BETHEL – Town Manager Scott Cole has researched neighboring towns’ stipends for selectmen after Bethel selectmen asked about the various compensation levels. They receive $750 annually.
Cole found that Bethel lags behind a handful of towns. Nearby Newry pays the most: its yearly stipend per selectmen is $5,000. Bethel pays the least.
The towns Cole researched were: Fryeburg, $2,500; Hanover, $2,400 (with an additional $1,300 for the chairman); Oxford, $2,000; Woodstock, $1,700; Norway, $1,440; Rumford, $1,300; Greenwood, $1,200; and Paris, $1,100.
Selectmen didn’t take any action on the findings at their Monday night meeting, Cole said. The stipend amounts “are going to stay that way,” he said. “There was no action. They just looked it over, and they said, Nah, fine.’ They were curious to see what is going on in other towns.”
Selectman Jack Cross said, “The town doesn’t have a lot of money to do something like that.”
At the Bethel selectmen’s meeting Monday, town officials also looked at a list of 13 possible ordinances townspeople could vote on at the town meeting in June – if they pass the vetting process in the next few weeks.
One of them is a law that would deal with dog waste along Bethel streets.
“People walk dogs, and it collects for months,” Cole said. “The snow covers it up, but as you get to warm weather, the snow recedes, and what has been refrigerated for months, it starts to decompose. It’s not sanitary or pleasing to the eye.” The ordinance would be some type of pooper-scooper law, Cole said.
An entertainment ordinance could revise the town’s allowances for noise levels of establishments that tend to be noisy, such as bars. The ordinance might also look at defining violations, revising a constable/bouncer requirement and other details.
Another ordinance might create rules to define and limit locations of food sales. This one could target hot dog stands or vendors selling out of pickup trucks in parking lots by the roadside. “They’re arguably competing with established businesses that are paying taxes,” Cole said. “They’re being poached by the roadside vendors.”
The ordinances will, during the next few weeks, be discussed in public hearings and possibly tweaked by selectmen, who will vote on whether to include them on the town warrant. The lock-in date for all ordinances is May 15.
Cole also told selectmen he wanted to stop the town’s retirement fund for him because he will be using the Maine State Retirement Program. “I felt it was a double dip, and I didn’t think that was fair.”
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