POLAND – The Board of Selectmen will attempt to put its house in order Tuesday while discussing myriad related and ongoing political issues.

Selectmen will need to determine their own status as a board, which procedures they will use, which attorneys to contract for the town, whether to tape its meetings, and whom to appoint for board vacancies.

The regular selectmen’s meeting is at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Town Office on Route 26.

In addition to lingering housekeeping items, selectmen will hear a proposal from Barbara Strout to place three articles on the next town meeting warrant that deal with growth, according to Tuesday’s agenda.

Strout’s proposed articles includes placing a housing moratorium in rural residential and farm and forest zones, according to a letter from Strout to Town Manager Richard Chick dated July 15. Strout also proposes aligning the town’s ordinances with its comprehensive plan.

Her third request for a warrant article involves buying two pieces of property on Route 26 and moving the town’s transfer station there. The town would then turn its current dump site into an industrial park. One of the lots Strout suggests buying is co-owned by selectman David Corcoran, and is listed for $259,000. The second lot is Just Friends Restaurant and is listed for $275,000.

Strout is expected to make a presentation on her proposals at the selectmen’s meeting, according to the agenda.

As for the selectmen’s rules and appointments, the board received legal advice Aug. 11 from town attorney Geoffrey Hole of Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson, P.A. of Portland, as well as from outside attorney William Dale of Jensen Baird Gardner & Henry, also of Portland.

Attorneys differed in their opinions of whether the selectmen constituted an independent board or a standing committee. They did agree that the board could decide for themselves. They also agreed that the board chairman has the right to participate in votes and can run meetings as his prerogative until three members of the board object to his actions.

Once established as a board or committee, selectmen then face officially adopting a set of procedures, such as the latest edition of Robert’s Rules of Order.

As an independent board following Robert’s Rules of Order, reconsideration of a previous vote can only be motioned by someone who voted on the winning side. As a standing committee, reconsideration can be raised by someone who voted on the winning side or did not vote at all.

Also on the agenda is the issue of whether to tape board meetings to provide a record of their actions. Meetings currently are televised on Adelphia’s local public access channel. However, they are not recorded on audiotape.

Selectman Glenn Peterson placed on Tuesday’s agenda the issue of retaining a new attorney for the town.

The discrepancy in procedures has stalled the board in filling a Planning Board vacancy left by Sue Ellis’ expired term in July. She had asked to be reappointed but did not receive enough votes to be placed back on the Planning Board.

According to Tuesday’s agenda, selectmen now have to deal with the expired term of the Planning Board’s chairman, Carl Duchette, who also seeks reappointed. The selectmen’s recent appointment of R.C. Carlson to the Board of Appeals now stands void because Carlson has not yet claimed Poland as his legal residence. Carlson, serving in the military, currently claims another state as residence even though he lives in Poland and plans to retire to Poland permanently in October.


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