POLAND — Selectmen on Tuesday voiced frustration about delays in getting information on the separation of the expenditure of funds from the two Poland Spring Bottling tax-increment financing accounts.

Town Manager Bradley Plante told the board that earlier in the day he had a four-way conference call with the town’s auditor, assessor and attorney, the upshot of which was to postpone a workshop scheduled for Sept. 30 to settle matters.

Plante reported that Ron Smith, the town’s auditor, still had a lot of questions — mostly dealing with valuations of property in the TIFs, schedules of debt payments and the like — which selectmen found somewhat beside the point.

“Ron says it’s extremely complicated,” Plante said. “It’s turning into an octopus.”

Selectman Steve Robinson said he didn’t understand. “This is about Part 2, future projections, what we want is closure to Part 1. Why won’t the auditor give us closure to Part 1?”

As selectmen understood, Part 1 was the report that economic development consultant John Cleveland submitted in late spring, a report Smith was supposed to reconcile, and it was supposed to be a relatively simple assigning of expenditures in the TIF district to one or the other of the two TIF accounts.

But what Robinson figured was happening was that Smith was trying to involve future projections of the two TIF districts’ income streams.

“We want to know what’s available today,” Robinson said, noting his concern that without a firm number the board was going to be severely handicapped when it came to trying what can be counted on going into planning for next year’s budget.

Board Chairman Janice Kimball echoed Robinson’s concerns and directed Plante to tell Smith that the board wanted Part 1 settled now.

“And if there’s a problem, tell us what the problem is,” Kimball said.

The board agreed to postpone the TIF workshop until Oct. 16 but wanted closure on how much money had been spent and how much was available in which account before that date so that they wouldn’t be spending much of the workshop time talking about history.

In other business, Plante told the board that the Community and Economic Development Committee would hold a workshop at 6:30 p.m Monday, Sept. 8, to discuss the future of the town-owned Hilt Hollow property.

The property, north of the municipal complex and bordering the large tract of town-owned land south of the transfer station, is key to the development of an extensive walking trail system, as members of the town’s Conservation Committee see it, and town officials want to know whether members of the community had any other ideas for the use of the property.

The workshop will be held at Cyndi’s Dockside Restaurant on Route 26, next to the causeway between Middle and Lower Range ponds.

The board also approved a request for proposals for a new solid waste compactor with bids due Oct. 3, and approved payment to Community Concepts in the amount of $5,404 for services that Glen Holmes provided the town in assisting with economic development matters from May through mid-August. At Holmes’ request, the board had terminated the contract for services at its Aug. 19 meeting.