A town official says it is difficult to get competitive bids.
By Gail Geraghty
Staff Writer

OXFORD – The town’s policy of allowing liquor to be served at Staples Community Hall is being revisited in light of the rising cost of liability insurance.

Town Manager Mike Huston said that because the town has to carry liquor liability insurance on the hall, “We can’t get competitive bids from the Maine Municipal Insurance Trust or anyone else.”

The town owns the hall on Route 121 and for many years has rented it to the Fire Department Auxiliary. The auxiliary runs bingo games at the hall and rents it out for wedding receptions, which often involve liquor.

All of the town’s liability and property insurance is written as one general contract. So even though the $400 to $500 cost of liquor liability insurance is only a small portion of the town’s total insurance costs, the inclusion of liquor liability insurance prevents many insurers from bidding on the town’s insurance package as a whole, Huston said.

“We can never get a competitive bid, and we just don’t know” how much money might be saved if the liquor liability insurance wasn’t part of the package, Huston said.

The town uses Goodwin’s Insurance Co. as its agent, he said. Goodwin’s underwrites the insurance using an out-of-state municipal insurance group, Huston said.

Huston said one possible solution would be to make the auxiliary responsible for providing insurance for the hall. “Clearly that would be in the pantheon of solutions,” he said. “We need to look around and explore our options.”

In other matters, Huston said the town has a list of 40 properties that have been foreclosed on. Half are land, and the other half are mobile homes, mostly in parks.

Huston said selectmen may be putting these properties out to bid in the near future.