POLAND — The Friends of Ricker Library held its annual candidates forum Tuesday night, giving voters an opportunity to hear candidates for elective office on issues from the town’s financial position to whether the schools have too many workshop days.

As one of three running for one seat on the Board of Selectmen, Arthur Dunlap stood out as being the most critical of how the town has been run in recent years.

“Many people feel things are not going right. Upper management has been less than transparent,” Dunlap said.

However, Dunlap, who for 11 years was the town’s code enforcement officer, did agree with his fellow candidates, Norman Davis and Stephen Robinson, that the town’s financial affairs are better than they were just a few years ago.

Davis noted that taxes have been held steady for a number of years and that it appears the problems the town had handling money from its tax increment financing districts had been successfully resolved.

Robinson said he was pleased that the town appeared to be putting more money aside for long-term capital investments.

All three were in agreement that it made no sense to cut hours at the town’s transfer station, and all defended the decision made this year to give town employees a modest raise.

“Small raises are in order, in light of what the employees gave back last year (by picking up a larger share of their health insurance premiums),” Davis said.

“Our employees do a good job,” Robinson said.

Asked what they liked most about Poland, all three answered that it was the small town atmosphere.

Robinson noted that the casino planned for a few short miles up Route 26 in Oxford could affect what Poland might look like in the future.

Davis said he would like to see the center of town develop more of a “New England Village” feel.

“Don’t build strip malls,” Davis said.

The four candidates for two open School Committee seats, Joseph Parent, Edward Rabasco, George Sanborn and Ervin Walker, differed widely on what they thought of the proposal for a four-day school week.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea. You won’t make up for the loss of a day in four days,” Rabasco said.

“It would be awesome. The savings in transportation would be huge,” Walker said.

“The legislation would allow a four-day week. It would be up to each community. There’s a lot to discuss on this one,” Sanborn said.

“It’s something to look at,” Parent said.

On the question of what would be the biggest issues now facing Poland’s schools, Sanborn considered them to be the need to improve test scores and replacing the tenure system with the merit system, both in terms of what teachers to retain and how much they should be paid.

Parent was concerned that many students weren’t coming to school ready to learn.

“It’s hard to teach kids these days,” Parent said.

Rabasco noted that the past three years the schools have been fighting budget problems, but that perhaps this was now the time to talk about the vision for the school system’s future.

“Answer the question of ‘what do we want for our kids?’” Rabasco said

In closing Suzie Stover, the evening’s moderator, reminded the audience, both at the town office and those watching on the local TV access channel, that voting for town offices will be held Friday, April 1.