NEW GLOUCESTER – Selectmen on Monday agreed to get the town mail delivered instead of having town office employees fetch it from a post office box.

The switch would not only save on the annual post office rental fee, but eliminate mileage paid to employees to drive four miles round trip to the the post office each day.

Staff say it would also be more convenient and improve efficiency, as well as reduce the use of fuel. Saturday mail delivery with the postal service will be worked out.

Selectmen approved the change unanimously.

The board set the town’s tax rate for 2009 at $11.18 per thousand dollars of assessed property value. It’s 98 cents more than last year.

Selectmen awarded a fairgrounds infield improvement project to C.L.H. & Son Inc. of Auburn for $5,300. Improvements to the New Gloucester Fairgrounds on the Bald Hill Road will renew roughly one-third of the infield area.

And, Advantage Tennis Inc. of Passumpsic, Vt., was awarded the contract to improve the Rowe Station Road Tennis Court for $7,877.

And, finally, the board heard a presentation by Aaron Shaper, who administers the Cumberland County’s Community Development Block Grant program. Tim Joy, the town’s emergency management director, talked about the National Incident Management System and training requirements for selectmen.