RUMFORD – The newly fashioned Board of Selectmen got off to a quiet start Thursday night by making appointments, considering changes in the way the municipal budget is adopted, and stressing the positive.

“Selectmen’s meetings are meant to get things done. We have Robert’s Rules of Order and the charter. Let’s have a good year,” newly elected Chairman Greg Buccina said.

Attending their first meetings were newly elected Selectmen Frank DiConzo, who served on the town’s Finance Committee for 18 years, and Bradford Adley, a businessman who had to resign from the Planning Board after 13 years to serve as selectman.

Jim Rinaldo chose not to run again in the June 12 election and Jolene Lovejoy lost her bid for a fifth term.

Among the appointments was Gloria Morton, a small business owner, to a seat on the SAD 43 school board. She won a three-year term as a write-in candidate.

Selectmen also set two special meetings, both beginning at 4 p.m., on July 2 and July 3, to interview people who have applied to fill one of the dozen or so openings on town boards and committees.

Town Manager Jim Doar was appointed to the executive committee of the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments. A second seat on the council is also available to an elected Rumford official.

The resignation of plumbing inspector Virgil Conkright was accepted, and Code Enforcement Officer Rick Kent was appointed to replace him until selectmen can fill the position.

The board, and some members of the public who spoke, generally agreed that most voters liked having a chance to vote on the municipal budget at the polls rather than at an open town meeting.

“The only gripes I heard,” said Selectman Mark Belanger, who served as election warden during the June 12 election, “was the wordiness of the ordinances.”

DiConzo, a strong advocate for the change, said, “The secret ballot proved it gave back to citizens control of money issues in this town. There was more participation. We’d be foolish to take back something that now works. It was broken before.”

Other suggestions made to improve a similar election next year included new voting booth tables that are large enough to accommodate the larger ballots, privacy dividers for people who choose to sit at a table to vote, additional voting machines and ballot clerks, and assurance from the school district that absentee ballots will be available earlier than this year.

Despite voter approval of raising more money than a state-mandated tax levy formula allowed, Doar said no articles will be reduced. He said more state revenue came to the town than had been figured in the formula. The excess was about $83,000.

Selectmen also voted to ask nonresidents to leave the meeting hall if the number exceeds the limit imposed by the Office of the State Fire Marshal. Until renovations are completed, that number is 49. If more than that number of people attend a board meeting, the meeting must be moved to larger quarters.