DIXFIELD – Twenty-five people offered and discussed ideas Wednesday night to help Dixfield officials assess the community’s needs for a comprehensive plan revision.
The two-hour forum at Dirigo High School gave members of the town’s Comprehensive Plan Committee information it sought to help anticipate and monitor future change.
Dixfield has a comprehensive plan that dates to 1983. It was revised in 1989, and the committee intends to revise it again and bring it to town meeting for a vote in 2006, Chairman Dave Harvey said.
Last year, voters approved using more than $30,000 to work on the project. Harvey said the committee contracted with the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments to complete the project.
After forming two groups, Harvey and Carol Fuller of AVCOG facilitated the brainstorming sessions. Among the findings were that Dixfield provides an excellent level of service for a community its size.
People in one group liked its quiet community aspect: the fact that the town is small, quaint, has good schools, and is near employment and recreation opportunities.
Things they didn’t like were high taxes, lack of amusement-related and retail businesses, and that the town’s young people are streaming away.
Although the school-age population has been declining for the past two decades, most Dixfield residents are of working age, indicating the need for continued new employment in the region, stated one of the committee’s handouts.
Suggestions on how to resolve the dislikes included adding more income to the town or spending less money, increasing the tax base through tourism or growth, and recognizing the area’s resources and taking advantage of them.
A consensus of the two groups also concluded that the town’s mountains and rivers create scenery that residents and visitors prize, so “tremendous opportunities” exist for Dixfield to use its recreational potential as an economic development tool.
The committee meets at 6:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of the month in Ludden Memorial Library.
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