PHILLIPS — Selectmen have filled the first of two RSU 58 school board director vaccancies.

Faith Richard has children in the school system, according to Town Manager Elaine Hubbard, and has volunteered to serve as one of the two new members. Richard will attend the Thursday school board meeting at the Kingfield Elementary School.

The town needs a second candidate and will continue the search, according to Town Manager Elaine Hubbard.

Dan Worcester, a Phillips resident and school board director, suggested local taxpayers need to better understand how the RSU 58 budget requests impact them.

“I don’t think we can continue on this path we’ve been on for quite awhile,” Worcester said.

Worcester said a director isn’t required to have children in the school, but RSU 58 costs are affecting Phillips property owners. Taxpayers are bearing the burden of supporting a school system with costs that continue to increase every year. Many of those costs are associated with repair and maintenance that have been postponed for too many years.

“The boards have been kicking the can down the road for years,” he said.

In other business, Road Commissioner Ward Bredeau updated selectmen on the status of several road repairs, including the Pinkham Hill Road and Park Street. Many of the large rocks have been removed, road surfaces graded and brush cut back.

Bredeau talked with a representative from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife about the status of the town’s section of the Reed’s Mill Road that abuts Madrid Township. A section of land along the road is under state management, and several residents had asked selectmen to confirm trees weren’t being cut without permission.

“We’ll need to replace a culvert, but that might not be this year,” he said.

Selectmen will hold a special town meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19, at the town office, to discuss closing sections of several roads for winter maintenance. Winter maintenance does not mean the roads will be closed permanently, but some sections have no winter residents or through traffic, so plowing those sections is an unnecessary expense to the town.

At the Tuesday meeting, several residents who were opposed to the Land Use Planning Commission’s permitting of a Madrid Township gravel pit asked selectmen to consider a change to the current limits on types of truck traffic.

Resident Ken Ziglar, one of more than a dozen attendees, asked selectmen to review options to keep heavy truck travel from the driving through Phillips. The residents who opposed the LUPC decision to permit a gravel pit in Madrid Township expressed frustration that the town would be paying increased costs to maintain that a section of the Reeds Mill Road. They suggested it could be renamed and all heavy truck traffic be restricted.

“I think its a way out of a lot of issues that could cost the town a lot of money,” Ziglar said.

Selectmen weighed options and came to no decision to discontinue the section from the Madrid Township line to Lloyd and Hope Griscom’s property line. Concerns include the effect of forcing that traffic onto other roads, adding to the number of heavy trucks that travel the narrow roads, and issues of legality, liability and enforcement. The section of road is closed from Oct. 1 to May 1 each year to any winter maintenance.

In other news, Town Manager Elaine Hubbard. said she will begin advertising for a part-time transfer station supervisor.