Residents at Monday’s annual town meeting in New Gloucester rejected by a large margin a proposed change to the town’s cable television ordinance, with many people arguing the station should move closer to public access.

The ordinance would have clarified that the station carry only town-produced programs, such as selectmen and school board meetings, while many residents want it to broadcast a wider variety of programs, such as forums for local candidates for office.

Voters also approved, without any changes, a $3.5 million budget that is $221,000 less than this year’s spending plan but includes no job or service cuts. A zoning amendment regarding the transfer of development rights was unanimously shot down after it was found that materials were incomplete and might jeopardize the legality of the vote. The matter will be taken up at a special town meeting later this year.

But it was the cable television ordinance that drew the most debate, a lot of it centering on one sentence in the proposal, which read, “There shall be no announcements or programs featuring candidates for public offices or issues for public vote.”

Many voters felt that would restrict the station, a town department that is run by volunteers who tape town and school district meetings for broadcast, from showing forums or interviews highlighting local candidates, which they considered valuable programming. Political advertisements, in any case, would not be allowed.

In response to the vote on the cable television ordinance, which governs NGTV Channel 3, the committee will now have to decide how to proceed. Their next meeting is set for Thursday, June 4, at 7 p.m. at the Meeting House.

Committee member Patti Mikkelsen, also a columnist for the Lakes Region Weekly, said the committee will discuss whether to rewrite the proposed ordinance for public access, which allows anyone program with a New Gloucester resident as a sponsor to be aired, rather than solely town-produced material as it stands now, or to simply omit the sentence. Political advertisements, in any case, would not be allowed.

“We certainly encourage the public to come,” she said. A new proposal from the group would have to be approved by residents at a special or annual town meeting at a later date.

At the town meeting, state Rep. David Van Wie spoke against the proposed ordinance, arguing that it would keep out educational forums, such as a candidate forum held last year at Windham High School and shown on public access there, or a similar one that aired in Durham during the campaign.

Resident Larry Zuckerman also supported a means for putting candidate forums on the air in New Gloucester, saying that he hoped it would spur “vigorous debate.”

Selectman Steve Libby spoke for the proposed ordinance, saying the town should make the move toward more open access slowly by first accepting the ordinance revision and then working on further changes. He also said the move to more public access would require substantially more staff and volunteers at the station, which is currently manned solely by volunteers.

The attention given to the subject at the town meeting was positive, said Mikkelsen, who hopes more people in town will now be a part of the process.

“We’ve been looking for a lot of community workers and volunteers, and a lot of people have come forward,” she said.