Alna’s snowplowing deal with a Damariscotta firm will stand or fall on its own March 21. Selectmen have decided that residents at Saturday’s annual town meeting will take separate votes on the deal with Hagar Enterprises and two other multi-year contracts.

Separating the deals on plowing, mowing and auditing will ensure that, if voters spike the plowing deal, the other two won’t go down with it, First Selectman David Abbott said. He is hoping all the deals will stand. Hagar Enterprises has done pretty well over a hard winter, he said. The meeting at the Alna Fire Station starts at 10 a.m. Saturday.

A moderator was set to be elected at 10 a.m. Friday at the fire station, as polls open for local elections. Polls will remain open until 7 p.m. Friday. Incumbent Road Commissioner Jeffrey Verney and incumbent Treasurer Aaron Miller are unopposed for new one-year terms; so are Regional School Unit 12 representative Barbara Baston for her first full, three-year term on the district’s board and Melissa Spinney for a two-year term as second selectman; incumbent Third Selectman David Reingardt faces challenger Douglas Baston.

For the first time in many years, resident Chris Cooper will not moderate town meeting. Cooper will not be available, Abbott said. Selectmen located a moderator outside Alna to nominate on Friday.

Abbott on March 12 said the warrant article on the plowing contract will likely receive debate. “If anything is going to attract controversy, that’s probably it,” he said. Abbott based the prediction on the opposition some residents levied against the deal. Voters at a 2014 special town meeting called on selectmen to make a deal with the town’s last contractor Mark Hanley. But a Maine Municipal Association lawyer said the vote veered too far from the question on the warrant; selectmen went ahead with hiring Hagar Enterprises.

The three-year contract was contingent on voters approving it at the annual town meeting, selectmen have said. If voters reject the contract Saturday, the board will probably have to go back out to bid, Abbott said.

Hagar Enterprises was the lone bidder on plowing after Hanley declined to renew his contract, selectmen have said.

Voters on Saturday also face decisions on Achorn & Sons’ mowing contract through 2016; Maine Municipal Audit Services’ auditing contract through 2017; and resident Paul Lazarus’ proposal that selectmen have the Planning Board or a committee draft an ordinance on discharging fireworks, in time for the ordinance to be considered at the 2016 annual town meeting. Lazarus gathered 46 residents’ signatures on a petition to get the question on the warrant.

Selectmen’s proposed $705,317 municipal budget is up from 2014’s $627,765, town officials said. It calls for $10,000 in software and hardware upgrades at the town office; $15,000 to start a reserve fund toward work on North Old Sheepscot Road; and $10,000 for the revaluation reserve account. Voters agreed to put $5,000 into that fund last year.

Honors for two public servants

This year’s town report, hand-delivered door-to-door throughout town last weekend, is dedicated to newly retired deputy town clerk Judy Greenleaf; and to Marcie Lovejoy, who recently wrapped up many years of service to the Alna First Responders including serving as its director. Both will be missed, the report states.