Canaan

About 100 hardy Canaan residents showed up to handle annual town meeting business Saturday.

Canaan residents approved buying a lot next to the fire station to allow for expansion, spending $31,100 for the quarter-acre parcel. Voters set aside $20,000 for a new library.

Taxes should increase about $1 per $1,000 in valuation, even though voters cut two proposed expenditures. They defeated $5,100 for health insurance for the town clerk and $2,500 for a safety officer.

Voting at Canaan will take place from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. today at the Town Hall, with incumbent Road Commissioner Ray Judkins being challenged by Fire Chief Ray Small. (Sharon Kiley Mack, BDN).

Detroit

Town Clerk Kathy Walston said only six people showed up Saturday for the town meeting, so a motion was made to move the gathering to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 24.

In elections held the night before, Ethan Kelly defeated two challengers for a selectman’s seat. Kelly got 37 votes, while challengers Frank Ring got 13 and Maria Sousa had 20.

When the voters gather next week, they will decide a proposed budget that represents a $12,000 increase from the 2006 expenditures of $274,755.

Some of the issues to be decided are putting $10,000 in reserve to conduct a townwide revaluation, which is estimated at a cost of $46,000 and could be completed in increments beginning in 2008 and finishing in 2009. Voters also will decide whether to allow selectmen to appoint the town clerk and treasurer, rather than elect. (Sharon Kiley Mack, BDN).

Plymouth

Selectman Wade Richardson would not release the results of Friday’s election, where Ralph Shaw and George Dean were both running for fire chief.

Because of the weather, the town has announced that the annual meeting has been postponed until 10 a.m. Saturday, March 24.