GORHAM – With an eye on Gorham’s 275th anniversary this year, the Town Council Tuesday, in a 6-0 vote (Brenda Caldwell absent), approved seed money for a committee to organize an event.

Town Councilor Phil Gagnon, a member of the council’s Finance Committee, sponsored the proposal for an observance, which would attract people to Gorham and benefit businesses and the community.

The Town Council appropriated $5,000 to fund the committee, with $3,253 coming from the Marcia Parkhurst Fund and $1,747 from the Dana Estes Fund.

Town Manager David Cole said the Parkhurst Fund was established in 1891 and the Estes Fund in 1908. Cole said the Town Council is trustee of both trust funds.

Gagnon, who was named committee chairman, hoped that the committee would fundraise so money from the two funds wouldn’t be needed.

“We asked for seed money to get us started,” Gagnon said.

Town Councilor Mike Phinney commented on the success of the 250th anniversary celebration in 1986. “It’s quite a special thing to have a town as old as Gorham is,” said Phinney, whose forebears were the first settlers in town.

Capt. John Phinney and his son, Edmund, arrived in the spring of 1736. The town, then known as Narragansett Number 7, was a land grant in the wilderness.