By Eileen M. Adams Staff Writer

DIXFIELD — Selectmen at a special meeting Thursday night chose board members Norine Clarke and Chairwoman Bettina Martin to draw up two or three sewer district proposals for possible presentation to the Mexico Sewer District trustees.

The move was meant to simplify negotiations between the town of Dixfield and the Mexico Sewer District for continued sewer services. The 30-year contract for repairs and maintenance expired last year.

Clarke and Martin will meet with Town Manager Eugene Skibitsky on Monday morning to work on the proposals.

The full board, at its regular July 29 selectmen’s meeting, will hear the proposals and decide which to present to the Mexico Sewer District trustees.

Skibitsky has invited the trustees to meet with the Dixfield board next Thursday, July 30, to try to work out an agreement. He has not yet heard from the trustee’s lawyer, Paul Dumas, on whether that meeting will take place.

Dumas, at an earlier meeting of the full board of Dixfield selectmen, had asked that negotiations take place without the press present. Skibitsky has maintained that such negotiations must be held in public. Calls to Dumas earlier in the negotiation process were not returned.

At issue is the percentage of sewer line repair and maintenance costs Dixfield must pay to the district for servicing the town’s 525 customers. Dixfield selectmen believe the request made by trustees was too high. That figure was not disclosed.

Sewer District trustee, Anne Young, said earlier in the day that about 800 customers from Mexico are on the line. She declined comment on the impending negotiations.

All sewerage flows to the Rumford/Mexico Sewerage Plant in Mexico.

An agreement must be made to satisfy requirements set by the Maine Department of Transportation, which plans to replace the Webb River Bridge beginning later this year. That bridge connects the two towns, and the Dixfield sewer main is attached to it.

eadams@sunjournal.com

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