PHILLIPS – Residents will have some heavy thinking to do come town meeting Saturday. They need to decide how they will handle and support road improvements in the coming years.

The meeting begins at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 31, at the Phillips Middle School.

Voters also will nominate someone for a one-year term for a selectman, which was vacated by Niilo Sillanpaa III, who moved last summer.

Resident John Wilbur, husband of Town Clerk Evelyn Wilbur, has expressed interest in the seat and said he plans to seek it, Town Manager Karen Oliveri said.

One of the biggest issues the town faces is road improvements, she said.

“We have some very bad roads,” she said.

Residents will be asked to accept and use $54,780 from the state’s urban rural initiative for roads for improvements.

They’ll also be asked if they want to use that money and $63,546 in a carry-forward account toward road improvements and whether they want to use it as a payment to go out to bond for a $1 million in road repairs.

Selectmen and the road commissioner have done a road inventory to determine the status of the roads and put them into different categories, Oliveri said.

The priority one roads this year are Toothaker Pond Road and Davenport flats area on Reeds Mill Road, she said.

The $1 million would cover seven miles of major road reconstruction, she said. The town has more than 40 miles paved and gravel roads.

Another item on the warrant is Oliveri’s request of $12,000 for a part-time tax collector.

There are a couple of reasons she is requesting this.

“I feel that No. 1, the town needs to have someone in this office besides me,” Oliveri said. “I collect the money, I write the checks … and if someone else was in the office, I would get more done.”

Voters will also be asked to buy two new stainless sanders for plow trucks at a combined cost of nearly $20,000.