DIXFIELD – Police officers seeking higher wages spurred selectmen to schedule a meeting to discuss their pay.
A letter from the officers to the board was outlined at Monday night’s selectmen’s meeting by Police Chief Richard A. Pickett. Without divulging the contents of the letter, he said the correspondence was precipitated by actions of the department’s fourth and newest officer, Matthew Noyes.
Pickett said that after the town sent Noyes to the Maine Criminal Justice Academy for law enforcement certification training earlier this year, Noyes resigned from Dixfield’s force, effective March 22. He was offered a job with a police department in a larger town, Pickett added.
Rumford Detective Lt. Stacy Carter confirmed Monday that Noyes was offered a job in Rumford.
Pickett told selectmen that Noyes, “who really does not want to leave” Dixfield, resigned over wages.
“We’ve come to a point in our police department where we need to take care of our own employees,” Pickett said.
He asked selectmen to increase officers’ pay rates.
“We’ve got people doing part-time secretarial work and trucking in town who are making more money than police. I think we’ve got some unbalance, and we need to sit down and correct this, because I’d really hate to lose Officer Noyes,” he said.
Selectmen agreed to meet with the officers at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 17, in the town office, but told Pickett to confirm with the patrolmen that they want the chief there as well.
Selectmen Chairman Eugene Skibitsky declined to make public the officers’ letter, saying it contained confidential personnel information.
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