DURHAM – Selectmen will review town accounts to determine where cuts can be made to pay for Shiloh Road Bridge repairs and town office expenses.

Selectmen said they were taken by surprise when voters refused to transfer money from the bridge account to the tar account to pay for the bridge work.

Selectmen voted in May to take $8,500 from the tar account to pay for emergency repairs, with the expectation that voters would authorize transferring $8,500 from bridge reserve account back to the tar account.

“I don’t know what to do or if we can find it in another account and transfer it,” Selectman Terry Kirk said.

Budget Committee Chairman Allan Purinton suggested an article be included in the 2004 town meeting warrant setting up an “emergency account” to be used with the approval of the Budget Committee.

He told selectmen he thought there was “still time to make adjustments” because the town has not spent all the money approved for this year.

“We still have the option to cut somewhere else,” he said.

Road Foreman Clif Larrabee asked, “If a road goes and I don’t have the money, what do I do? What happens in future emergencies? I’m not taking it out of my budget. Somebody’s got to step forward here.”

Administrative Assistant John White said cuts would have to be made to make up for $4,437 voters refused to transfer for higher than anticipated insurance costs, workers compensation and a failing computer.

He did not say where they could be made.

In both cases, voters would not have been raising additional tax dollars, only transferring funds from the existing unappropriated fund balance.

Selectman Mike VanDerWerf placed some of the blame for voters’ actions on selectmen.

“We didn’t explain this at town meeting at all,” he said.

In other business, selectmen put off signing a new three-year winter snow removal contract with Larrabee Construction that was approved by voters. They will first confirm the number of miles of town roads to be plowed.

Selectmen gave Fire Chief Bill St. Michel the go-ahead to put the 1989 E350 van used by the first responders up for sale as soon as the new unit is put into service on Saturday. No asking price was set, as it was decided to accept offers.

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