The new selectman has served in a number of other town posts.
By Duane Hayes
Special to the Sun Journal

WEST PARIS – Voters elected James Johnston as selectman, assessor and overseer of the poor at a special town meeting Wednesday. His term begins Thursday and expires in March 2006.

He succeeds Harlan Abbott, who died from injuries in a plane crash in September.

It took two ballots to elect Johnson because none of the four candidates got the required 50 percent of the votes, plus one, on the first try. That tally was Johnson 62, William Birney 42, former Selectman Terry Campbell 16, and Constance Bacon 4. On the second round, Johnson received 74 votes, Birney 39, Campbell 10 and Bacon none.

Johnston served as chairman of the Town Manager Feasibility Study Committee, is chairman of the Town Manager Search Committee, and has been a member of the budget committee for the past several years.

Voters also approved adding the position of town clerk to a job description for a town manager, a job that will become effective after the March town meeting of 2004. The town manager position was OK’d last March.

Also approved Wednesday was adding the position of road commissioner to a town manager’s duties effective after the annual town meeting in 2006. Road Commissioner Bill Keach must be allowed to serve out his term that expires in March 2006.

Adding both duties to the job description of a town manager was approved last March, but after the selectmen received word from the Maine Municipal Association that the articles were incorrectly worded it was decided to call for a new vote as part of Wednesday’s special town meeting.

Voters gave the go-ahead for the town to accept the donation of a squad truck for the Fire Department from Brian Hogan of Oxford. No town money is involved, and the only stipulation is that the unit be returned to Hogan if the town no longer needs it.

About 130 residents attended the meeting, which was moderated by Vern Maxfield.

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