Alna residents’ Aug. 25 vote telling selectmen which snowplowing contractor to hire may not fly. A lawyer for the Maine Municipal Association has told the town that one of the changes made during the special town meeting was too much of a change, making the final vote void.

According to MMA staff attorney Susanne Pilgrim’s Aug. 27 email, the problem came with the second amendment voters made to the lone question selectmen had put to them. The board was asking for another $20,000 for plowing and sand and salt costs, beyond what the town approved in March. The first change voters made zero-funded the request. That action would have been valid, according to Pilgrim’s email.

The email goes on to describe the second change, or amendment, and the issues with it: “That amendment seeks to award the contract to a specific company and to state the amounts to be paid in each of 3 years. In my opinion, the second amendment was far outside the scope of the article on the warrant, and was void. Because the voters approved the article with a void amendment, no action was actually taken on (the) article ... at all. Thus, in my opinion, the town is left with the status quo prior to the special town meeting.”

Towns pay dues to the association and sometimes ask it for help with sticky questions and issues that come selectmen’s way. The MMA’s responses can help avoid the cost of consulting a lawyer, or give boards a better idea of whether they need one.

Pilgrim’s email responds to one from Town Clerk Amy Warner, about the special town meeting. Warner’s Aug. 26 email to the MMA’s legal services department states, “The selectmen are curious if it is actually a legal amendment and what to do now moving forward.”

At the board’s next meeting, Wednesday, Sept. 3, at the town office, members will discuss what to do next about the upcoming plowing season, First Selectman David Abbott said.

“It was an illegal motion, so I don’t know what we’ll do now,” Abbott said in a telephone interview on Aug. 27.

Pilgrim’s email gels with concerns the selectmen raised during debate at the special town meeting. At the time,  Second Selectman Jonathan Villeneuve questioned the legality of a vote that would  specify the vendor for selectmen to contract with.

Selectmen also took issue with being told to use Hanley Construction. The Bristol firm did a good job for the town the past five years and probably would have gotten the job again, but didn’t enter a bid and retracted an earlier offer, selectmen said.

Hagar Enterprises of Damariscotta was the lone bidder.