RUMFORD — Fire-call boxes and facilities that have purchased master call boxes and pay the fire department annually to manage the alarm system caught a reprieve at Thursday night’s Board of Selectmen meeting.

Due to the lack of a motion following discussion to possibly scrap the 74-box system, or to charge facilities $100 to offset the yearly system management cost of $1,750, the matter was simply dropped.

Fire Chief Robert Chase led off the discussion by telling the board how much it costs to maintain the system.

Chase then asked to be allowed to continue managing the system, which consists of 50 street boxes and 24 master boxes, which monitor fire alarm systems in commercial buildings, schools, hospitals and nursing homes, within its budgetary constraints.

To recoup the $1,750 and maintain the system, Chase said selectmen could charge non-municipal facilities using the master boxes about $100 annually.

Selectman Frank DiConzo said that since selectmen first raised the issue of possibly scrapping the fire-call-box system, he checked with some communities that did just that. He said among the reasons given were that taxpayers shouldn’t have to foot the bill for private facilities that should instead contract out for the service.

DiConzo then spoke about the importance of fire-call boxes by referring to a fire in his neighborhood in a home without a phone with which to call for help, during which four children were killed.

He suggested that perhaps it would be wise to examine the street-box system to determine whether more are needed.

“For $1,750 a year, it doesn’t seem to me to be a hardship,” Selectman Jeff Sterling said.

Selectman Greg Buccina agreed.

“I think we just ought to leave it alone,” he said. “One emergency could probably out-total what we pay for these. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

He said that fire-call boxes aren’t everywhere in town, neither are they costing much money.

“At this point, they’re not something jumping up and strapping us with a lot of money,” he said.

Chairman Brad Adley said, “Unless I hear a motion, we’re going to leave it alone.”

No motion was forthcoming, so Adley moved on to the next agenda item.

In other business, the board decided against Adley’s suggestion to send out a survey to residents to get their opinions to better guide the board when budget time rolls around.

“I just want all the information we can get before we go at it from both sides,” Adley said.

However, the board decided that two counter suggestions – holding a public hearing prior to starting work on the budget, and/or asking residents to respond to an electronic survey on the town’s Web site rather than a mass mailing – held more merit.

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At a Rumford Board of Selectmen meeting Thursday night, fire Chief Robert Chase tells the board that he would like to continue maintaining the town’s 74 fire call boxes, rather than see the system eliminated as suggested at a previous selectmen meeting to reduce budget costs. Selectmen dropped the issue after about 30 minutes of discussion.