Voters in Burnham will elect a selectman and highway commissioner Friday and consider a major road paving project Saturday at Town Meeting.

Both the election and Town Meeting will occur at the Reynolds Corner Municipal Building, with elections to be held 2 to 7 p.m. Friday and the Town Meeting, 1 p.m. Saturday.

In Friday elections, incumbent Selectman Anne Goodblood is challenged for her seat by resident Brent Chase for a three-year term; Highway Commissioner Roger W. Huff is challenged by Charles R. King for a one-year term. King was highway commissioner last year.

Treasurer Arlene Miles is running unopposed for her seat, for a one-year term. No one is listed on the ballot for a three-year term on the School Administrative District 53 board of directors. The slot on the ballot for a three-year term on the cemetery committee also is blank. Those positions typically are filled by write-ins, according to Goodblood.

Also on Friday’s ballot is a question asking residents whether the road commissioner position should be changed from an elective to an appointive one starting with the March 2017 Town Meeting.

Goodblood said the question has been on the ballot in the past.

“We’ve tried that before and we’ve had people in town encourage us to do that,” she said.

A lot of people in town, she said, are tired of having the road commissioner change every year, as it makes it difficult to complete road plans and projects. Another question on the ballot asks if voters want to authorize selectmen to negotiate and enter into a contract for solid waste disposal with the town of Pittsfield. The town’s trash now is taken to the transfer station.

Article 22 of the 53-article warrant asks residents to vote separately on requests to pave 17 roads, for a total of $2.2 million. In the next article, voters are asked how much they want to spend on the roads they approved for paving in article 22.

Goodblood said separating the roads out for voters to decide on each one gives them the option to choose which roads they want to see paved. The roads listed for work are Basford, Cookson, Dodge, Garcelon, Goodblood, Johnson Flat, Lasalle, Miles Hill, Morgan, Mount, North Horseback, Perkins, Pond, Winnecook and Town Office roads, as well as Battle Street.

Later, in articles 28 and 29, voters are asked how much they want to appropriate for maintaining Sayward and Collamore lanes, and how much they want to appropriate for summer maintenance of Charles Taylor Lane.

Goodblood, who has been selectman three years, said the town has been working to prepare for road projects.

“Right now is a perfect time, with oil prices and interest rates down,” she said.

Goodblood is a former 11-year town office assistant, as well as a seven-year former Planning Board member in the town of 1,120, where 22 percent of the population is over the age of 60 and on fixed incomes, she said.

Amy Calder — 861-9247

acalder@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @AmyCalder17

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