DIXFIELD — The Board of Selectmen unanimously voted Monday to schedule a special town meeting April 30 to discuss a citizens’ petition to consider withdrawing from Regional School Unit 10.
The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at Dirigo High School. The matter will be decided at the polls on June 9.
Residents in the former SAD 21 towns of Dixfield, Peru, Canton and Carthage have been circulating petitions asking for a vote to form withdrawal committees in each town to work on negotiations and to appropriate money to fund the cost of negotiations, research and analysis of withdrawal agreements.
Canton resident Natalie Sneller said the Dixfield petition is asking for $50,000; the Peru and Canton petitions, $10,000 each; and the Carthage petition, $8,000.
The Peru Board of Selectmen voted April 6 to add an article to the town meeting warrant asking residents to appropriate $10,000 from surplus.
A Dixfield resident at Monday’s meeting said Canton recently verified the signatures on a citizens’ petition, and that the Carthage petition had received enough signatures to be put up for a vote.
Dixfield Town Manager Carlo Puiia said, “The idea of the question is that people would be authorizing a withdrawal committee to expend $50,000 from the town’s surplus account to begin researching and negotiating withdrawal from RSU 10.”
Selectman Mac Gill said his only concern was that all four towns would have to approve the petition before moving forward.
“I know the last time Dixfield got involved in this, no other towns did it,” Gill said.
Other towns in the district are Buckfield, Hartford, Sumner, Mexico, Rumford, Byron, Roxbury and Hanover.
In other business, interim police Chief Jeff Howe told selectmen he noticed in the past six weeks there have been more thefts and burglaries of motor vehicles and homes.
“This is a nice community, but a lot of the information that we’ve been seeing is that people are breaking into homes and motor vehicles that are unlocked,” Howe said. “We’re asking people to take some time to secure their homes and vehicles, and to be vigilant in reporting any suspicious behaviors.”
Howe said he spoke with some residents who said they witnessed suspicious behavior around 3 a.m., but didn’t think to report it until much later.
“It’s important to report it as soon as it happens,” Howe said. “That way, we can stay on top of it.”
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