Orford — Two days after a late-season snowstorm prompted postponement of Town Meeting and ballot voting, voters on Thursday night rejected the Highway Department’s request to buy a $100,000 dump truck with plowing capacity.

The decision, during a gathering at which voters had already approved an operating budget of about $976,000 without debate, followed more than an hour of wrangling and paper-ballot votes over how much and how often to spend on infrastructure.

Before the truck debate, voters committed about $216,000 for several capital-reserve funds, nearly 10 percent less than the Selectboard had requested.

“We’ve got to cut these budgets, instead of adding on over time,” Jim McGoff, a frequent critic of municipal spending, said while advocating a paper ballot instead of a floor vote to reduce the capital-reserve appropriation by $20,000. “We don’t need brand-new, shiny trucks all the time. We don’t need all these toys. We’re not Hanover. We’re Orford, New Hampshire.”

The vote was 60-52 to reduce the capital-reserve spending.

Following the debate on the capital reserve funds, voters debated buying the dump truck for the better part of an hour before voting against it, 56-37.

A majority of the Budget Advisory Committee had recommended delaying the purchase for another year, and several residents insisted that the town could afford to maintain the existing vehicle, which has 73,000 miles on it, for a while longer.

“What level of service do you people want?” Road Agent Roger Hadlock asked during the discussion. “We have to have good, reliable equipment, which costs money. I can’t be working on equipment when I’m supposed to be out plowing. … If I don’t get out and drive my truck, I get a call from some very upset people.”

Residents also rejected, in a floor vote, a Highway Department request to buy a commercial-grade leaf blower and vacuum for $3,500. The gathering did establish a new capital-reserve fund for major repairs to fire trucks, and appropriated an inaugural infusion of $3,500.

The bottom line of the municipal operating budget, which passed without debate, is about $38,000 less than the town is spending in the current fiscal year. That reduction in the town proposal resulted partly from the Selectboard combining $11,379 worth of requests from non-profit organizations into five separate warrant articles, instead of including them in the budget. The gathering approved all of those requests by voice vote.

From the current capital-reserve fund for bridges and roads, voters on the town-meeting floor authorized the town to spend up to $22,000 to upgrade the High Bridge Road bridge, and another $75,000 to pave and reconstruct roads along and around Archertown and High Bridge roads.

Election officials were still counting ballots at 10:30. Former Selectboard Chairman Paul Goundrey was seeking to return to the panel after a six-year hiatus, while businessman Justin Adams was pursuing his first term.

Meanwhile, Deborah Hadlock and Ruth Hook were running to succeed Tax Collector Louise Mack, who is retiring after 33 years in the position. And while incumbent Kelley Monahan was running unopposed for a three-year term on the Planning Board, Deborah McGoff and Tom Thomson were waging write-in campaigns for two vacant seats on the panel that had no candidates on the ballot.

David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304.