WELD – Voters have 54 articles to consider between an election on Friday and the annual town meeting Saturday.

One article asks if voters favor a decision by selectmen to schedule votes on annual town meeting articles requiring less than $1,000 at the polling place rather than at town meeting.

Selectmen’s Chairwoman Nancy Stowell said she anticipates more people voting on those articles at the polls the day before the meeting than at Saturday town meetings.

Every year selectmen try to pare the articles down in an attempt to get more people to attend a shorter meeting, she said. Attendance at town meetings is dwindling, she said.

A lot of the smaller dollar amount articles or those with no money attached could be dealt with this way, she said.

The town meeting begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 8, at the town hall with voting on elected officials scheduled for day before from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, March 7, at the town office multipurpose room.

Candidates

Laureen Pratt and Randy Vining are vying for a three-year selectmen’s seat held by David Jones. Incumbent Carol Cochran is unopposed for town clerk and tax collector. Ted Simanek is running unopposed for a five-year term on the Planning Board, and no one took out papers for the SAD 9 director’s seat held by Neil Stinneford. The latter submitted his resignation after many years on the board, Stowell said.

Voters will also have to decide whether they want to raise or appropriate money to rebuild a section of Center Hill Road from Chase Corner to the foot of Martin Richard hill near where it forms a junction with Route 142 at the Phillips end of town.

Former Selectman Paul Farrell requested the article be put on the warrant, and it is estimated the project would cost about $135,000.

Stowell said she checked on interest rates earlier this year and a three-year loan would be 3 percent and a five-year loan would be 3.37 percent.

Another road issue to be discussed is reopening a section of Byron Road for winter maintenance, but only if and when the section is not being maintained by or on behalf of a land or logging company for its own purposes. Voters approved reopening a section of a road only for this winter at a special town meeting in 2007.

Residents will also be asked to reconsider the prohibition of alcohol consumption at the Town Hall and surrounding grounds, which is rented out for weddings and other special events, if a caterer is properly licensed by the state to serve alcohol.

The hall is on the state historic register, and it is believed allowing alcohol on the premises with the special condition would encourage more weddings to be held there and the town would get more rent, Stowell said.

Selectmen modeled the proposed article after one in Industry, she said.