DIXFIELD – Town officials are seeking several volunteers to serve on the Comprehensive Plan Committee. They are expected to update the town’s 1989 plan.

At town meeting Saturday, voters agreed to raise $30,525 for the work. Of that amount, up to $7,631 is to be raised through taxation. The remaining $22,894 is to be covered with a grant, which was approved by the Office of State Planning.

At Monday night’s Board of Selectmen meeting, Town Manager Nanci Allard advised the board that it would soon have to advertise for volunteers to carry out the extensive planning work.

In other town meeting business, voters defeated Article 23, which sought to use the secret ballot process as the town’s method of voting on all warrant articles. Also known as the Australian Ballot process, it included election of officers, the annual budget and special articles.

Resident Ralph Clarke led the move to defeat the article, saying, “There are only two towns in Maine that use this. If you want to give the powers that be a blank check, then vote for this article. If not, vote it down.”

A majority did just that, defeating the article.

Voters also agreed to raise $179,620 for the police department budget, but not until after the Finance Committee and Chief Richard A. Pickett explained the difference between the committee’s $179,620 recommendation and the $174,620 recommended by selectmen.

Committee Chairman Bentley Crosby said his group sought to fund a secretary for the chief, and to compensate for overtime.

But Pickett said there was no need for the town to pay for a secretary because another organization had stepped forward and offered him a part-time secretary.

He said the overtime involved a need to provide $5,000 as a cushion to offer to full-time employees first, when reserve officers could not be found to fill shifts.

“If you want 24-hour coverage, that’s the cost of doing business. It’s very difficult to get reserve officers on shifts,” Pickett said, adding that many of them have other full-time jobs.

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