HARTFORD — Voters at the annual town meeting Thursday night declined to appropriate nearly $60,000 for public safety in 2012-13, opting instead to spend $35,798 for the second year in a row.
Selectman Lee Holman said Friday that Canton, Buckfield and Turner have each asked for up to 300 percent more to provide Hartford with fire services in the coming year. The vote means “we have to go back and negotiate” the contracts with those towns, she said.
Voters also defeated an article that would have continued the policy of not plowing a part of Gurney Hill Road to its easterly end.
Kyle and Sarah Lalamand have built a home there and started a family, and asked the town to take over the winter plowing.
Someone said the family had full knowledge of the town’s policy when they chose to live there, but another said that if it’s true that the town wants to grow, then not helping newcomers is inconsistent with that.
Town maintenance on the road will enable rescue trucks access as well.
Sworn in as Budget Committee members were Dan Maddox, Barry Langer, Neil Hanley, Harley Swanson and Bob L’Heureux.
By a vote of 15-26, voters rejected changing the road commissioner’s position from elected to appointed.
Jeremy Johnson is in the final year of his two-year term for the job.
Some asked if the change would give selectmen more control over the road situation and Holman said it would.
Dale McNeil said Johnson is doing a good job with the funds available, but several disagreed.
Maddox said the Budget Committee had been dealing with road commissioners for five years and plans had been ignored over the years.
Voters approved of selectmen investigating the possibility of relocating the waste transfer station from Gurney Hill to another site.
Jennifer Adams made a plea for $700 to help pay for removing mold in the Zadoc Long Free Library in Buckfield, which the town uses. The request was approved.
A request from Jim Bouchard for $795 for Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice was also approved.
A request for $1,000 for the American Red Cross was cut to $300, and request for $500 for Safe Voices was cut to $350.
Voters passed a total budget of $712,125.
Moderator Steve Wight led about 40 voters through 61 articles in three hours.
Staff Editor Mary Delamater contributed to this report.
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