WELD — Voters will face more articles in the annual town meeting warrant Saturday due to the auditor’s recommendation.

The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. at the Town Hall. Voters can cast ballots for municipal officers from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, March 2, in the Multi-Purpose Room at the Town Office.

All candidates are running unopposed. Longtime Selectman Bernard Vining is not seeking re-election. Resident Tom Skolfield is running for the open, three-year term on the Board of Selectmen, Town Clerk Carol Cochran said.

Cochran is seeking re-election as town clerk and tax collector. She has held those positions for more than three decades.

No one took out papers for the open Planning Board term, Cochran said. Naomi Doughty has said she would be a write-in candidate for the position.

Kelly Hutchinson is running for a three-year term as road commissioner.

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Voters will have 51 articles to address. A last-day recommendation from the auditors sent selectmen and the town clerk back to revamp the warrant, Selectman Nancy Stowell said.

“The selectmen and the town clerk were flummoxed by our auditors, who notified us about 24 hours before the printing of the Town Report that our audit should lapse all accounts back to zero,” Stowell said. “It has always been the practice of the town to carry forward balances in each account. Consequently, we have added Article 3A,” she said.

“There might be some confusion for voters when deciding on exactly how much money should be raised or appropriated for each account, but each article will be thoroughly discussed,” Stowell said.” Because of the change, there are also more articles in the warrant. Accounts that previously had a balance which could cover expenses for the year have now been lapsed back to zero.”

Article 3A asks if the town will vote to authorize selectmen to carry unexpended balances in accounts from one year to the next.

In the scramble to redo the Town Report, Stowell said, the bicentennial account was inadvertently left out. That is now Article 50, she said. Townspeople have been raising money for years for the town’s bicentennial in 2016. Voters are being asked to raise $5,000 this year for the account.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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