Town meetings

Etna

The annual town meeting will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 1, at the town office.

Polls will be open for municipal elections from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 29, at the town office. Residents will vote to elect one director for a three-year term to the SAD 38 board and two selectmen for three-year terms.

Incumbent Kim Wing is running unopposed for the SAD 38 board position. Selectman Vicky Donaldson’s term has expired, but she did not return papers for re-election. The second vacancy resulted from Walter Gibbons resigning to accept the role of town fire chief. Residents Lisa Krahn, Scott Leeman and Fred Treadwell will vie for the two selectman slots.

The budgetary item that could spur the greatest debate is the $1,500 expense to implement a drug policy and fund random testing, said Town Manager Evelyn Serval. If passed, all newly hired town employees would be subject to a random drug test, as would selectmen and members of the town office staff and Fire Department, she said.

Selectmen discussed the policy last year, but did not work the expense into the budget.

Public allegations made this year about substance use among members of the Fire Department revived the issue.

After selectmen shut down the department in October, the Fire Department and Rescue Committee formed, and the group exhumed the drug policy idea, providing it as one of many suggestions to selectmen.

The policy could “stem the tide of rumors,” Serval said.