SWEDEN – Residents have petitioned for a town meeting Saturday to vote on an ordinance giving them the power to oust selectmen.

Jean Bouchard said if voters accept the new law, he and a group of about 30 others who are disenchanted with Selectman Dana Nason will take the next step and seek his recall from the three-member board.

“We need to replace Dana Nason,” Bouchard said Thursday. “He’s not doing a good job.”

Repeated phone calls to Nason’s home and a message left on the town office answering machine were not returned Thursday.

Bouchard said residents had to call for a special town meeting because Nason refused to sanction it in his role as town leader.

According to Maine law, residents can force selectmen to hold a town meeting if they gather enough signatures. Bouchard said 45 signatures of registered voters have been collected.

“It just goes over the selectmen,” Mike Starn of the Maine Municipal Association said Thursday. “If selectmen don’t want to call the meeting, they are forced into doing it, as long as the petition is drawn up legally.”

Nason began to fall out of some residents’ favor in March when a debate about how much to pay town employees raged during the annual town meeting.

At the meeting, selectmen asked voters to approve pay increases for two town employees: Clerk Kelley-Marie Lavoie from about $1,900 to $16,900; and Tax Collector/Treasurer Frances Flint from roughly $6,700 to $16,900.

Selectmen Nason, Warren Noble and Lenny Lavoie claimed the officers’ pay was inadequate for the number of hours worked.

Flint is Nason’s mother; Lavoie, who has since resigned, was married to Selectman Lenny Lavoie, who has also stepped down from the board.

Voters refused the salary raises and at another town meeting in May decided to increase the salaries to $6,900 for the clerk and $9,500 for the treasurer, and to not pay by the hour.

Noble finished his term in March and was replaced by Jim Willey, who was not available for comment Thursday.

On Saturday, residents will also elect a selectman to replace Lavoie.

Jane Gibbons took over as town clerk Aug. 4. She said she is paid a lump sum every week no matter how many hours she works.

“I don’t think many people would want to take this job, but I love this town,” Gibbons said. “My roots go way back I love Sweden so much that I want to help Sweden as much as I can.”