PERU – The Town Office will be relocating to the former Peru Elementary School on Main Street in a few weeks.

On Oct. 9 and 10, the town office on Peru Center Road will be closed so the move can be completed. The town office will be closed Oct. 8 in accordance with the normally scheduled hours, and will also be closed on Oct. 13 in observance of Columbus Day.

At Monday’s selectmen’s meeting, town officials discussed the disposition of the town office building and the Rockemeka Grange. In a special town meeting on Sept. 23, citizens voted to have the town sell the town office through a real estate agency at fair market value.

Selectman Laurieann Milligan asked who would determine what is being sold on the town office lot, and Chairman James Pulsifer responded that the building itself should be sold at a point extending to the backside of the outside stairs, and the septic system should be sold along with the building.

Road Commissioner Joe Roach noted that when the town office closes, a driveway leading from the building to the town garage should be closed off. “It’s something to think about,” he said.

“When we survey it, we need to find out where the garage stuff is and make sure you have that part of the hill,” Pulsifer said. “This is a building we can possibly move reasonably well.”

The selectmen moved to have secretary Kathy Hussey and treasurer/registrar of voters Vera Parent contact area real estate agencies to get information on the best possible deal for the town office. The findings will be presented at the next meeting.

Milligan wondered if the Rockemeka Grange could be something other than a grange building.

“The reason we took it over was because the grange couldn’t fix it,” Pulsifer replied. “It needed a new roof, it needed a better furnace.”

He suggested that the state grange be contacted about the agreement with the grange that the town has. The building is set to be closed later this fall, as it won’t be heated this winter.

“You’ve got to close the water down. That’s the biggest thing,” Selectman Rodney Jamison emphasized.

“We’ve got some things down there,” Roach noted of the items that are in the grange basement and are road department-related. “Some of it’s hay bales and some of it’s old tires.”

The old landfill in West Peru is officially closed. A cost figure for the work was unavailable at Monday night’s meeting.

Selectmen gave the go-ahead to fire Chief William Hussey to pursue fire insurance for the town’s volunteer fire force. This insurance package will fill the gaps in workers’ compensation coverage, which doesn’t protect firefighters who get injured on the job but aren’t actively fighting a fire.

“The thing I’d like to see is getting more volunteers for the Fire Department,” said Jamison, who supported pursuing the insurance.

Hussey noted that the insurance benefits would help with recruitment and retention of volunteers. “There’s a lot of things to do at the Fire Department besides getting behind a nozzle,” he added. For those interested in learning more about what the department does, an open house will be held at the fire station Oct. 12.

The selectmen also approved a mutual aid agreement with other northern Oxford County towns for fire protection.

There is a new employee in the road department. Stan Waleik was approved by the selectmen and will start work Oct. 6.

“He’s pretty excited about the job, and I’m very happy that he’s coming,” Roach said. “I’m happy the selectmen and road commissioner worked well together on the process.”

The board signed a building permit for a 10- by 16-foot wood shed for Edward (Ned) Desroches on Bird Farm Road, and approved a request by David Clement to add gravel to driveway areas at his Worthley Pond residence, along with removal and thinning of some trees and verification of his year-round occupancy status.