CANTON — The Select Board approved spending up to $85,000 to purchase a 2024 Ford F550 from Arundel Ford for the town’s Highway Department during its meeting Wednesday.

Select Board Chair Brian Keene and Board members Carole Robbins, Michelle Larrivee and Christine Carrigan approved the expenditure. Shawn Goodrow, newly elected to the board in June along with Carrigan, was absent from Wednesday’s meeting.

Keene said that approximately $50,000 of the money to pay for the new truck will come from insurance money from the town’s totaled F550 truck, and $30,000 will come from rollover monies from the 2024 Highway Department budget and monies from the town’s reserve funds.

In other business, Robbins, who is also one of the town’s Cemetery Ladies, said that Joe Ferranini of Atlas Preservation, which sells gravestone restoration supplies, is planned to hold a demonstration on gravestone cleaning and repair at Pine Grove Cemetery on Route 108 on Aug. 12 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event is part of the company’s 48-state tour and is open to the public, Robbins said.

In another matter, Keene noted the town’s loss with the passing of Randy Campbell on July 29. Campbell was a third-generation town employee for the Highway Department road crew, Keene said.

Canton Select Board Chair Brian Keene, second from left, discusses purchasing a 2024 Ford F550 for the town’s Highway Department with board members Carole Robbins, left, Michelle Larrivee and Christine Carrigan during Wednesday’s meeting. Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times