LIVERMORE — Selectpersons unanimously voted Monday to increase the pay of Town Office employees who have stepped up to perform different duties while the board decides what to do about the administrative assistant position.

Former assistant Kurt Schaub is the new town manager of Turner.

The board held an executive session to discuss temporary job duties and negotiate a wage increase with three employees who will do the work, interim Administrative Assistant Renda Guild said Tuesday.

Guild, the town clerk, will receive a $5-an-hour increase, she said, to $21.88 an hour, she said.

Administrative clerk Jean Tardif will be the interim town clerk. Her hourly wage was raised to $15 an hour, a $2.76 increase, Guild said.

Amy Byron, who fills in when needed at the Town Office, will be the interim treasurer and tax collector. Her wage will increase from $10.22 an hour to $15, Guild said.

In other business, the board appointed Jim Bryant to the Solid Waste Board.

Selectpersons also agreed that the town will not sell trash bags at this time at the Transfer Station, she said. The town had sold them previously, but had not charged sales tax. It was agreed that there are enough businesses that sell the clear bags required at the station, Guild said.

Selectpersons will take up the three tax-acquired properties at its next meeting. The meeting will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 22, at the Town Office due to Patriot’s Day falling on April 21, Guild said.

The board also agreed there should be an article on the June 11 town meeting warrant about spending up to $104,000 for a new backhoe. There will be a second article on the warrant, in case that one fails, to see if the voters would raise $15,000 to fix the current JCB backhoe, she said.

Selectperson Rod Newman has asked to see the numbers for financing a new backhoe over five years, she said.

Highway foreman Roger Ferland told the board in February that he would like to replace the 2004 JCB backhoe/loader with a heavier machine.

Voters narrowly approved borrowing $69,614 for the machine at the town meeting in 2005. It has since been paid off. The narrow vote at the time was not about the town needing a newer machine to replace an older machine in need of repairs, but whether the town should buy a more expensive piece of heavy equipment.

The list price for the 2004 JCB was $91,205 at the time. With the discount offered of $28,798 and hourly credit of $3,179, and adding freight and optional equipment, the deal came to $69,614.

Ferland also told the board Monday that he is getting the street sweeper the first week of May, Guild said.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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