RUMFORD – Selectmen authorized the town manager to get an appraisal for a portion of a parking lot adjacent to the Dunkin’ Donuts on Congress Street following a 20-minute closed session Thursday night.

The owner of the doughnut shop has had a lease with the town to use the property for years, said Town Manager Stephen Eldridge. Now he wants to buy it.

The board also met in two other closed sessions. One resulted in a denial for a change in health care reimbursements for the public works bargaining unit and the other dealt with a small piece of town-owned property on Hancock Street that the abutting landowner wants to purchase.

Also on Thursday, the board heard a report on the level of services provided by the Rumford Police Department as part of its fiscal 2008 municipal budget preparations.

Chief Stacy Carter said the number of officers providing 24-hour coverage has dropped from 19 to 15 in recent years in an attempt to keep the budget down while the number of complaints and telephone calls yearly has increased to 4,546 and 17,372, respectively. The current year’s budget is $914,420.

He said one of the higher statistics is the number of operating under the influence cases. He said 71 cases were processed in 2005-06, which he termed a staggering number for a town the size of Rumford. He said the town has 14 bars, which is likely relevant to the OUI numbers.

Rumford fire Chief John Woulfe presented a similar report last month, and public works director, Andy Russell is expected to present figures and statistics on his department later this month or early in January.

In other matters, the board:

• approved use of the town’s compressor by Black Mountain of Maine to make snow.

• awarded the contract for replacement or repair of several windows at Rumford Public Library to Portland Glass at a cost of $3,753.93.

• Tabled for review a proposal by taxi cab company owner Kevin Donovan to regionalize the requirements for all three cab companies doing business in the River Valley.