West Gardiner residents will be asked if they want five selectmen instead of three, if they want to join with three other municipalities in ownership of a dam that controls water levels on Cobbossee Stream and Pleasant Pond, and for $225,000 to replace a fire station and $50,000 to help finish construction of the West Gardiner Historical Society.

They’ll face those questions and more at the West Gardiner annual town meeting set for 1 p.m. Saturday, at the West Gardiner Volunteer Fire Department, 322 Spears Corner Road in West Gardiner.

Construction of the town’s historical building on Spears Corner Road has been ongoing for six or so years, said Greg Couture, chairman of the selectmen. Voters rejected a previous proposal to finish the project, due to lack of budget information, Couture said. The project has a budget now and the proposed $50,000 combined with other money set aside for it should finish it off.

Also up for consideration is funding a replacement for the Bob White Pond Road Fire Station, at a cost of $224,000. Couture said the current station, a former school house, is rotting and becoming unsafe. The proposal would replace it with a metal building. The station houses a fire truck that provides quicker access to the southeast part of town than the town’s main fire station.

Two questions relate to the New Mills Dam, on Cobbossee Stream in Gardiner, owned by Gardiner, Richmond and Litchfield. In 2000, the three communities, each with residents owning property on bodies of water controlled by the dam, took ownership. At the time, West Gardiner, which also has residents who own waterfront property affected by the dam declined to join in owning the dam.

One warrant articleasks if residents want to contribute $5,375 for payments on repairs to the Cobbossee Lake Dam and New Mills Dam.

Another article asks if the town should join in the interlocal agreement and partner in owning the dam with the other municipalities, at a cost of $10,000.

Couture said if the town helps pay for repairs to the New Mills Dam, taking the additional step of joining the interlocal group would give West Gardiner a say in decisions regarding the dam.

Residents will also consider whether to increase their board of selectmen, from three members to five.

A group of residents previously sought to bring that question to voters by petition. They fell short of the required number of signatures but came close enough that selectmen opted to put the question on a town meeting warrant for voters to consider, Couture said.

Proposed changes to the town’s medical marijuana ordinance, which limits the number of such businesses in town to one, would allow that facility to expand to keep up with demand.

Numerous items to be decided at the meeting are part of the proposed $2.1 million town budget.

The budget is down from the current year’s $2.3 million budget. But as part of a changeover to a new fiscal year, the current budget covers a 17-month timespan.

For comparison purposes, the town’s budget in the previous year, fiscal year 2024, for 12 months, was $1.7million.

The proposed budget for next year would be funded, Couture said, with $538,000 in appropriations from property taxes, $1.3 million from excise taxes, and $247,000 from the town’s undesignated fund balance, which is generally made up of surplus funds unspent in previous years.

Couture said the overall impact of the town, county and the town’s share of the School Administrative District 11 school budgets would likely be the current tax rate, of $7.40 per $1,000 of value, remaining flat.

Finally, one article going to voters would provide $1,500 for a sign to be placed at the former John Stevens home on Hallowell Litchfield Road.

Couture said Stevens, who was born in West Gardiner and lived in the home, was an accomplished civil engineer, who worked for the United States in finishing the Panama Canal, and helped open the American West by creating railroad lines across the United States.