DIXFIELD — The select board voted 4-0 on Nov. 20 to approve appropriating $6,500 for firefighter cancer screening.
Fire Chief Scott Dennett said he needed the commitment because the deadline to get the screening from United Diagnostics was near. He said the screening, starting in January at cost of $325 per person, would be for 20 firefighters from the Dixfield and East Dixfield fire companies.
Select Board member Ricky Davis requested that the five members of the town’s highway department be included in the cancer screening.
Board chairman Richard Pickett said the funds will come out of the town’s share of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.
Dennett said he would like to see an additional screening site for the Bethel area. He said he believes the cancer screening will be held every three years.
In other business, Tony Carter of Dixfield, first supervisor of the unorganized territories and the Oxford County Regional Airport in Oxford, provided an update on road projects. Last August, Town Manager Alicia Conn said the town was looking at more than $1.5 million in repairs after two storms caused significant damage to roadways, most of those near East Dixfield.
Carter said he has been working with contractor Steve Swasay with the repairs, with the paving by Pike Industries. Some of the paving will now have to wait until spring.
Carter said the Severy Hill Road is now complete. Pickett and Select Board member Pete Holman said that road is as good as they’ve ever seen it. Work has also been done on Rollins Ridge, Valley Road and Porter Road.
Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to pay the town for up to 75% for the repairs from the storm damage, with the state paying an additional 15 percent.
Pickett also introduced new town attorney, Kristin M. Collins, a member of Preti Flaherty’s Municipal Law Group. She said she has done some work with the town in the past and looks forward to future work.
Absent from the meeting were Conn (illness) and Select Board member Janice Merrill.
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