CANTON — Sue Gammon of the Parks and Trails Committee updated selectmen Thursday night on spring and fall contracting work and the seventh annual flower sales fundraiser May 23.

Because of a lack of donations for flowers, Gammon said the committee added a yard sale and people can pay $20 to set up a vendor space. “That’s open for anybody who wants to do that,” she said.

The fundraiser is set from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 23, next to Heritage Park on Cross Street.

Gammon thanked two selectmen for their work on the Whitney Brook Trail on May 2, and said selectmen need to hire someone to continue work on it. “That trail needs a lot of maintenance,” she said.

Gammon said two youths who did Earth Day cleanup at Heritage Park last weekend have volunteered to mark the trail this weekend.

Committee member Joline Adley told selectmen her future daughter-in-law and Polly Chasse of Hartford would like permission to hold a Farm Swap from 4 to 8 p.m. the second Wednesday of the month from May to October in the local church parking lot.

“The vendors, who are not charged for the space, will sell eggs, chickens, rabbits, homemade soaps, homemade breads, fresh veggies, etc.,” Adley said.

She said the group has held a Farm Swap in parking lots at Tractor Supply Co. and Aubuchon Hardware Store, and will hold one from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 23, at R.E. Lowell Lumber in Turner.

“Right now, they have 17 people interested in selling stuff (in Canton) if you guys say it’s OK,” Adley said.

Selectmen voted 5-0 to approve Farm Swap.

“Great idea,” Board of Selectmen Chairman Donny Hutchins said.

Gammon said the committee has an invasive pests workshop scheduled for the first Friday in August.

“Find the beaver dam?” Hutchins asked Gammon.

“I haven’t found it yet,” she said.

Hutchins said he knows someone who knows where it is.

Gammon said the cost to remove troublesome beavers outside of Maine’s winter trapping season is $60 each.

Selectman Russell Adams volunteered to check the beaver dam and lodge in the Whitney Brook watershed to determine if beavers are using them.

In other business, resident Chris Dailey filed a written complaint with the board about what he called the town’s mishandling of petitions filed by 47 residents calling themselves the Alliance for Accountability. He said they asked that the petitions be posted in the Canton Crier and the town newsletter two weeks before the June 2014 town meeting.

Dailey said selectmen at that time refused to publish them because the Maine Municipal Association told town officials they didn’t have to.

He said none of the petitions were published, nor was another about the fire chief position in November 2014.

Dailey said town Administrator Scotty Kilbreth told him they were following MMA’s advice.

However, he said, the Canton Crier published “an entire page on a petition that had not even been presented to the board as a valid petition.”

Hutchins said the board will research the matter and put it on its next meeting agenda.

“The thing is, you guys can’t dictate to the townspeople what they want, and if you guys have 47 people telling you they want something put into the Canton Crier, you guys should have put it in there, and you didn’t. It needs to be taken care of,” Dailey said.

Hutchins asked him what the board should do and Dailey said it should write a policy and write to all 47 people telling them the board’s intention.

Also Thursday, the following bids were accepted for town equipment: $699 from David Gammon of Peru for all of the metal bridge mesh at the Highway Department; $30 from Amy Hatch for a 10-foot tall staircase; $180 from Richard Farrar for the old diesel pump and tank; and $100 from Keith Driscoll for the 1989 Stoystown 200-psi compressor.

Selectman Mac Ray said the dam at Canton Lake was opened Sunday to flush the treated sewage down Whitney Brook and into the Androscoggin River as required by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. He said he will close the dam when the last discharge is completed, which could be Sunday.

“We have to get the discharge done before May 14,” he said.

Assistant Fire Chief Jason Vaughn said the Fire Department wants to start charging people $10 for burning permits and reserve the right to inspect what is to be burned. Otherwise, people will have to go through Fire Chief Shane Gallant to get a permit and online permitting will be discontinued.

Selectmen suggested that Gallant write an amendment to the permit policy, and continue using the current method until then.

tkarkos@sunmediagroup.net