The tiny town of Roxbury, Maine, in Oxford County, is almost due north of Rumford and has a population of “about 373” folks, down from the 380 range in the 2000 census. On July 15, Roxbury held a special town meeting to supplement some of the action taken at its annual meeting, held in March. Altogether, 20 citizens voted on measures with an aggregate financial impact of about $5,000.

The traditional New England town meeting persists into the 21st century throughout Central Maine. It remains perhaps the purest form of democracy still practiced in the western world. “Central Maine” is a somewhat nebulous geographic region, extending from north and east of Portland to about Augusta, from the Atlantic coast, at Brunswick, to the rural border with Canada. Depending upon specifically which towns are included, the population could be as much as 400,000, nearly a third of the entire state. There are 258 cities, towns and “census designated places” listed in Androscoggin, Oxford and Franklin counties, and while the region is dominated by the twin cities of Lewiston and Auburn, together forming the second largest population center in the state, Roxbury is not the smallest community. For example, there’s the town of Upton, close by the New Hampshire border north of Grafton Notch. The most recent reported population (2008) was 61, down from a high of 62 in 2000.

“Towns” are municipal units whose form of government includes an annual Town Meeting; many also have boards of elected Selectmen who tend to local affairs between meetings. “Cities,” on the other hand, have council-manager systems of government, in which citizens participate in a republic, delegating decision-making to councils of elected policy-makers who in turn supervise professional managers. Auburn, with a population of just over 23,000, is pretty small by the standards of east coast cities, but its government must deal with all the complexities inherent in the efficient delivery of municipal services – everything from snow plowing and street repair, to emergency services, trash collection; even maintenance of cemeteries – that confront the largest cities in the country. The difference is that the small Maine cities have to do all of that with far fewer resources.

Not part of municipal services are schools, administered by a patchwork of local and regional districts and unions. Each of those could legitimately be considered a government entity which spends public funds to deliver services to citizens.

On top of local government and school district services, all places in Maine are also part of a county, each with a government and infrastructure of its own, too. All Maine counties provide a courthouse, sheriff’s department and a jail. Some – like Cumberland County, parts of which are in central Maine – provide a broader range of municipal services and employ professional management staff and procedures. Most counties, though, have budgets in the $5-10-million range. Contrasted with the recent financial deliberations in Roxbury – five digits! – the combined budgets of Lewiston and Auburn, along with their two school districts, is in the range of $¼-billion. While that’s undoubtedly a lot of money, some big east coast cities have budget deficits larger than that.

But then there’s state government, with 151 legislative districts (not including the Passamaquody and Penobscot nations) and the myriad array of services it provides. Legend has it that each district was based on the distance a man could ride a horse and return home before sunset (although it’s not clear on which day of the year that sunset was measured). Oh, and post-secondary education in the state – both the university and community college systems – could be considered yet another form of government, as could all the local or county-owned public utilities, sewer and water districts, the quasi-independent Maine Turnpike Authority. There are also all sorts of NGOs – non-government organizations – such as COGs (councils of governments), economic development agencies, the Finance Authority of Maine and such entities as the Overseers of the Bar (oversight of practicing lawyers), which together help offset some of the services which would otherwise be required directly of the state.

Some of the state responsibilities are requirements to fulfill mandates imposed by the federal government so, finally, we must consider that most of central Maine falls within the Second Congressional District of the state, the geographically largest Congressional district east of the Mississippi.

From the limited auspices of Upton, where everyone knows everyone, to the technical and specialized functions of the twin cities; plus the state and the feds: one way to sum it all up is that the people of central Maine are thoroughly served by their governments. A good source for information about the layers of government in Maine is the Maine Municipal Association

(http://www.memun.org/), the membership group that advocates on behalf of cities, towns and their citizens.

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