PARIS — Selectmen will discuss the growing poverty in the Oxford Hills area Monday with Anne Stanley, rector of the Christ Episcopal Church in Norway.

At the Nov. 22 Board of Selectmen meeting, Town Manager Phil Tarr and Stanley briefly discussed having local towns, charitable organizations and local churches meet and coordinate ways to respond to poverty in the region and direct people in need to the appropriate organizations.

Stanley told the board she’d seen a steep rise this fall in requests for aid at her church. She said reverends from other area churches were also reporting more people asking for help with rent, fuel and food expenses.

Stanley said she had met more homeless people seeking help this fall than in all of her 13 years at the church. She was concerned that the church was spending more time and money on helping people than on spiritual guidance.

At the same meeting, Tarr told selectmen that requests for General Assistance were up slightly in November over the same month in 2009.

Selectmen will also discuss and are set to approve a golf cart for the Paris police. The cart was on a warrant at the Nov. 22 meeting but was not approved.

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