PARIS — Selectmen approved a shortened nomination and election process Monday for two open positions on the board.

Gary Vaughn and John Andrews resigned from the five-member board following the June 17 annual town meeting. They were elected to three-year terms in 2017.

Selectmen set the special election for Aug. 22. Polling will be open from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Town Office meeting room, 33 Market Square. Absentee voting will take place Aug. 7 to 21.

Nomination papers will be available beginning July 22, the same day selectmen are expected to sign the warrant for the special election, Town Clerk Liz Knox said. Completed papers must be returned to the clerk before the end of business on Aug. 6, she added.

The nomination process is normally 85 days before an election, she said.

Selectmen also discussed a $200,000 increase approved at the annual town meeting to the Capital Improvement account for roadwork, including Paris Hill Road.

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Interim Town Manager Dawn Waisanen said Rob Prue of Pine Tree Engineering of Bath estimated it would cost $500,000 to pave an eighth-tenths of a mile section of Paris Hill Road.

“Rob’s concern is that it will take at least a month, if not two, for our guys to go in and do the prep work,” she said. “We did not put it out to bid in the spring, so we might not be able to get a paving company to come in and do the work this year.”

The board authorized Waisanen to explore possible patch scenarios for the road with All States Asphalt of Windham. The company is contracted to pave several of the town’s roads this summer and fall.

“It is a limp-along, I get that,” Selectman Chris Summers said. “The thing is it is wear and tear and every vehicle that travels that road.”

Waisanen said there would be a planning process before any work begins.

“We are not going to be up there next week,” she said.


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