COLRAIN — Following a lightly attended Special Town Meeting, the town will return to voters with the same ask it had on Nov. 14: fund snow and ice removal services, while it searches for a full-time Highway Department employee.

With just three Highway Department employees — including Superintendent Steve Daby — the town is again requesting residents transfer $50,000 from the Highway Department wages account to a new account for contracted snow and ice removal services. At the Nov. 14 meeting, the same request failed by a vote of 12-6, with several residents saying the town needs another full-time employee instead of hiring a contractor.

Applicants, though, have been exceedingly rare to come by. Town Administrator Kevin Fox and Daby said they posted the job three times since July. They had one applicant in October and another one that came in just a week before the Special Town Meeting. Additionally, Daby said neither of the two applicants’ resumes jump out at him, especially because one of them has a background in an unrelated field.

“At this point, I think it’s the only option we have,” Daby said of contracting an outside company for at least a portion of the winter, while the town lines up a new employee. “This isn’t great; this is really concerning for me.”

Fox said they intend to hold an informal conversation with the two applicants in January. If they, or another future applicant, are then hired by the town, the Selectboard and Fox said they can hold another Town Meeting to transfer money back from the contractor account into the wages account. Any contractor hired by the town would be paid hourly.

“I think we need to make it so we can get that contractor … and the fact that our superintendent is not too enthused about either applicant? That’s major,” said Selectboard member Thom Griffin. “If, by mid-January, we get suitable applicants, there’s nothing precluding us from interviewing and hiring them.

“We don’t want to let them slip through the cracks because we hired a contractor by the hour,” Griffin continued. “Let’s face it, applicants aren’t coming out of the trees.”

While some voters at the Nov. 14 meeting expressed the feeling that Daby doesn’t plow snow alongside his employees, the Selectboard emphasized he does and he has had to call in help — including one time from Police Chief Christopher Lannon — during storms like March’s blizzard.

If voters feel the $50,000 is too much to transfer from the wages account — about $6,000 will be left in the account if the move is approved — then the Selectboard could make an amendment to the warrant article on the Town Meeting floor to a lower amount.

“No matter what we do,” Griffin said, “we’ve got to plow the snow.”

The Special Town Meeting will be held Thursday, Dec. 7, at 7 p.m. at Colrain Central School, 22 Jacksonville Road.