This is in response to the Sun Media article, “Auditor says Rumford needs to work on rainy day fund” (April 15).

Some citizens in Rumford have been warning selectmen that the paper mill, as it downsized, would one day close — just as other mills around the state have closed. The selectmen were warned many times to prepare for that day of closing.

Present Selectman Frank Diconzo has, for years, been trying to lower the town budget as a Finance Committee member, to no avail. He proposed consolidation of services a long time ago. But no one wanted to believe that the town had a problem.

The town of Rumford has lost half its population with the downsizing of the paper mill as foreign mills put new and faster paper machines online and paid workers less money to run them. The situation began more than 20 years ago, as “Pulp and Paper” magazines, passed on by my Rumford paper mill supervisor, outlined very clearly.

Now that the town auditor, Roland H. R. Smith, has plainly spoken about preparing for the reality of the mill closing, perhaps selectmen and citizens will understand that the town has got to prepare for the future.

It is past time.

Tom Fallon, Rumford