Selectmen may hire consultant to help save money

Selectperson Greg Buccina and citizen Candice Casey valiantly fought to no avail to get the the Rumford Board of Selectpersons to vote on measures to move the Town towards the goal of saving 10% of the budget set several monthes ago. To date absolutely no savings have been realized. Buccina pleaded with his fellow board members to take action, that time is running out. Buccina suggested the board vote to operate the highway department on two shifts to reduce overtime during the winter monthes, no action. It was suggested the town cease operating the strret sweeper, cutting man hours, fuel usage and wear on the equipment, no action. Casey has citizens trained to recycle and has been fighting for recycling bins that are being used for storage and taking up space at town hall, getting these out would generate aproximately $49,000 by years end. no action. Casey recommended departments institute a comp time program to reduce or elliminate overtime especially in the highway department during the snow season, no action.

Selectmpersons did vote to seek bids to spend more tax payer money on an efficiency study. What is the point when the selectpersons refuse to take any action that would save money. We the taxpayers of Rumford are going to be looking at a 100 mil tax rate next year with the way our Town Manager and Selectpersons are not taking action to protect our interests. I for one am not able to pay $100 per $1000 valuation on my home. We are already the highest taxed in the state along with having the highest unemployment at 19%. We havew to take our town back and that may well mean recall elections on these bums.

Rumford is filled with unemployed and retirees with tremendous education, experience and talent that could be utilized for the good of the town. How about seeking one or more volunteers from the community with management experience to come up with ways to save money instead of going outside and spending more money the town does not have? In order for private business to stay in business, thet have to make a profit, who netter to show the down how to be frugal than someone that made a profit in business?

They may also be able to assist in evaluating all the organizations Rumford and its departments pays big bucks, some individually but certainly collectively, to belong to than pays even bigger bucks to for any services i.e. MMA, AVCOG, Growth Council, Maine Police Chiefs Association to determine if we should continue with these. Frequently the town contracts privately for services instead of using the services of the group they are a member of because it is cheaper to contract outside (i.e $2100 for study of Lincoln to Essex, Waldo to Cumberland Block) despite the hefty membership fees paid.

In the 7 monthes I have been here working on the Community Pride Project, I have found a lot of people with education, skills, training, and experience eager to donate their time and talents to the community. They have been frustrated and discouraged in their efforts to do so. Rumford can not afford to turn away volunteers, certainly not those who are expert and experienced in their field.