Advisory Board discusses priorities for town
By Caitlyn Kelleher

Town voters may soon consider changing the Town Treasure/Collector position to an appointed position instead of an elected position.

A change to this set up would have to be down through both an annual town meeting vote and an annual town election.

Melody Gallant, who holds the position, said the duties and responsibilities of her position are determined by the state laws and they are very technical.

Gallant has served in the position for 14 years and said the fact it is an elected position can be "dangerous for the town" because someone without experience with financing can be elected.

On a list of priorities for the Advisory Board has created this year, the change of the collector/treasure position is in the middle of the list.

Advisory Board members ranked their priorities for the town's financial step up this week, with the goal of starting all departmental budgets 1 percent lower then they are this year and to start the budget process in the early fall instead of the winter.

The board members also discussed combining some of the town offices into a Land Use Department instead of individual departments.

Chairman Ken Burstall said this is to try to get some "economy of scale."

As their second priority, the board is also suggesting the voters agree to move the town meeting back to a Saturday. In 2005 the annual town meeting was moved to the first Tuesday night of May instead of the first Saturday of May.

The move was done to try to increase attendance at the town meetings.

Resident Preston Baker, who was at the board meeting, said that attendance was just as low on Saturdays as it is on the weekdays. He said in both cases the attendance hovers around 200 people.

The board is also looking to section off some of the money collected through the landfill contract, return some of the money from the ambulance receipts to the general fund and have each department create a five-year business plan.

The board is met with Selectmen on Wednesday after press time to begin discussing these goals. Both boards expect the conversations to continue for a couple of weeks.