POLAND — Selectmen on Tuesday began a preliminary discussion that could lead to changes in the town charter.

Although all are in agreement that the charter is no longer current — the fact that town schools are now part of RSU 16 makes obsolete a lot language in the present charter — the problem with attendance at the annual town meeting appears to have acted as a catalyst in bringing matters to a head.

The charter, which went into effect only a few years ago, requires that a minimum of 100 registered voters must be present in order for the town meeting to conduct business.

Attendance the past few years has been dropping and in April the opening of town meeting was delayed about 20 minutes waiting for the 100th voter to sign in.

Town Manager Rosemary Roy provided selectmen with a basic timeline for action the board would have to take if it were to try to establish a charter commission this year.

The procedure calls for establishing a nine-member commission, six of whom would be elected by secret ballot, with the remaining three appointed by the Board of Selectmen.

Roy said if selectmen want to have residents elect six representatives to a charter commission at the Nov. 5 election, the board would have to issue an official call for a charter commission no later than its Aug. 6 meeting.

In other business, selectmen awarded the bid for painting buildings in the municipal complex to Rodrigue & Son Painting.

Roy noted that although 11 bid packages were sent out to local contractors, Rodrigue’s bid of $28,253 was the only one received.

“It appears painters are very busy this year but nonetheless Rodrigue’s bid appears to be competitive,” Roy said.

She also noted there was only $12,000 in the budget, explaining that since the project had been conceived over a year ago, the town had added the painting of a couple more buildings to the package.

Selectmen authorized Roy and facilities manager Scott Segal to prioritize buildings to be painted and to negotiate with Rodrigue accordingly.

Selectmen also reviewed seven responses to the town’s request for bids to provide design plans for the municipal complex and agreed to table action on awarding a bid at a special meeting scheduled for Tuesday, June 11.

Selectmen received no bids on the proposal to sell the old Walker property — the red building between Ricker Memorial Library and the Town Hall — and move it to another location.

Selectmen directed Roy to rebid the building, expanding advertising for the project to include the Portland area and eliminating the minimum bid requirement.

Code Enforcement Officer Nick Adams reported that the owners of the property at 9 Birch Drive have yet to comply with the plan of action required to correct shoreland zoning violations. The owners still need to file a plan that Adams finds acceptable.

Selectmen directed that the owners be sent a letter detailing the need for them to get their plans in order and completed by the June 30 deadline or risk being subjected to fines of $100 per day per violation, retroactive to October 2012.