TIVERTON — The recent resignations of veteran Planning Board members Rosemary Eva and Noel Berg leave only a minimum quorum of five on the panel, requiring a unanimous vote to get any business done at meetings.

The Home Rule Charter specifies that the Planning Board have a total of nine members, and it appears the Town Council is poised to move quickly to fill the four vacancies.

Town Clerk Nancy Mello said yesterday that she had been prepared to advertise for volunteers, but that won’t be necessary because about six or seven people have come forward.

At the Town Council’s regular meeting next Monday, Mello said she expects the council to schedule a separate session to interview the volunteers, some of whom are not known to the panel.

Mello said she would identify the candidates publicly once council members have been given their applications, sometime today.

So far, the reduced ranks on the Planning Board have not had any marked effect on the review of proposals for development.

The Planning Board plays a key role in balancing the wishes of developers with a desire for open space in this environmentally conscious, mostly rural community.

Berg, the chairman, and Eva, Berg’s immediate predecessor as chairwoman, resigned in protest late last month after the council declined to reappoint Cynthia Nebergall to the Planning Board.

Berg and Eva, who have each given more than a decade of volunteer service to the Planning Board, accused the council of retaliating against Nebergall for her role as a leader of a taxpayer revolt at the Financial Town Meeting last May.

At the time, elected officials said the move by taxpayers to cut $1.9 million from the budget would threaten the financial stability of municipal government.

Council members have not said why they did not reappoint Nebergall. Berg and Eva have both been unstinting in their praise of Nebergall’s work on the Planning Board.

During the last few weeks, Town Council President Louise Durfee has tried unsuccessfully to persuade Berg and Eva to reconsider their resignations.

Collectively, the pair take with them a wealth of institutional knowledge about the town.

Eva had been chairwoman of the Planning Board for at least a dozen years before Berg was elected last February.

Berg, a retired engineer, joined the Planning Board in 1997. For much of the last decade, he has also volunteered as the Planning Board’s administrative officer, ceding that role last December to the town’s first full-time planner, Christopher Spencer.

In a letter written in June, six months after his appointment, Spencer asked the Town Council to relieve him of his duties as the Planning Board’s administrative officer, citing friction with unnamed board members.

But in a recent interview, Spencer said “things have cleared up a bit.”

He said the duties of the administrative officer are more economically handled by the town planner.

Asked specifically whether he had had problems with Berg or Eva, Spencer declined comment.

“I don’t want to get into a spitting match here,” he said.

At its most recent meeting, earlier this month, the council tabled a proposal to appoint the Planning Board clerk, Kate Michaud, as administrative officer.

Spencer said Michaud would make a very capable administrative officer, but the town would have to hire another clerk. And he said he doubted the town could afford the extra expense.

Efforts to reach Michaud yesterday were unsuccessful.

gmacris@projo.com