RUMFORD – Selectmen met in a one-hour closed session Thursday night to organize their strategy for the upcoming labor negotiations with the town’s three bargaining units.
Town Manager Steve Eldridge said Friday that the next step in the process comes this week when the board meets with Police Department heads Timothy Bourassa and Stacy Carter, Public Works director Andy Russell and Fire Department Chief John Woulfe. Then, on Jan. 12, the board will meet with town lawyer, Jennifer Kreckel.
By the end of January, meetings will be held with shop stewards Shawn Goudreau of the public works department, Doug Maifeld of the Police Department and Scott Holmes of the Fire Department.
The current three-year contracts for the three departments expire June 30, 2006.
Eldridge said he expects the next contracts will also be for three years.
Although officials from Rumford, Dixfield and Mexico have been discussing the possibility of merging the three police departments, Eldridge said that won’t be considered during the negotiating process for the Police Department.
However, he said he hopes a clause will be included in the final Police Department contract that will allow reopening of the contract if the three departments merge.
Discussions during the past few months have indicated that such a merger could happen by 2007 if residents of the three towns agree.
The 14 members of the Fire Department are represented by Local 1601 of the International Association of Firefighters; the 15-person highway crew is represented by Local 1458-04 of the AFL-CIO; and the 13-member Police Department is represented by Local 1828 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
In other matters on Thursday, requests by cemetery associations that the town take over maintenance of some cemeteries was delayed until the town begins the development of the 2006-07 municipal budget.
Eldridge said the town’s Parks Department currently maintains two or three of the 11 cemeteries. But because members of some of the cemetery associations are no longer able to care for the cemeteries, the town had been asked to maintain them.
He said he expects a discussion of how to restructure the maintenance of the cemeteries will be part of the budget development process. Some cemeteries have damaged gravestones that need repair. Also, veterans’ graves must be marked and maintained.
Comments are no longer available on this story