WATERFORD – A Blackguard Road accountant is seeking election to the Board of Selectmen on March 6.

Richard Hunt of 445 Blackguard Road is running unopposed for the position held by retiring Norman Rust.

“I wasn’t planning on running initially,” Hunt said Tuesday.

Hunt said he felt that because he serves as a consultant for the town and is paid $60 an hour for his accounting and computer services it would be a conflict of interest to serve on the Board of Selectmen.

He recently set up the town’s computers so a program could function properly.

“Once I went in a pay consulting basis I felt it would be a conflict of interest,” he said of a decision to sit on the Board of Selectmen.

However, he later read several articles in the local media about similar cases in Buckfield and Norway, and based on a decision by Buckfield’s attorney that a person could sit on the board and get paid by the town if he did not profit by his actions as a selectman, he decided to run for the seat.

Selectman Randy Lessard urged him to run, Hunt said.

Hunt said he will continue to work once a month for the town generating financial statements but will step aside for any vote as selectman that would have an impact on his consulting work.

Hunt has lived in Waterford for 25 years and previously worked on a committee dealing with assessments in Waterford.

The deadline for filing nomination papers was Jan. 26.

There will be no contests on the March 6 election ballot.