DIXFIELD – Following back-to-back executive sessions that weren’t listed on Wednesday’s special Board of Selectmen meeting agenda, Dixfield selectmen agreed to hire newly promoted police Sgt. Jeffrey Howe as interim police chief.

Howe, who was paid $15.99 an hour as of Tuesday for the sergeant position, will receive an extra $3 an hour to serve as chief for however long he is needed, according to Dixfield selectmen’s Chairman Bettina Martin.

Howe was hired to replace longtime Chief Richard A. Pickett, who was fired by a 3-2 board vote on Monday.

Neither Pickett nor his attorney attended Wednesday night’s meeting, but there were about 10 people from the public there, all of whom came to complain about Monday night’s board action.

Pickett was paid a salary of around $46,000 a year.

Martin did allow those who stuck around during a violent thunderstorm that wracked the area to comment during a brief public session sandwiched in between the closed-door sessions and held in the Dixfield Public Library conference room to better accommodate everyone.

“When we reconvened, I told them that the board couldn’t answer any questions regarding Chief Pickett,” Martin said by phone later Wednesday evening in Dixfield. “However, I gave them the opportunity to comment. They said a few words, mostly that they were not happy with the decision we had made. But, there were no temper tantrums and nobody was impolite or rude. They just stated the fact that they thought we made a mistake.”

Martin said Howe assured the board that he has covered shifts with Dixfield’s now three-man force through August, enabling the town to continue to have 24-hour police coverage, seven days a week.

Outside during the first executive session, which was convened in the town office to tele-conference with the town’s attorney regarding a personnel matter, Dixfield resident Mike Brann collected signatures on a petition. It was launched last week by businessman Bill Gallant to have selectmen oust Town Manager Tom Richmond in November by not renewing his contract.

Gallant, who showed up for Wednesday’s board meeting, and waited outside, said his petition drive did not involve Chief Pickett’s firing, but was started the week prior.

He said that should selectmen opt not to accept the petition, then he will need 152 signatures to force the board to put the matter before voters in November.

Regarding Pickett’s firing, which selectmen on Monday attributed to insubordinate comments made by Pickett toward the board at the May town meeting, Gallant said he was shocked to learn of it.

“I was at the town meeting and Dick gets very passionate about the Police Department, but he did not single out anyone on the board,” Gallant said. “He had a clean record with the state police and here, he has nothing, nothing, nothing in his record. … I feel the board’s decisions were vendettas. This was not done with any research.”