LIVERMORE FALLS — Selectmen voted Tuesday to extend interim Town Manager Amanda Allen’s contract until June 30, 2021, and to increase her hourly wage.

The board also approved closing the Town Office on Wednesday from 8 a.m. to noon starting Oct. 28 because of a staffing shortage. The time will help her and another staff member to catch on work.

The action followed an executive session during the board’s meeting.

Selectmen voted to give Allen who is also the town clerk, treasurer and handles other jobs, a $2-an-hour raise to bring her wage up to $29.36, Allen said. She had been making $22.36 an hour prior to being asked to take the interim town manager position after former Manager Stephen Gould left to return to nursing. She was given a $5 an hour raise when she agreed to take on the additional duties. She started Aug. 3.

Selectmen advertised for a new manager and interviewed candidates prior to asking Allen to take the position but things did not work out, Board of Selectmen Chairman Jeffrey Bryant said previously.

Allen’s three-month contract was set to expire on Nov. 3 but with the board meeting canceled for that night because of voting, she brought it up early, she said.

The Town Office will also be closed Election Day, Nov. 3, because staff will be at the Fire Station. The new voting venue is to meet COVID-19 guidelines, which includes social distancing.

Allen also informed selectmen that she received a $5,000 grant from the Center for Tech and Civic Life. The grant will help offset some of the extra expenses for voting, including more staffing. She has also been thinking of getting new voting booths and buying more personal protection equipment, she said.

She is getting help from the Fire Department to move everything pertaining to voting to the Fire Station, she said. She anticipates a high voter turnout and will have police and firefighters on hand during voting to help with traffic.

“I am going to need a lot of help,” she said.

Allen said she is also hoping to get the electronic sign for outside the Town Office before election. She plans to put the change in voting places and voting hours on the sign, and the sign at Gateway Park at the intersection of Routes 4 and 17. She will also ask resident Tom Barker to put it on the sign at the Mallard Mart at Routes 106 and 133 in the East Livermore area.

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