CANTON — Moderator Randy Hotham had to herd people back to the question at Saturday’s annual town meeting as discussions arose over money and whether selectmen acted illegally in some instances.

A Town Owned Land Committee report caused considerable concern because people thought the selectmen could sell any building without town approval. The article to accept the report was amended to include, “with any actions to be voted on by the towns.”

The Land Committee report recommends downsizing the town’s property from five areas to three. Among the recommendations are:

* Renovate the highway garage and transform it into a Town Office and Municipal building.

* Sell the current Town Office on Staples Hill Road.

* Sell the municipal building on Cross Street.

* Sell the salt shed and sand pile land on Golden Ridge Road.

* Buy Maine Department of Transportation facility on Jewett Hill Road.

* Sell the Village Ridge Development to a developer.

All were recommended to create a larger tax base.

Hartford fire coverage was questioned, and Selectman Donald Hutchins told the crowd of approximately 40 people that the board was to meet Monday with Hartford officials to work on the situation. Voters at the Hartford town meeting rejected an increase for fire coverage, which is provided by the towns of Canton, Buckfield and Turner.

Some at the Canton meeting sought to cut off Hartford completely, but Hutchins said that was not a good idea, morally.

Raising $16,622 for plow truck payments raised the hackles of Sue Gammon who told the selectmen that they had voted to purchase the truck without town approval.

Hutchins replied that it was in the middle of winter when their plow truck had an accident that made it unusable, thus creating an emergency for snowplowing. The board acted to do what he felt they had to do, he said.

This did not satisfy Gammon who urged that the board promise never to spend money again without approval from the town.

The meeting started off on the wrong foot when Chris Dailey moved to suspend the meeting just after it was called to order, because the town didn’t have the warrant and budget on time. Gammon agreed that they didn’t have time to look it over.

Hotham read from the Maine Moderators Manual that meetings could not be suspended short of a fire, and he told Dailey that he was out of order.

Gammon again spoke up, saying the budget was over spent and she questioned how this happened. Hutchins said that when Town Administrator Kathy Hutchins suddenly got sick and had to quit, they had to find someone who could operate the TRIO program and they had to pay a little more to get the expertise needed. Also, they had an audit over the past six months, which Donald Hutchins said was good to do when you have a change in office personnel.

Voters agreed that Kathy Hutchins had done a great job, but Gammon still said it was not acceptable to move items from one line to another.

Donald Hutchins said, “We have learned a lot and we will do better in the future.”

When a raise in firefighters’ pay was questioned, one fireman replied, “If you had to get up at 2 a.m. to go fight a fire, you might think differently.

Kelly Cavanagh said, “These people need to be thanked, not criticized, over a few dollars’ pay.” She was also referring to questions over the animal control officer’s pay.

A petition to remove a dilapidated building at the intersection of Routes 140 and 108 was amended to say that the selectmen could sell the building as soon as the Environmental Protection Agency had finished the cleanup around the dam.

There was no funding voted for the petition requesting that all meetings be taped and put on the Web, so the petition failed for lack of funding, though it was approved by voters.

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