RUMFORD – Selectmen postponed their meeting Tuesday night following a challenge by former Selectman Eugene Boivin that the meeting may have been called illegally.

As soon as the 7 p.m. meeting began, Boivin said that any business conducted during the meeting would be illegal because the town’s ordinances state that whenever a regular meeting date is changed, seven days’ notice must be posted and must be noted in the minutes.

Selectmen normally meet on the first and third Thursdays of each month; however, at their Sept. 21 meeting, they changed the day to Tuesday because most selectmen and the town manager would be attending a Maine Municipal Association convention.

Board Chairman Jim Rinaldo, who is not attending the convention, said he would appear in the Municipal Auditorium at 7 p.m. on Thursday, the date of the regular selectmen’s meeting. But, he said, the meeting will be immediately canceled for lack of a quorum.

Following the meeting, town lawyer Jennifer Kreckel said that she believed sufficient notice had been given of the change in the selectmen’s meeting date by way of posting the agenda in the Municipal Building, by being printed twice in the daily paper, and by being announced through the weekly airing of board meetings via the local access channel. A legal notice did not appear in print seven days prior to Tuesday’s meeting.

Although she believed Tuesday’s meeting was legal, she said cancellation would eliminate any chance that someone might bring a lawsuit against the town for any actions that might have been taken.

A legal notice will now go in the daily paper announcing a meeting for Oct. 12 at 6 p.m.

At that meeting, selectmen will act on a warrant for a referendum question on changing the way the municipal budget is adopted, which is to appear on the Nov. 7 ballot.

Selectmen will also meet in executive session with Kreckel and Town Manager Steve Eldridge to discuss the town manager’s contract. The remainder of the lengthy agenda previously planned for Tuesday night will be deferred and added to the agenda for the next regular board meeting on Oct. 19.

The contract issue was to be discussed at 6 p.m. Tuesday night; however, a quorum of selectmen wasn’t present then.

Selectmen at the 7 p.m. meeting were Rinaldo, Jolene Lovejoy and Mark Belanger. About 20 people turned out for the meeting.