JAY – Selectmen voted Monday to petition the state Apportionment Committee to be assigned to the same Maine Senate District as Rumford.
Selectman Ray Pineau, also a Democrat state representative serving House District 76, asked selectmen to support Jay being the same district as Rumford as “their senator is more in tune to our needs.”
Currently, the town is in Senate District 17 where it is represented by Farmington Sen. Chandler Woodcock, R-Franklin County. The town wants to join Senate District 24, which covers numerous Oxford County towns including Rumford and is represented by Dixfield Sen. Bruce Bryant, D-Oxford.
Selectmen wanted to do this during the apportionment time at the state level, Town Manager Ruth Marden said.
The reason for the request, Marden said is “our similarity with the issues facing that community.”
Both Jay and Rumford are mill towns on the Androscoggin River, she noted. Both have a similar industrial base — paper companies — and a similar tax base with a similar population, she said.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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