About 50 percent of eligible voters exercised their right.
WEST PARIS – Tuesday’s voter turnout was one of the highest ever for an off-year election, town officials said Thursday.
Town Clerk Cheryl Shattenberg said there were 594 votes cast out of a possible 1,142 registered voters, or about 50 percent.
“I thought the turnout was great,” she said.
Selectman Howard Gurney added, “I can remember only about two or three times since we became a chartered town in 1958 that we have had this high a turnout at an off-year election. Usually you don’t get more than 35 voters or so. So I’d say the turnout was pretty good.”
The general feeling of the board was that the casino issue most likely was the biggest reason that the numbers were so high.
Following the discussion regarding the election turnout, the board voted unanimously to authorize Shattenberg to forward final payment of the donation approved by the voters last March for the Tri-Town Ambulance and Rescue Service, which amounts to $4,776.
She explained that the total approved at town meeting was $13,776 and, when asked by Chairman Wade Rainey if the money is available, Shattenberg said that the payment will not be a problem.
The rest of the donation was forwarded to Tri-Town in two earlier installments during the summer.
Finally the board agreed to pay the cost of a quitclaim deed that will be signed and turned over to the town relinquishing the mineral rights held by Frank Perham on town-owned land where the transfer station is located to the town.
Gurney explained the original owner of the land, Stanley Perham, turned it over to the town many years ago, but he kept the mineral rights. At this time, however, his son Frank holds those rights and wishes to give them up because he sees no use to hold them on what is nothing but swamp land.
“I think everything is spelled out in the original deed when Stan turned the land over to us,” said Gurney, “so all we have to do is take the information from the original deed and have a quitclaim deed made up for the mineral rights only. That should be simple enough, and I’ll find the old deed so the girls in the office will have the information they need.”
The vote to pay for the deed as soon as it is received from Perham was unanimous.
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