DIXFIELD – Selectmen from the three core River Valley towns hope to have a proposal in place for region-wide police coverage in time for action at the annual town meetings in June.
The Boards of Selectmen from Rumford, Mexico and Dixfield, known as the Regionalism Committee, met Thursday night to continue work on a possible merger of the three towns’ police forces.
The next step, set for Jan. 26, will be a discussion with the police chiefs from each of the towns and representatives from the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office.
“I think this is very doable,” said Rumford Town Manager Steve Eldridge.
The boards worked their way through the police budgets of towns of similar size to Rumford, and concluded that each town or region is different with a set of varying problems.
They also compared pay rates for officers in each of the three River Valley towns and found that they really weren’t that different, ranging from $12.50 per hour to $13.80 per hour for probationary officers, to $14.45 per hour to $15.99 for Patrolman I.
“I don’t believe this will be a major shift,” said John Madigan, town manager of Mexico and Dixfield.
He said a merged police department could produce a number of savings, including the need for fewer cruisers, a salary for one chief rather than three, lower workers compensation premiums if fewer staff are needed, fewer overtime hours and lower liability insurance.
“We’re all doing things differently, but we’re all doing the same thing,” he said. And that is providing police coverage 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
If a merger is to work, all three towns would have to benefit, said Madigan.
The combined budgets of the three towns’ police departments, with a total population of about 12,000, is about $2 million, including benefits.
While reasons for a possible merger include cost savings and more efficient coverage, another is to provide employees with more training opportunities and greater chances for upward mobility. Whether the three towns will need the 23 officers now employed if the police departments merge has not yet been determined.
Selectmen on Thursday suggested looking into whether the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office could provide coverage for the fringe areas, such as East Dixfield, Rumford Center and Rumford Point. Statistics have shown that the vast majority of calls come from the core area rather than from the outlying areas, said Eldridge.
The three police chiefs will be asked to devise a plan for covering the entire three-town region, and to bring those plans to the Jan. 26 meeting at the Rumford Municipal Building.
The boards are also considering hiring the Maine Police Chiefs Association to conduct a study of the police needs of the three-town region.
“We’re all coming up to town meeting. We should have something prepared to go before citizens that is consistent from all three communities,” said Eldridge.
The plan is to have something ready by May 1 so public hearings can be held prior to town meetings.
If all works out, a merged police department could go into effect as early as 2007.
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