WEST PARIS – Newly elected selectmen Wade Rainey and Howard Gurney were welcomed to the board Thursday by Town Clerk Cheryl Shattenberg.

The two filled seats vacated recently by the resignations of Mary Waterhouse-Spear and Toby Whitman.

Both Rainey and Gurney are longtime veterans of town government.

Gurney was one of the founding fathers for the town when it received its state charter in 1958, and served for many years on the Board of Selectmen through the 1960s. After that he served the town of Rangeley for several years during the 1970s as a selectman and town manager. Then he returned to West Paris to once again serve on the board during the 1980s and early 1990s.

Rainey served on the Board of Selectmen for nine years from 1991 to 2000 serving as chairman on three occasions.

In welcoming the new selectmen, Shattenberg said, “They bring experience and enthusiasm with them and I look forward to working with them.”

After the welcome, current Chairman Harlan Abbott announced that he is stepping down as chairman, and Rainey was elected to serve in that position.

After being elected, he said, “I tried to get Howard to do it, but he declined. He told me where he is only in for a short time (until next March), it would be better for me to take it for more continuity.”

Rainey was elected to serve a term lasting until March of 2005.

The selectmen then went on to vote unanimously to purchase a security system for the office from Great Falls Security Systems of Auburn.

According to Rainey, the system will be expandable for a cost of $925. The purchase price includes keypad, monitoring system and indoor and outdoor alarms. It was also voted to include a monthly reporting system, which will report who accessed the office during each month by name. The cost for that service is $360 for the year.

In other business, selectmen authorized Shattenberg to hire an auditing firm to install and activate a new computer accounting system at a cost estimated to run from $300 to $600. An actual set price could not be quoted, as the time needed to transfer the records from the current system cannot be precisely predicted.

Shattenberg feels the new QuickBooks Pro program will probably be the best system, but she plans to get the advice of the auditors as to what is best. If QuickBooks Pro turns out to be the system of choice, she said, the cost will be $260.