WEST PARIS – Selectmen spent the majority of their regular meeting Thursday updating a long-range road improvement plan that they started during the summer of 2005.

Town Manager and Road Commissioner Donald Woodbury said most town roads are paved but there are still some in the Stearns Hill area that need to be considered as top priorities to get them paved.

“We have a dwindling number of dirt roads at this time,” Woodbury said, “and we need to consider them as high priority roads as we complete a plan for road improvements to be done in the future.”

He said this summer has seen some ditching and culvert work on those roads as well as others but more needs to be done.

Woodbury noted that initially $1.5 million has been considered as being needed to upgrade all the town roads but that figure was only a rough estimate and needs to be updated.

Selectmen agreed and set a plan to put one to two roads out to bid before the annual town meeting next March to see if voters are willing to further fund upgrades on roads that Woodbury and Road Foreman Bill Keach plan to prioritize.

“We should list roads and consider intuitive usage as to the amount of traffic and the number of houses on the roads and move up and down the list until we know what roads should be considered the highest priority in regards to needed repair,” Woodbury said.

Chairman Bill Birney added, “I agree and we need first to make a determination of what needs repair the most and go on from there.”

In other business, Woodbury announced that the town has saved $3,900 through its membership in the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments by purchasing road salt and heating fuel through the group. The town’s dues in AVCOG are set at $1,700 per year.

Woodbury also announced that the town office will closed on Sept. 19 to allow him and his staff to attend a clerk’s workshop sponsored by the Maine Municipal Association. The workshop is designed to help staff members renew their state certification.