Orient returns to 3-member select board

By Doug Dickinson
Staff Writer
    ORIENT — The town of Orient held a meeting May 6 to vote to return to a three person board to govern its town. Town residents were asked to vote to revoke a measure taken at the 2010 annual town meeting that changed the select board to a five person system.
    According to Orient town clerk Alicia Silkey, the vote to go to a five person board was made by one deciding vote after a petition had circulated around town.
    “A lot of people thought that [a five person board] would be detrimental because we do have a hard time getting people to run for selectmen office. We don’t have a very large population here and there’s also an increased cost to the town,” said Silkey.
    “Each selectman makes $1,500 a year here, so that’s $3,000 extra that we have to make. They wanted to rescind it.”
    Current board members are Victor Alexander, Terry Silkey and Donald Ellis. Two additional board members would have been selected in August if the five person board had remained in affect. Alexander’s three year term is up in August.
    At the meeting on Friday, Dale Foley was nominated to moderate. Following a motion to vote by secret ballot, Bill Walton stood to ask voters to consider keeping a five member board.
    “I believe that five heads are better than three. I believe the cost is insignificant when divided among all the tax payers,” said Walton. “It’s my opinion that you should only vote yes to change back to three if you’re absolutely totally satisfied with the way the government has run here for the last 10 to 15 years.”
    Terry Silkey disagreed with Walton.
    “I believe the town has run excellent for the last 10 years,” he said. “This will cost extra for the town and instead of having one person not doing anything out of the three we’ve got now, we’re going to have three more that aren’t going to do anything and to me that’s just a waste of money for the town.”
    After both men had their say the vote was made. The final decision was 21 in favor of a return to a three member board compared to six against.
    The outcome of the meeting will go into affect at the 2011 Orient town meeting on Aug. 30.