RUMFORD — Selectmen have scheduled a workshop at 5:30 p.m. Thursday with their Wind Power Advisory Committee, which has a proposed wind power development ordinance.

The board’s regular meeting will follow at 7 p.m. Aug. 5.

Town Manager Carlo Puiia said late Wednesday afternoon that selectmen decided they wanted to discuss the draft ordinance’s ramifications prior to their 7 p.m. meeting when the committee is to present the ordinance for board scrutiny.

“Rather than leaving it just to the presentation part under new business, we will have a workshop period, so there could be a little bit of discussion and questions and answers prior to having the presentation,” Puiia said. “We knew that it was a big subject.”

Although the workshop is set for 90 minutes, Puiia said he didn’t think that would be long enough.

“It’s a very complicated situation with a lot of regulations that have come from it,” he said.

During the selectmen’s meeting, the board is expected to approve bids for fuel for the 2010-11 year and repairs to the Rumford Falls Auditorium ceiling and balcony stairs. Other items on the agenda are a contract between RSU 10 and the Park and Recreation Department, and a decision on who will be named Rumford’s Citizen of the Year.

Puiia said the auditorium ceiling sustained water damage recently, the majority of it covered by insurance. Additionally some of the balcony section stairs aren’t wide enough and must be replaced to bring meet legal requirements.

The contract with RSU 10 clarifies the town’s and the school union’s rights and responsibilities to use the Hosmer Recreation Field Complex.

Among other agenda items, selectmen are asked to allow the Public Works Department to work on private property, let fire Chief Robert Chase hire a utility firefighter, and discuss the demolition of the tax-acquired three-story building on Waldo Street and Lincoln Avenue across from Hannaford.

Puiia said there are some water drainage issues on Washington Street behind Rumford Hospital.

“We were planning to install a drainage pipe to a storm drain and it would require us digging on the hospital’s property,” he said. “The hospital has been doing some work to mitigate the runoff from their parking lots. They did the upper part already and now they want to do the lower part, but they can’t finish the lower part until we tie into that storm drain.”

The drain would take all of the excess water that drains from the hospital’s parking lot, rather than let it run over the curbing and onto the road, Puiia said. The new pipe would take it to the storm drain.

On the firefighter topic, selectmen at a previous meeting allowed Chief Chase to advertise for a utility firefighter to fill the role that Chase filled last summer prior to selectmen hiring him as fire chief.

Puiia said that if approved, the utility firefighter, who would be a union member, would be used to fill in for vacations and sick time.

“It’s aimed at trimming overtime costs,” he added.

On the Waldo Street building, Puiia said that prior to any demolition, 3,300 square feet of asbestos must first be removed, which will require the bid process.

The board will also discuss potentially reviving Rumford’s Fourth of July celebration, and enter an executive session with Puiia and Chase as a formality before exiting to approve and sign a new contract with the Rumford Professional Firefighter Local 1601 union.