BUCKFIELD – Selectmen got their first look at a proposed road budget Tuesday night presented by Road Commissioner Glen Holmes and road foreman Phil Savage.

Fuel costs play a large part in projected increases as well as winter salt and sand. No large equipment purchases are in the budget.

Holmes, who is also town manager, presented a comparison of winter and summer roads being done in-house by the town crew and by private contractors. He compared Sumner and Hartford, which contract their maintenance, and Minot, which uses town employees as well as private contractors.

Though Buckfield was higher than the average cost per mile by $467, Holmes said fuel cost would make up the difference because Sumner is in the third year of a contract and no increase in fuel had been included.

Selectman Skip Stanley asked Holmes to see if the other two towns in the Nezinscot Valley purchasing agreement, Sumner and Hartford, might be interested in any regionalization with contractors.

Holmes read a report from the Swap Shop Committee, which has a container in the Buckfield Sumner Transfer Station and has been gathering items since September 2007 for people to take.

The approximate total weight of the items saved from the waste stream in 2007 was 7,271 pounds. Nearly 1,600 items found new homes.

There are 19 people who volunteer in the shop on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Holmes reported on the suit against Roger Bennett over junkyard violations. Bennett has until the first of February to clean the first area of his property and until May 1 to clean the rest of the property. Holmes said the judge will inspect on May 1, and if it is not clean, he will authorize the town to remove all junk and bill Bennett for the cost.