Board: Rumford selectmen

Met: Thursday night

It’s curtains

Issue: Selectmen decided to upgrade acoustics in the Rumford Falls Auditorium where they hold their board meetings by buying drapery to cover all of the windows. They put the project out to bid.

Scoop: At Thursday night’s board meeting, Town Manager Carlo Puiia read four bids ranging from $6,546 to $16,000 for the curtains. Puiia then recommended that they not spend the money this year.

After which, a man in the audience said, “I just can’t believe you’re asking department heads to cut back, cut back, and you want to buy curtains?”

Choosing which bid to go with then died for lack of a motion.

Consultant tabled

Issue: Selectmen decided to hire a consultant to find cost savings in the current budget. They put the project out to bid.

Scoop: Puiia read off the bids Thursday night and they ranged from $8,500 to $45,000. Puiia recommended tabling the matter to the board’s next meeting to enable selectmen to read and understand the bids.

Selectman Greg Buccina said, “I’m not going to support doing this, because I don’t think we need to do this. I think we can do this ourselves.”

They tabled the matter to the next meeting.

Extra police officer

Issue: Police Chief Stacy Carter told the board Thursday night that he would like to hire an extra police officer to temporarily replace two full-time officers — Matthew Noyes and Mike Belanger — because they have been called up for deployment to Afghanistan. Noyes, who leaves next week, is with the National Guard; Belanger, who leaves in March, is in the Army Reserves. They will be gone for a year.

Additionally, Sgt. David Bean is retiring in November.

Scoop: Carter wants to hire the extra officer, who would preferably be academy-trained, he said, to alleviate overtime that would accrue from using full-time officers, because reserve officers won’t be available to fill every time slot when Noyes and Belanger leave.

He does have a utility officer who could fill in for one of the officers, but that officer will soon go to the Maine Criminal Justice Academy for training and will be unavailable for several weeks.

Carter said he tried to resolve this ahead of time by asking selectmen to allow him to pursue a federal grant and have the government pay for the extra officer, but selectmen did not OK that.

When asked by selectmen, Carter said there is no added cost by hiring the extra officer, who would then take Sgt. Bean’s time slot. Additionally, the chief said he would advertise for an extra policeman.

Selectmen unanimously approved hiring an extra officer.

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