POLAND – More than 75 people attended a special selectmen’s meeting Thursday night to ask questions about how the town came to owe Poland Spring Water Co. roughly $2 million and who’s responsible.

Selectmen Sandra Knowles, Wendy Sanborn, Reginald Jordan, Lionel Ferland, Erland Torrey, and Town Manager Richard Chick and Assistant Town Manager Rosemary Roy were in attendance.

Chairwoman Knowles, with help from Roy, led a PowerPoint presentation outlining what TIFs are, how they work, and how Poland’s was handled incorrectly. The error resulted in the town owing the bottler about $2 million.

The originally figure of $2.7 million has been lowered due to Poland’s annual payment being made this year, and Poland Spring forgiving $200,000.

Now, the town has an interest-free repayment plan with Poland Spring that should have the problem resolved in 2013.

At Thursday’s meeting, many residents said Chick should be held partly responsible and should not have had his commission renewed in June.

Knowles defended the board’s decision to rehire him, saying, “He’s been here 35 years, and he’s given a lot to the town Mr. Chick has been here significantly longer than this p roblem.”

However, the board acknowledged he holds some responsibility.

Resident Mark Ferguson asked who taxpayers should hold accountable for the error.

Knowles said she thinks it starts with the auditor, who didn’t discover the problem during annual record inspections, then Chick, selectmen, and finally Poland Spring, who also did not discover the error.

Also at Thursday’s meeting, the board voted 4-1 to set the tax rate at $21.30, which is up from $19.60.

Selectmen opted to take $800,000 out of the town’s side of the TIF revenues to keep taxes down.

In recent weeks, many residents have been calling for immediate budget cuts, and Selectman Sanborn agrees.

“I don’t understand why we can overspend but not underspend,” she said, noting the board’s hesitation about cutting the already approved budget for this year.

Buffy Morrissette had a suggestion. “We can all dedicate ourselves to go to town meeting and tighten our belts,” she said. “It’s up to us.”