More than 40 Dresden voters approved a more than $700,000 municipal budget during annual Town Meeting Saturday.

The budget represents a 3.34 percent decrease over the current year.

The biggest decline in the budget came in the snow and salt contracts. Last year, Dresden paid $39,000 each to salt and sand the town’s roads, but this year, the town approved $15,000 for each, a $48,000 savings. The snow plow contract increased by a little more than $5,000, and the town approved an additional $20,000 for paving and capital improvement.

Overall, voters approved spending $708,969, down from $733,479 for the current year. The current 17.1 mil rate, or $17.10 per $1,000 of valuation, should be stable, Selectman Allen Moeller said, because of some unspent money from previous years.

The voters approved the creation of an exploratory committee to determine whether it is in the best interest of the town to remain in Regional School Unit 2, which includes Dresden, Hallowell, Farmingdale, Richmond and Monmouth. The five-person committee will include one selectman and one member of the planning and budget review boards, one Dresden RSU 2 board member and one Dresden citizen.

“I personally like RSU 2,” said Selectman Allen Moeller. “But if they come up with something better and cheaper with the same education, then I’ll be all for it.”

Moeller said a group of people came to the select board and wondered if anyone had ever looked into other options outside of RSU 2.

“They want to make sure we are getting the best deal,” Moeller said. “Nobody has bothered looking into it, and these people think they can come up with something better.”

Moeller cautioned that leaving RSU 2 is not as simple as forming a committee. He said there are a number of steps and votes and processes to go through, something he said would be time consuming.

The exploratory committee will use a secretary to keep minutes, produce a survey and mail it to residents. The voters approved $1,000 to fund the committee.

All of the other articles in the warrant passed with little debate or amendments except for two. Article 32, which asked for $400 to decorate veterans’ graves in local cemeteries, was amended to make sure the flags for the graves were made in the U.S.

First-term incumbent Gerald Lilly called for a recount after he was defeated by 11 votes in his bid to retain his seat on the Dresden select board.

Dwight Keene received 149 votes to Lilly’s 138. A date for the recount has not been scheduled, according to Pat Theriault, Dresden’s clerk. There are several steps that the town has to go through before the recount process can begin.

Lilly joined the board in 2013 with more than 40 years of experience with the Dresden Fire Department, including several years as fire chief. Lilly and Keene could not be reached for comment.

Keene, 65, came to Dresden in the mid-1980s from Bath, where he owned a convenience store.

Jason Pafundi — 621-5663

jpafundi@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @jasonpafundiKJ