WILTON – Selectmen met in executive session Tuesday with police Chief Dennis Brown to discuss hiring someone to fill a vacant full-time position and an applicant for a part-time position.

The board approved Brown’s hiring of officer Blaine Rackliff for the full-time job to replace Alfred Cooper, who joined the department last spring and has resigned. Rackliff served as a part-time officer for the department for several years, Brown said Wednesday.

The part-time applicant, Edward Hastings of Farmington, was also approved by the board. Hastings works for the Farmington Police Department.

Brown was also given approval to pursue grants to start a dive rescue team and for funding improvements for the department’s radio communications, he said.

Several police and fire department officers, he said, have expressed interest in starting a dive rescue team to handle incidents on Wilson Lake. Incidents of people being hurt on the water, one involving a two-boat collision during the Blueberry Festival, leaves the departments relying on the use of private boats to reach and rescue victims, he said.

Brown plans to research funding for a rescue boat, he said. He has also approached Poland Spring Water Co. to inquire about possible funding for traffic control devices and radar.

Any grants or funding will be taken back to the board before any action is taken, he said.

Brown and fire Chief Sonny Dunham have interviewed six of 23 applicants for the administrative position to be shared between them, he told the board, and are considering one of those for the position.

Dunham proposed three options to the board for disposing of Engine 5 including a cash offer of $5,000, listing the engine on eBay or donating the truck to the East Dixfield Fire Department, if it is interested.

The board decided to wait until Dunham could talk with Randy Hall, chief of the East Dixfield Department, to see if his department wanted the engine for parts for a similar truck owned by East Dixfield. The board agreed to put the tanker on Engine 5 out to bid.

Dunham requested the use of $1,500 from his budget to use along with money raised by the department for replacement of a motor in the Model A, a 1929 Ford firetruck. The department has raised approximately $800 and has plans for a dunk tank at Farmington Fair to earn the rest of the money. The board agreed to his request.

The department is still having electrical problems with the snorkel truck, Dunham told the board. He also asked for permission to store a tanker, purchased for $1, at the landfill. The tanker, similar to a Poland Spring Water Co. water tank, will be used for training purposes, he said.

In other business, selectmen discussed an update from Susan Gendron, state commissioner of education, on school consolidation. The board is looking for someone to serve along with selectmen’s Chairman Paul Gooch and school board member Robert Pullo on the consolidation committee. Anyone interested may contact the town office, Assistant Town Manager Barbara Vining said.