West Gardiner voters will choose whether to add two members to their Select Board in a special town meeting Thursday at the West Gardiner Volunteer Fire Department.

A petition circulated last summer by resident Bob Weeks failed to gain enough valid signatures to force a town meeting vote, but Select Board chair Greg Couture said the board decided to bring the issue to voters anyway.

“Somebody had gone through the effort to do that,” Couture said. “Even though they didn’t get enough signatures, it doesn’t hurt to get the feel of the town to say, ‘Do you want to do this or not do this?'”

Residents at a public hearing earlier this month took both sides of the issue, Couture said. He said some argued that the vote should be delayed until the regular annual town meeting in June, and some argued the move is necessary to improve the diversity of voices on the board.

Couture said he doesn’t “have a strong opinion either way.”

If voters choose to add two members, the new seats would be up for election at the June 6 annual town meeting — one for a one-year term, and the other for a full three-year term.

The vote, to be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, could make West Gardiner the latest in a string of Maine towns to add members to their Select Board. Mount Vernon, for instance, voted to add members to its board last summer, bringing the number of board members from three to five.

One of the primary concerns in Mount Vernon, leaders there said, was the difficulty of Select Board members to conduct town business without breaking quorum rules; on a three-member body, two members — a majority — discussing town business can violate open meetings law.

The Kennebec County Commissioners have similarly struggled with quorum law.

“You have to be very careful what you’re doing, because you can’t make any final decisions,” Couture said. “I mean, there’s issues we talk about — ‘OK, this is an issue. We need to bring it up at the Select Board meeting so we can figure out what we’re going to do or want to do.'”

Residents will also vote on an article to hire a new part-time town clerk. That position would require allocating $10,000 from the town’s surplus fund.

That $10,000 would pay for the position for the remainder of the fiscal year — through June — and voters would need to approve an annual budget line for the position at the annual town meeting.

The special town meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. The fire department, at 318 Spears Corner Road, is located next to the town office.