WELD – Voters rejected three articles Saturday, including one that would have allowed alcohol to be served at the town hall by state-licensed caterers.

Selectmen’s Chairwoman Nancy Stowell said Monday that voters approved opening Byron Road to winter maintenance.

Voters also approved a $348,679.61 town government budget.

Of that amount, Town Clerk Carol Cochran said, voters agreed to raise $184,476.85, which represents $1,494.21 more than 2007, and appropriate $164,202.76 from excise taxes and other accounts, which is $30,681.23 more than last year.

Voters favored keeping all articles, except for town and school elections, open for discussion at the annual town meeting rather than dealing with routine articles and those requesting less than $1,000 at the polls the day before, Stowell said.

Voters rejected an article to raise or appropriate $135,600 to rebuild a section of Center Hill Road from Chase Corner to the foot of the Martin Richard Hill, she said. Road Commissioner David Fish told about 65 people at the meeting that some roads are in worse shape than Center Hill, Stowell said.

Town officials plan to look at options to develop a plan for road improvements.

Voters also turned down an article that would have repealed the town’s prohibition on alcohol consumption at the town hall and surrounding grounds.

The hall is rented for weddings and other functions, and an article on the warrant asked if voters would allow consumption of alcohol on the premises if a caterer is properly licensed by the state to serve alcohol.

Voters were still concerned about liability, Stowell said.

If the article is brought up again at a town meeting, she said, voters want to know the impact on the town’s liability insurance if alcohol was served.