STRONG — Board of Selectmen Chairman James Burrill was taken to task by fellow board members Tuesday night for bringing up an item that was not on the agenda and not giving them a heads-up.

Burrill said he was contacted by several people protesting a gate that Rob Elliott erected on a discontinued section of Hunter Road. Elliot, who was at Tuesday’s meeting for a different reason, said he was not advised of the gate issue.

Hunter Road connects Church Hill and Norton Hill roads. The Church Hill Road end of Hunter Road was discontinued at a special town meeting in 1957, according to Burrill.

He suggested that Hunter Road property owners Wendall and Mahlon Voter had to sign off on the road access for property owners Pam and Tim Connor, who built a house beyond the discontinued section in 1992.

Elliott told Burrill that he thought the town should not get involved in the issue.

“It’s about safety for my daughter,” Elliot said, who he described as having special needs. “If you know the situation, no one is landlocked.”

Elliott offered to provide Burrill with the name of his attorney but suggested that selectmen becoming legally involved would be a premature step.

“What I’m asking is that you voluntarily take down the gate until we have a final determination of who owns what,” Burrill told Elliott.

Burrill also told Elliott that he would call his attorney.

Other selectmen suggested to Burrill that he was taking action independently on an issue that had not been presented to any of them in a public meeting.

“If we do this, you can count me out,” Selectman Milton Baston said. “We should also call Linda Bean to ask her to remove gates on her properties.”

Baston told Burrill he did not have the authority to ask Elliott to remove a gate.

Selectman Mike Pond concurred, saying the issue was not on the agenda.

“If this is the town’s business, someone needs to bring it to the town,” Pond told Burrill. “If something comes up, we do it as a group.”

Elliott confirmed after the meeting that he decided to attend because he has a number of employees, and he was interested in the agenda item discussing selectmen’s progress exploring less expensive alternatives to health insurance.

“No one told me they were going to be talking about my gate,” he said. “No one has even mentioned it to me. I was sort of blindsided.”

In other business, selectmen appointed Jessie Stinchfield to serve the remainder of Rupert Pratt’s term as school board director. Since his wife, Susan Pratt, is the incoming Regional School Unit 58 superintendent, he decided to resign in May.

Stinchfield has been a substitute teacher and a well-known volunteer in the district for many years. She will have the option to be elected to the position at the town meeting in March 2016.

Selectmen also will continue their fact-finding on alternatives to the current Maine Municipal Association’s health insurance plan. MMA’s coverage is for municipalities through a self-insurance.

Selectmen also continue to research ways to maintain the Village Cemetery, which now has a problem with grubs destroying much of the grass. Burrill said he counted 13 stones that are tilted, and he also talked to Paul Gardiner, a sexton for several towns, who showed him that the vault was starting to leak.

Selectmen approved the lease-purchase cost for a voting machine at $745 per year for four years. The machine would be used in state and federal elections, and Town Clerk Betsy DuBois will employ teams to count ballots by hand for the smaller elections.

Aaron Marden has secured a $2,000 safety enhancement grant, which is funded through the Workers Compensation Fund. The money will be used to purchase safety equipment or services to enhance the health and safety of Fire Department personnel.