OXFORD – Selectmen on Thursday set a tentative date of Sept. 17 for a special town meeting to ask voters to pay about $55,000 owed to the Maine State Retirement System.

The 7 p.m. meeting at town hall will also allow voters to reconsider buying plow trucks for the highway department and to authorize $5,100 to cover a shortfall in the amount budgeted for liability insurance.

Non-money issues up for a vote are what to do with the old police station, and clarify a policy for the disposal of personal property owned by the town.

Maine State Retirement recently informed the town it was liable for accrued costs of membership going back several years, and that current town employees cannot be cut off from the program. Town officials had assumed until recently that a decision by voters to opt out of the program had legal force, until it was pointed out that the proper paperwork had not been filed.

Selectmen want voters to reconsider the need for plow truck purchases, believing the issue was not properly explained the first time around. Money is available in the budget to lease-purchase one new truck, but two trucks are needed. Selectmen didn’t specify Thursday what amount would be requested.

A policy regarding the sale of personal property is needed to deal with a specific request by a resident to have the town sell him a trailer at the highway garage that has not been used for several years. Another resident has offered to buy the town’s oldest ambulance for $7,500, Town Manager Michael Huston said.

It’s not clear whether such requests should be handled by a bid process or on an individual basis, he said.

Huston also reported that the Maine Department of Transportation will be closing the Number Six Road Aug. 14 to upgrade the railroad crossing. MDOT will also be upgrading the crossing on Fore Street.

Huston said the state will be putting in the wiring for signal lighting, but will not, at least for now, be installing lights at either crossing.

Huston also reported that the town’s new ambulance was hit by a driver at Oxford Plains Speedway Wednesday night, causing $840 in damage. The Paris Police Department is investigating the incident.

Selectmen also asked Huston to go back to having the town office open until 7 p.m. on Thursdays, and to possibly also extend office hours until 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Friday. On Wednesday, the office could be open from only noon to 5 p.m., to keep employees within a 40-hour work week.

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