NORWAY — The Board of Selectmen has voted to set up a committee to interview three applicants for assessor.

Early in October, assessor Phinn Walker announced he would leave his position in the near future. Town Manager David Holt said Walker agreed to stay while the town seeks a replacement.

Holt said Thursday he had received five applications for the position. “The hiring process is for the Board of Selectmen,” Holt said.

He recommended the board interview three applicants.

“The three that I recommended give you a good cross-section of what the position could be,” Holt told selectmen. “I think you have a well-rounded group of folks to look over.”

Holt said he would not release the names of the applicants out of respect for those who would not be interviewed.

One was recommended by Wade Rainey, town manager of West Paris, Holt said.

“Wade said that he’s a good student who has not yet gotten the (assessor) certification from the state, but he has experience with the program,” Holt told the board.

Holt said one applicant has assessed for several towns throughout the state, and another works in the assessing department in Lewiston.

Selectman Thomas Curtis asked Holt whether the assessor would have to live in Norway.

“Under the laws and policies we have in Norway, the only employee required to live in Norway is the town manager,” Holt said.

Curtis later suggested that only two board members conduct the interviews to make the process less overwhelming. He nominated Chairman Russell Newcomb and Selectman Bruce Cook.

Holt suggested an assessor with familiarity of the area sit in on the interview.

In other business Thursday, Selectman Warren Sessions told the board he and others on the Oxford County Regional Recycling Center board were “a little disappointed” that a majority of the corporation’s member towns voted Nov. 8 not to dissolve the group.

The towns of Otisfield, Norway, Paris, Bethel, Hanover, Greenwood, Woodstock, Hebron, Newry, Livermore, Gilead, Upton and Lincoln Plantation voted on the request in local referendum questions.

Voters in Norway, Hebron, Woodstock, Bethel, Hanover, Greenwood and Upton turned down the request to terminate the joint recycling agreement.

Paris, Newry, Livermore, Otisfield and Lincoln Plantation voted to terminate the corporation.

Sessions, who is also the recycling center manager, previously said that if Norway voted to dissolve the corporation, they would not lose recycling in the town. Instead, they would bring their recyclables to the Norway/Paris Solid Waste station.

However, at the Nov. 8 vote, Norway still voted against dissolving the corporation.

“We’re asking all of the towns to put the question on their town meeting warrant in June,” Sessions told the board. “I think members of the board would like to be able to explain themselves at the town meetings, and explain the question.”

He said, “A lot of people came to vote and thought they voted the right way, only to find out they voted the wrong way.”

mdaigle@sunmediagroup.net

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