NORRIDGEWOCK -- In a very slow-moving town meeting Monday night, voters spent more than an hour arguing about whether to elect or appoint the town clerk and town treasurer.

By written ballot, they voted 39 to 28 to reject an article seeking to have the positions appointed. The town will continue to elect a person to fill those positions.

Many townspeople argued that they have little control over anything and the least they should be able to do is elect their town clerk and treasurer.

"Why would you want to give up your vote when there are so many things you don't get to vote on?" asked voter Etta Tappan. "Now why give up something you've got? "

Selectmen and some townspeople said they thought the board and town manager should have more control over what bills got paid and collected and what didn't, specifically the sewer bills.

Selectman Matthew Schaeffer and Town Manager John Doucette said there are $33,000 worth of sewer bills that have not been collected by the town treasurer and they have had no control over that.

Charlotte Curtis, current town clerk and town treasurer, said she was doing her job exactly as she was supposed to. She said she had set up payment plans for some customers, but that the only recourse at a certain point is to put the customer through the lien process.

Ballots for the vote had to be passed out twice because voters felt they had not been allowed to discuss the article before they were asked to vote. Moderator Philip Curtis crumpled the first set of votes up and put them in his pocket and a second set of ballots was passed out while discussion continued.

The end result was reported about 20 minutes later, with the position continuing to be elected.

Voters then went on to debate whether to raise $25,000 toward a revaluation for the town. Some said a revaluation would be good to bring property values in line. Others said this was a poor time to do a revaluation.

Doucette explained that the town would eventually be forced to do a revaluation and the $25,000 would only put a small dent in the $250,000 cost to revalue all the town's property. He said it would probably take three years to accomplish the task once the town decided to do so.

Past 9 p.m., voters were still discussing Article 10 of a 42-article warrant, to decide if the town could go over the town's $435,601 tax levy limit established by state legislature.

Some voters argued that selectmen should have the freedom to exceed the limit.

Doucette explained that the town might have to go over the limit if the school or county taxes increase more than expected. If voters didn't let them exceed the limit, the board would have to cut the municipal budget if that happened.

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