BUCKFIELD – Road maintenance, equipment and hot top were the hot items voiced by the 21 representatives from Buckfield, Hartford and Sumner at a regionalization meeting Tuesday night.
Buckfield Town Manager Glen Holmes said, “The purpose of regionalization is to provide services we don’t have or to receive better quality for those services local taxpayers are presently paying for.”
He said the fire departments were a good example of towns working together.
The three towns have about the same number of miles of roads to maintain, and the costs were basically the same. Buckfield’s costs are higher because payments for the new town garage are included. Hartford is paying a slightly lower amount than Sumner.
Asphalt and culverts purchased together would save a large amount, it was noted. Except for schools, roads rank second highest in town expenses.
Chairman Oscar Gammon of the Buckfield Board of Selectmen said his priorities were redoing Route 140, common fuel purchases and road maintenance.
Other ideas coming out of the brainstorming meeting were for towns to share a manager, equipment, knowledge, services, purchases and code and police officers.
Mark Silber, selectman from Summer, said the towns would need to address the legal aspects of towns entering as a conglomerate. He suggested creating a legal entity with a board composed of members from each town similar to the Buckfield/Sumner waste transfer station arrangement.
All agreed that each town should keep its own character while striving to save taxpayer dollars.
The next meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 18 and be confined to summer and winter road needs. Holmes suggested that all towns have their road commissioners and road committees attend with figures on what their costs are.
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