Nearly 400 attended the town meeting Wednesday.

MONMOUTH – Town meeting voters Wednesday rejected plans for new municipal projects totaling more than $1.3 million.

The defeated measures – for a new police station, a salt and sand shed and a public works garage – drew criticism from people who complained that the projects were too big and would push taxes too high.

And people complained that they’d seen similar, though smaller proposals, before.

“To me, it defies logic,” said Selectman-elect Stephen Kolenda, who led each of the reject votes.

People overwhelmingly defeated the projects last time, including a garage proposal for one fourth of the cost, Kolenda said.

The construction had some supporters, though.

Longtime resident Paul Flohn spoke out in favor of the new work, including the shed and the garage, proposed to cost more than $1 million in total.

“To sit here and bury our head in the sand and say we don’t need them is ludicrous,” Flohn said.

Others spoke in favor of the new police station, a proposed replacement to the mold-invested former headquarters. Currently, police work out of the town office.

“To not give them a place is an insult,” Dr. Fred Ackley told the crowd, one of the largest in memory.

The audience was so big that the meeting started 45 minutes late, time needed to check-in each of the nearly 400 voters who attended.

At one time, the line of people stretched out the door of the Monmouth Academy Gymnasium, along the walkway outside and into the parking lot.

Cliff Goodall, who moderated his 25th annual meeting Wednesday, said he had only once seen a crowd this big.

The average attendance for the annual town meeting is between 140 and 160 people, said Town Manager Steven Dyer.

Despite opposition to the municipal projects, the large crowd passed school measures with little discussion.

The school’s $6.2 million budget passed as recommended by selectmen and the School Committee.

Only when the talk turned to town spending, did the discussion turn.

Once, after a resident suggested that supporting the new construction might be patriotic, boos and catcalls erupted from the audience.

Then, the moderator interrupted.

“If you believe in democracy, if you believe in what the troops are dying for, then you sit here quietly and let democracy have its night,” Goodall said.

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