Monday night meeting, but stopped short of any action.

At issue with the Lincolnville Central School, which has been closed since April due to the presence of an airborne fungus, is whether the building is worth work to save it for municipal use, or whether it should be demolished to make room for a new school. School committee members say a new school built on the site of the old building would cost less than building on acreage behind the old school.

A committee charged with recommending demolition or rehabilitation failed to reach consensus, throwing the matter back to selectmen last month. Meanwhile, a group has mobilized to investigate again whether the school can be salvaged.

At Monday night’s meeting, Town Administrator Skip Day announced that he had received a petition bearing the signatures of 112 residents calling for a secret ballot vote in January on spending $10,000 on a feasibility study on saving the school. The petition also asked that a local building evaluator be hired to look at all the studies made on the building in recent months.

Then in April, the petitioners want to see a hearing held at which the school question would be considered again.

Selectman Dinnie Thorndike noted that at an information meeting last month, residents indicated in a show of hands their preference to demolish the building. The issue should ultimately be decided at a town meeting, Selectman Walt Simmons said.

Selectmen Greg Boetsch and Ernie Littlefield said they favored having an independent agency such as the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention evaluate the building.

“We want to get someone in here to tell us if it’s worth saving or not,” Littlefield said, adding that NIOSH would evaluate the building at no charge.

“I really wish they had been called back in April,” said Paul Sampson, chairman of the committee that was to have made a recommendation on the building. He said that the town needs to have a new school ready by September 2003, when its lease with MBNA New England for a temporary school in Northport runs out.

“Every week, if we’re trying to go for that date, is important,” Sampson said.

Thorndike said it was unlikely that anyone would go on record saying the building was safe. She also suggested the board should give the building to the school committee to let it decide its fate.

“It’s going to cost a lot to maintain the thing,” she said. “It’s a lot of building,” she added, and doesn’t lend itself to any of the town’s immediate needs such as for a fire station.

Selectman Betty Johnson made a motion that the school be returned to the school committee, but it died for a lack of a second. Thorndike, who is expecting to leave town next spring, said earlier she didn’t think it appropriate that she vote on any big issues.

After more discussion, selectmen agreed to call the special town meeting Dec. 18, and include the question suggested by the petitioners on raising $10,000 to further study the building. The board also agreed that another question be added to the warrant asking residents if the school should be returned to the school committee.

Resident Dick McLaughlin suggested residents could also be asked whether they favored building the new school on the site of the old school, or building it on land behind the old school.

On the fate of the police department, selectmen decided to ask residents at the Dec. 18 meeting whether they want to hire a full-time chief to take retiring Chief Rick Osgood’s post. That question was put before voters on Nov. 7, with 591 in favor and 606 opposed.

Selectmen feel that they can get a better understanding of the town’s feeling on the question in a format where they can answer questions and accept comments.

Earlier in the meeting, Boetsch made a motion to downgrade the police to constables, but the motion was defeated. Boetsch and current Chief Rick Osgood exchanged angry words about the status of the department, but the discussion ended quickly.