SUMNER – On Tuesday, selectmen reviewed a letter from Buckfield Town Manager Glen Holmes asking the town to contribute $1,000 to the Buckfield Recreation Commission.
The letter, written by Holmes on behalf of Buckfield’s selectmen and Recreation Commission, said about 30 Sumner residents are participating in Buckfield’s summer ball program. The program’s budget is almost $7,000, of which half comes from the town and half from registration fees.
“Money is very tight,” Holmes wrote, and $1,000 from the town of Sumner would “help defray the cost of this program.”
In exchange, Holmes said Buckfield’s Recreation Commission would be willing to provide Sumner a voting position on the board.
Town Clerk Susan Runes explained that since Sumner doesn’t have enough interested boys to form a baseball team, Buckfield has allowed Sumner boys to participate in its summer ball program. Likewise, Buckfield girls who want to play softball are welcome on the Sumner team, since there aren’t enough girls to form a team in Buckfield.
“If the kids want to play,” she said, “the towns need to work together.”
Players from each town pay registration fees, whether they play ball in Buckfield or Sumner. Runes pointed out that Sumner has never asked Buckfield for money for the recreation program. Runes also questioned Holmes’ numbers, saying that she couldn’t think of 30 Sumner boys who might be playing baseball in neighboring Buckfield.
Selectman Mark Silber was reluctant to act on the request without input from the Sumner Recreation Committee. “These people have devoted their time and their energies,” he said. “We are not going to be making this decision” without them.
He suggested that recreation committees from the two towns get together to discuss regionalizing or pooling resources. Selectmen agreed to reply to Holmes, requesting a meeting between the two committees.
In other business, Administrative Assistant Cynthia Norton said Aaron Dumont of the Department of Environmental Protection said there has been “good progress in cleaning up” garbage dumped on a Sumner property.
Selectman Clifford McNeil had complained about the property in May. In a letter to the property owner dated May 26, Dumont said he’d found stoves, lawn mowers, furniture and an oil tank among the garbage on the property. The property owner was given 30 days to clean up the garbage.
McNeil agreed that “there has been a good-faith effort to clean up the trash,” and called illegal dumping of garbage “a practice that needs to stop.”
Norton said that Dumont will continue to check on the progress. She said he also suggested that Sumner Code Enforcement Officer Sidney Abbott visit the site periodically.
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