PERU — The Board of Selectmen debated Monday evening whether to reconsider its vote to hold an election for a selectman next June, and instead hold it in January.
The vacancy on the board occurred Nov. 3 when Selectman Lee Merrill was elected road commissioner, requiring him to resign immediately.
On Nov. 23, the selectmen voted to hold an election next June.
However, Selectman Jim Pulsifer said Monday that he thought it would be prudent to revisit the vote and schedule a special town meeting in January to fill the open seat.
“We’re going to be putting our revaluation out to bid, and putting out a RFP for assessing, and I really think we should have a full board for that,” Pulsifer said. “We were told that we should have the full cooperation of the board, and this is important stuff coming up. We should have a full board for that.”
Selectman John Witherell said that in the past, when there was an open seat that needed to be filled, the board “kicked up a stink and said that there wasn’t enough money.”
“I don’t see what difference it makes having four people on the board, or five people,” Witherell said. “You’ll still have the full cooperation of the board, whether there’s four or five people.”
“We never kicked up a stink,” Pulsifer said. “We just decided that we didn’t need to fill in that position at that particular time.”
Chairman Larry Snowman agreed with Pulsifer, and urged Witherell and Selectwoman Wendy Henderson to consider revisiting the vote.
“I think it’s something that we should be considering,” Snowman said. “I originally thought we should wait, but Jim’s right. We should have a full board when deciding some of these things.”
“Well, I disagree with you,” Witherell said.
Secretary Angela Barkhouse said there was enough money in the budget to cover a special town meeting in January if the board decided to hold one.
Pulsifer said that if the board stuck with a four-person board until June, he could “foresee how this is going to go.”
“There’s going to be 2-2 votes over and over again,” Pulsifer said.
“You don’t know that, Jim,” Witherell said. “Don’t predict the future.”
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