WEST PARIS – A special town meeting is scheduled for Nov. 12 to elect a selectman to fill the position of Harlan Abbott who died hours after a plane crash Sept. 14. near Greenville.

The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the Agnes Gray School gym, selectmen decided Thursday.

Chairman Wade Rainey said Abbott’s term runs through March 2006.

Voters will also be asked to amend the town manager job description to include the position of town clerk, which was inadvertently left out when people voted to change to a town manager form of government last March.

Townspeople will also be asked to add the position of road commissioner to the manager’s duties after March 2005, when Road Commissioner Bill Keach’s term expires.

Rainey said there may be another article regarding accepting a grant to assist the Tri Town Ambulance and Rescue Service in buying a new ambulance, “but we are not sure whether that issue will be included or not at this time.”

Public notices and an official copy of the warrant will be mailed to taxpayers later this month.

Selectmen also announced Thursday that the state preliminary valuation for the town shows a rise of $3,200,000 to $73,200,000. They decided to appeal it to the Maine Revenue Service.

“I didn’t expect that much,” Selectman Howard Gurney said. “Penley’s mill closed last year and that should have made quite a difference in the state’s assessment of the town. I think they should give us a break.”

Rainey agreed, saying the town’s valuation has increased at an alarming rate since 1990. “Our valuation has climbed at a wicked rate over the past 12 years or so,” he said.

“We can go over there (to Augusta) and talk with them. It certainly can’t hurt,” he said.

Gurney said the town has appealed on other occasions, and he remembered one case when the state lowered the figure by $500,000.

The board plans to request a speed survey by the state transportation department on all in-town streets. Residents along Pioneer Street raised concerns about safety in that area.

The board will ask that the speed limit be lowered from 30 and 35 miles per hour to 25 miles per hour on all streets.

“We can only request 25 miles an hour, but the final decision will be up to the DOT,” Gurney said.

Children playing signs are also planned in strategic locations around the village, especially on Pioneer Street.

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