CORNVILLE — Veteran Cornville Selectman Melvin Blaisdell is on the Town Meeting election ballot Friday for a return to office after already having served 35 years on the three-member board.

Blaisdell, 67, is running unopposed for a three-year term.

“I started out as third selectman for a few years, then ran for first in 1987,” Blaisdell said. “I’m running again, unopposed.”

Polls will be open from 1 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Cornville Town Hall on West Ridge Road. The annual business meeting and voting on spending articles from the town warrant begin at 10 a.m. at the same location.

Road Commissioner Myron Moody Jr. also is seeking a return to office for a one-year term, and an open seat on the school board needs to be filled.

Blaisdell said he expects municipal spending to remain about where it was at the end of last year’s Town Meeting, when residents approved a budget of about $550,000, not including county taxes and school payments. The tax rate is expected to remain at $17 for every $1,000 in property valuation.

Among the biggest expenditures to be brought before voters on Saturday is the repair of the aging Town Hall, which originally was the town’s Grange hall, built in the early 1900s.

Residents will be asked in Article 10 to take $25,000 from surplus to install new siding and eave protection to the building. In the next article, voters will be asked to take another $25,000 from surplus to install a bathroom in the building and hook up to water and a septic system on town property that abuts the Town Hall.

There is a chemical toilet in the building now.

“The town owns some land next to the Town Hall from when we bought the building,” Blaisdell said. “There was a trailer there and a well and septic 100 feet away, so we’re going to tap into that.”

The town Budget Committee recommends passage of both articles.

Other spending items to be voted on Saturday include $70,000 for the disposal of recyclables and solid waste, $100,000 for winter roads, $90,000 for summer roads and $60,000 for equipment, with the unexpended balance going to the highway equipment fund.

Residents also will be asked to allot $108,167 for the second payment on the road paving project. Cornville residents voted last year to raise $115,823 for the first payment on the town’s road paving project, which was approved at the 2015 Town Meeting.

Blaisdell said Cornville residents agreed to borrow $1 million for the 12-year paving project, but the town had to borrow only $980,000 to get the work done. He said the town will pay about the same amount every year to pay off the road bond, then probably will start over again to keep the paved roads from deteriorating to a point that they can’t be fixed.

The paving project includes the entire 6.3-mile length of East Ridge Road, from the Athens town line to the Skowhegan town line. The borrowing plan, which is for 12 years, also includes work on the entrance to Moody Town Road, the top of Huff Hill Road and portions of Oxbow Road, Molunkus Road, Lower Mills Road, Wood Road, James Road and Rowell Mountain Road.

Voters on Saturday also will be asked to raise $50,000 for town government and to see how much residents want to take from surplus to reduce the tax rate. Cornville residents last year agreed to take up to $300,000 from surplus to offset taxes.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com

Twitter:@Doug_Harlow

Copy the Story Link