NEW SHARON — Voters at town meeting Saturday rejected building a $1.5 million fire station and buying a piece of property to build it on. The amount was too much and the land was not what the majority wanted.

Townspeople also opposed changing the treasurer and road commissioner positions from elected to appointed.

More than 200 voters turned out to participate in the annual meeting. By the noon break, townspeople had completed action on Article 6, with the remainder being taken up after 1 p.m.

The first inkling that the day would be long was when Article 3 came up and it took about an hour to be settled.

The article to raise $52,000 for salaries for town officers was amended to $46,000 with the $6,000 difference to come out of selectmen’s salaries. It was left up to selectmen how that money would be divided.

Meeting moderator Nora Thombs said the first vote, a verbal one, was too close to determine and called for a written ballot on the article.

The first time around, the vote on the amendment tied 95-95. Another written ballot was taken, and it passed 109-96.

Then it was time to vote on the original article with the amended amount of $46,000. After some debate of the pros and cons of the lesser amount and the amount of work selectmen have to do in their assessing capacity, Selectman Larry Donald took the microphone.

Being a selectman is a “thankless job,” he said.

He had been considering not continuing as selectman due to all of the work involved and being paid $7,000, he said.

With the cut, he said, “I’m turning in my resignation right now. You can pick two selectmen today.”

He stepped off the stage where selectmen were seated and walked to the back of the room. After more debate and votes by townspeople, the initial amount of $52,000 passed.

Since the article was written to elect one selectman, voters could not change it to two. No one accepted Donald’s resignation, so he remained in office.

Selectman Russ Gardner was re-elected by a vote of 111-87 over Postmaster Tamara Morgan to serve as selectman for three years. Initially, it was a three-way race that included Terry McManus, but no one had the majority of votes needed to win. McManus withdrew his name before the final vote.

Incumbent Road Commissioner Kevin Brann lost to former Commissioner Donald Lowe by a final vote of 77-113. It, too, was a three-way race to start, with Dennis McCourt initially in the mix.

Voters reduced the administrative expense article by 3 percent, bringing it to $41,710. They also nixed a combined $2,100 raise that would have brought Town Clerk and Tax Collector Rose Mary Eller’s salary to $24,000. Voters also rejected raising Treasurer Scott Pratt’s salary by $1,000 to $8,100.

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