MEXICO — Selectmen voted 3-1 Tuesday night to accept a $208,095 federal grant to help pay for a fifth police officer for three years, Town Manager John Madigan said Wednesday morning.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services awarded the Police Department $156,071. The town’s match is $52,024, which is about $17,000 a year. The grant also asks the town to keep the officer for a fourth year.
Madigan said the department can’t draw on the grant yet, because the department received a previous grant that funded a fifth officer. The town is nearing the end of that grant period.
Unlike the new grant, the first grant required no matching funds from the town.
“It’s still a bargain when you need a fifth officer,” Madigan said.
When it received the first federal grant of $180,000, the town had already budgeted for four officers.
“We got pretty much a free extra officer,” he said.
Money saved in overtime costs by using the fifth officer to cover vacation time, sick time and other time off for the other officers and police chief saved the town $30,000, Madigan said. Selectmen set that aside in a reserve fund and added to it each year until $50,000 was accumulated. That money will be used to fund the town’s match for the new grant.
Madigan said that accepting the new grant generated a lot of discussion before the majority decided to accept it. The matter was tabled from the board’s Oct. 8 meeting.
In other business, selectmen voted 3-2 to accept the resignation of Amanda Hamner from the Recreation Board. Madigan said that Hamner cited a personal conflict in her letter of resignation.
Selectmen also appointed Dwight Murphy as the Fire Department constable and approved a taxi license for Mountain Valley Taxi following a public hearing.
Additionally, selectmen approved placing a “No Parking” sign between the driveway of Art Gardner and Burton Street following a public hearing. Madigan said Gardner has had trouble getting out of his driveway and asked selectmen for a sign.
Selectman Reggie Arsenault mentioned that someone selling Christmas trees in Dixfield illegally placed a business sign on Mexico’s Memorial Green. Because that is considered sacred ground, the sign was removed. Madigan and Arsenault reminded the public that signs cannot be placed there.
“The Memorial Green is where we honor our veterans who gave their lives for our country,” Madigan, a Vietnam War veteran, said.
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