Franklin

Voters elected a new first selectman Friday and decided Saturday to retain an office assistant position that was created last year, according to a town official.

L. Stephen Walton defeated John H. Welch in the first selectman’s race by a 181-25 vote, Franklin Town Clerk Robert Fernald said Monday.

Friday’s ballot election to replace outgoing First Selectman Bruce Setler was Franklin’s only contested municipal race this year, Fernald said. Second Selectman Jeff Albee and Third Selectman Vena “Teddy” Giles each were re-elected to their posts.

Voters decided Saturday to keep a part-time office assistant position and to authorize selectmen to form a committee of three to five people to look into creating a full-time administrative assistant post, according to Fernald. The committee is expected to report its findings to the town when Franklin holds a special town meeting in June, he said.

Residents also are expected to consider the town’s annual school costs, a payment for an undetermined sum of money on the town’s new firetruck, and further financial accounting for the 2003-04 fiscal year at the June meeting, Fernald said.

Voters also decided Saturday to raise $173,000 in local property taxes for the 2004-05 financial year, an increase of $13,000 from the $160,000 raised this year in property taxes, according to the town clerk.

There were 61 registered Franklin voters at Saturday’s meeting, which lasted four hours, he said.

Troy

About 100 residents turned out for the annual town meeting Saturday and approved an $800,000 plan to repave and reconstruct roads.

The road plan, the largest of its kind in town history, calls for borrowing the money and paying it back over a number of years. Every paved town road will be resurfaced, and some roads will be reconstructed.

In voting Friday, Kathleen Mattingly was elected to the selectman’s post vacated by Jennifer Wixson. Mattingly was unopposed in her bid for the three-year term.

Incumbent Karen Carlson was re-elected to represent the town on the SAD 3 board.

Dale Walker was elected as a write-in candidate – and accepted – as a trustee of the town forest.

All the articles on the warrant passed as written, with only slight modifications.

Winter Harbor

A public meeting about a possible town building project has been scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 31, according to a town official.

Winter Harbor Town Manager Roger Barto said Monday that where the meeting will be held has not been decided. It will take place either at the town office or at the current firehouse on Main Street, he said.

The purpose of the meeting is to discuss whether the town should find property on which to construct a new building that would house the town’s administrative offices and public safety departments, according to Barto. The current fire station is not big enough to house all the town’s emergency vehicles, he said.

Barto said the town is just beginning to look into the issue and the meeting is simply a preliminary step in a long process.

Surry

Susan McDonald defeated Stephen Bemiss for a three-year term on the Board of Selectmen in municipal elections Friday.

McDonald collected 258 votes, while Bemiss garnered 209, Town Clerk Evelyn Foster said Monday.

McDonald was elected assessor and overseer of the poor as well, Foster said.

McDonald replaces outgoing Selectman Diane McNeal.

School board incumbents Richard Bishop and Gail Caddoo, unopposed for re-election, received 338 and 325 votes, respectively.