RUMFORD — Selectmen will convene a workshop at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 3, in Rumford Falls Auditorium to discuss department staffing levels.
At issue during budget season is whether the town can continue to provide its current level of services, Town Manager Carlo Puiia said Wednesday.
“It’s the start of discussions on how to go forward and if we can maintain the same level of staffing,” he said.
Normally, there are 52 pay periods per year in Rumford, but not this year.
“This year, there are 53 pay periods instead of 52, which happens every seven years,” Puiia said.
That means an increase in the budget to cover the additional wages, coupled with increases in wages and union contracts that are in their final year.
Following the workshop, the board will convene its regular meeting at 7 p.m. Among the agenda items are:
* A request from the American Legion for Boys State funding.
* Acceptance of a criminal forfeiture of $1,467 to the Police Department’s Drug Forfeiture Account.
* The appointment of Executive Secretary Terri Palmer as General Assistance clerk.
* Review wind power ordinance documents from Patriot Renewables’ Spruce Mountain Wind Project in Woodstock.
Puiia said the criminal forfeiture involves money seized during last week’s cocaine bust.
On Feb. 25, the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, working with Rumford police, arrested five people on cocaine trafficking charges. The five are accused of selling $250,000 in cocaine in the Rumford-Mexico area in the past year.
Selectmen must vote to place the forfeiture into an account, which is usually a Police Department account, in case an Oxford County Superior Court justice presiding over the future case decide to transfer part or all of the forfeiture to the town.
Should the board not OK the transfer and the justice awards it, the money would go into the state’s General Fund.
The wind ordinance documents provide detailed descriptions from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection on shadow flicker from wind turbine blades and on decommissioning for the Woodstock project’s site location of development permit.
Selectmen are drafting a wind ordinance to present to voters at town meeting in June.
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