POLAND – When all the school budget items breezed through in the first hour of Saturday’s town meeting, a couple of hundred Poland residents may have thought they were in for a short day.

It didn’t happen.

Nearly nine hours after it began, Town Manager Richard Chick tallied the results of various votes to come up with what he called “a raw number” for the new tax rate.

The mil rate he announced is 22.40, slightly higher than the 21.30 municipal tax rate reported in 2006 on the Maine Revenue Service Municipal Valuation Return.

This was the last town meeting in Poland for Chick. He announced in a letter to the Board of Selectmen, which was read by Sandra Knowles, board chair, that he will not seek reappointment to the town’s top administrative position. Chick has served Poland since 1974.

Early in the meeting, a large group of voters attempted to shift consideration of two dozen of the municipal money items in the 57-article warrant to the end of the session, with the ultimate intention of moving them to a special town meeting sometime in May or June.

Glenn Peterson, a former selectman, and George Sanborn, husband of current Board of Selectmen member Wendy S. Sanborn, introduced a number of amendments aimed at adjourning the meeting without adopting the municipal budget items.

The effort failed after numerous voice and show-of-hands votes. A final written ballot after defeat of the last of the proposed amendments, put the town meeting warrant back on its original track by the narrow margin of 99 to 92.

Chick’s decision to step down played a part in that maneuver. Peterson said a search for a new town manager “puts the town in the need to fund several different budgets.”

He also argued that there has not been time to consider information related to the town’s unaudited financial matters.

Knowles responded to Peterson’s claim that “$2.7 million is missing” from town records by saying “Nothing is missing,” and sufficient funds are available for a search and an interim manager. She said the audit issues involve procedures, not lost money.

As the numerous amendments were debated, voters’ became more emotional, shouting the voice votes. Moderator Bryan Dench brought the session under control by requiring hand counts on nearly every vote.

Overall, there was little change in the bottom line after all the votes.

Most of the changes were increases.

The addition of $40,000 to provide full-time fire and rescue coverage from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. was approved, despite a recommendation of “no funding” for it by the selectmen and the Budget Committee.

Voters approved $22,000 to replace a 2002 police cruiser, which the Budget Committee did not support. They also voted to add $5,000 for economic development to bring a recommendation of $25,000 up to the previous year’s level of $30,000.

After extended debate and a 60-to-44 vote, the town adopted an Ordinance for the Recall of Elected Municipal Officials.

Several amendments to the Comprehensive Land Use Code also were adopted.

The amount approved for the town’s school expenditures was $13,260,939.

The major items in the municipal budget were $635,489 for general government, $80,052 for recreation department administration, $953,903 for public safety, $1,222,063 for debt service, and $901,202 for highway and bridge maintenance.