DIXFIELD —The Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee held a joint meeting Monday evening to hold final discussions about the budget proposal for the upcoming annual town meeting.
Town Manager Eugene Skibitsky said that the biggest difference between the selectmen’s budget proposal and that of the Finance Committee was in the executive and reserves departments.
Finance Committee Chairman Scott Dennett said that one area that the committee looked at in terms of budget cuts in the executive department was the Town Office staff.
“We were going to see if it were possible to open discussion, or see if there has been any discussion about potentially looking at a different workweek schedule,” Dennett said, “whether it be having the Town Office open four days a week instead of five, changing the hours, or something of that nature.”
Aaron Perreault, member of the Finance Committee, said “looking at surrounding towns like Mexico and Peru and Carthage, you’d see they work a four-day week.
“We’re the only town office around here that is open five days a week, besides Rumford,” Perreault said. “Mexico has been open for only four days a week for quite some time now.”
Perreault later pointed out that Mexico has a higher population than Dixfield, but it is only open Tuesday to Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“The town of Byron is only open two days a week,” Selectman Scott Belskis said.
Selectman Norine Clarke was hesitant, explaining “it’s a very hard thing to change hours when people are used to it. It’s not going to be pleasant.”
Belskis said that “by cutting back that day, in the wintertime, you’re saving on the heating because the heat’s turned off — and electricity, because no one’s in the building.
“There’s at least 52 days a year where you would not be funding the electricity and all that stuff,” Belskis said.
Perreault said that even if the proposal for cutting a day at the Town Office doesn’t go forward this year, it will “certainly stir the pot and get us thinking long-term, in case we lose state revenue.”
Chairman Mac Gill agreed, adding that it was “something worth looking into.”
Clarke, however, disagreed. “I don’t know — I guess I’m thinking, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’” he said.
The board said they would consider putting the issue in front of the citizens in the form of a straw poll in November.
In other business, the Board of Selectmen unanimously voted to put $25,000 in the town’s fire department truck reserve fund.
William DeVries, member of the Finance Committee, pointed out to the board that there has been “no money placed in the fire department truck reserve for four years.”
“We think that this is not going to stand indefinitely,” DeVries said. “We’re going to get hit with a zonkin’ bill at some point in time. We have to start putting money in reserve.”
Dennett, who is also the town’s fire chief, said that he expects the town’s current fire truck to last “two, maybe three more years.”
As a result, the board agreed to put $25,000 in the truck reserve fund.
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- Selectman Bob Withrow looks over the town’s budget proposal Monday evening during a joint meeting between selectmen and the Finance Committee.
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