POLAND – Voters will consider three articles at a special town meeting June 16.

One article, to establish a new fire and rescue department, was tabled at the annual town meeting April 26.

Poland is in the process of combining the separate fire and rescue departments into one new department with one chief who would be named later. The change comes as Fire Chief W. Ballard Nash is retiring.

The proposed structure of the new department would be a fire chief and assistant chief over the entire department with deputy chiefs and captains at both the fire and rescue stations.

Town Manager Richard Chick said in April that he didn’t think the cost of a combined fire and rescue department would be any more than what the town is currently spending to fund separate departments. Poland has both hourly and per diem employees working for the rescue department because of a lack of volunteers.

Chick said the new department might need to be fine-tuned after its inception.

When the Mechanic Falls Town Council and the Boards of Selectmen of Minot and Poland met together May 22 to find regional approaches to areas of mutual interest there was discussion about sharing fire and rescue dispatching within two years and the possibility of forming a joint fire and rescue department within several years.

The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department is scheduled to begin dispatching Poland’s fire and rescue calls on July 1. The other towns are considering the same option.

The voters will consider another article that was inadvertently omitted from the warrant for the annual town meeting. It calls for Poland to join with other public employers and join the Maine Municipal Employees Health Trust for health insurance benefits for the town’s employees.

The other article asks for permission to borrow money for lead paint and wall cavity mold removal at the Poland Community School. The town would borrow $103,544 for the project.

Chick explained that $64,311 would be repaid at the time of closing and $39,233 would be forgiven.

The special town meeting will be held at 7 p.m. June 16 at Poland Regional High School.


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