DIXFIELD — The Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee discussed budget presentations from departments Monday night at Ludden Library.

Town Manager Eugene Skibitsky suggested a town meeting warrant article that calls for using surplus money to meet the town’s share of a sidewalk construction grant and to resurface sidewalks along Route 2.

“As you know, we have a sidewalk grant, and it was engineered out,” Skibitsky said. “The engineers are coming up with a price to get the job done, and our share of that would probably be somewhere between $72,000 and $80,000. We have close to $33,000 left in the sidewalk reserve account, so in order to raise the balance of the seed for the (Maine Department of Transportation) project, it would be around $36,000 more.”

Skibitsky said MDOT is doing a resurfacing of Route 2, and as part of that construction, the selectmen have agreed to have the downtown sidewalks resurfaced with asphalt.

“I’m suggesting we take care of our sidewalks out of surplus, instead of through taxation,” he said. “I’m not asking to raise the taxes or raise money through taxation. Everything would be out of the surplus account.”

Skibitsky told the board and the Finance Committee that if selectmen approved his suggestion, the request would become a warrant article at the annual town meeting.

The board and the Finance Committee also listened to a budget presentation from Dixfield fire Chief Scott Dennett, who said the department’s biggest expense in the upcoming budget would be purchasing or replacing protective equipment.

“It’s probably our single biggest expense,” Dennett said. “Outfitting a new firefighter is to the tune of around $2,500 per person. Basically, with what we have budgeted for this year, we’ll have enough to outfit two people.”

Dennett added that the National Fire Protection Association suggests that each department should replace outfits every 10 years, but “as long as the equipment passes an annual assessment test, it can stay in service.”

The Finance Committee questioned Dennett on whether the Fire Department had its own Internet service or if it accessed the Internet using the library’s Wi-Fi.

“I tried connecting to the library, but since my office is on the opposite side of the building, it doesn’t work,” Dennett said.

Selectman Scott Belskis said “a booster or hub” could be purchased for “a couple hundred bucks” that would allow the Fire Department to pick up the library’s wireless signal.

Selectmen and Finance Committee will meet at 5 p.m. April 29 to continue discussion of the budget.

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