HARTFORD – Selectmen Lee Holman and Scott Swain accepted the written resignation of fellow selectman Peter Theriault without comment at the board meeting Wednesday night.

Nomination papers for the vacated selectman seat are available at the town office and due back by July 28. A special election is scheduled from 2 to 8 p.m. Aug. 12. Absentee ballots are also available at the town office.

In other business, selectmen received a letter from part-time resident John Sharratt, restating an offer to exchange land Sharratt owns on Route 140 for land the town owns and plans to use as a sand/salt storage site on Gurney Hill Road.

Sharratt, who owns property on Gurney Hill Road, stated his desire to keep the road residential. He feels his property on Route 140, not far from the town office, is more centrally located and offers easier access than the Gurney Hill Road site.

Selectmen tabled the issue until a future meeting to consider Sharratt’s offer.

In other business, Holman resigned from her position as transfer station attendant. Applications are being accepted at the town office for the Saturday position. Pay rate is $8 per hour.

Selectmen heard from Jeff Sterns, who is leading a cost share project with the town and Oxford County Soil and Water Conservation District.

With grant money from the Environmental Protection Agency, matching funds from the town and a donation from the lake association, Sterns is completing a three-year project correcting erosion on sites around Canton Lake.

According to Sterns, one of the major threats to Maine lakes is posed by soil erosion and accompanying phosphorus, which causes rampant algae growth.

As a result of a watershed survey done around Canton Lake in the late 1990s, 74 priority erosion sites were targeted and improved.

Sterns would now like to turn his attention to erosion on Church Street, which is negatively affecting Thompson Brook and Pratt Hill Road, located on Bear Pond.

Sterns has identified 173 erosion sites on little and big Bear Ponds, he said.

According to Sterns, the Church Street project has been estimated at $4,000. Grant money would only cover $700.

Selectmen will decide whether to go forward with the project in the coming months.

The Pratt Hill Road project will go forward, with the town funding $3,500 and a matching grant of $3,500 covering the remainder of costs.

Stern will meet with the town’s highway foreman, Bim McNeil to design the project. Bim will complete the work.

“We have had a great cost-sharing partnership with this town for four years,” said Sterns. “I’m psyched to go forward.”