RUMFORD — The Select Board voted Thursday to reaffirm its commitment to have a Safe Haven Baby Box installed at the Fire Station on Falmouth Street while it works through liability issues and rules governing their use.

“Safe Haven Baby Boxes offer a compassionate and secure option for mothers in crisis who are unable to care for their newborns,” according to the Safe Haven Baby Boxes website. “Designed with innovative safety features and installed on the exterior walls of fire stations and hospitals, each box ensures the safe and anonymous surrender of infants. The exterior door locks automatically when a newborn is placed inside, and an interior door allows medical personnel to promptly and securely retrieve the baby, ensuring immediate care and protection.”

A baby box for the Fire Station has been paid for by private donations but has not been installed due to ongoing talks with Safe Haven Baby Boxes.

Town Manager George O’Keefe told the Select Board at its meeting Thursday that Town Attorney Jennifer Kreckel indicated the requirement to name Safe Haven Baby Boxes as a co-insurer is a problem, and there are liability concerns and privacy issues as well.

This specialized box, which is part of Maine’s abandoned child; safe haven provider law, allows parents to anonymously surrender newborns, specifically those 31 days old or younger, if they are unable to care for them.

The high-tech box, which is temperature-controlled and padded, will alert firefighters when a baby is placed inside, and they will then take over care, arrange medical assistance and transport the baby to a hospital.

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services has rules governing the registration, installation and other specific requirements before they can be used.

O’Keefe said there are 12 states with a total of 290 baby boxes available for use.

The town manager said he was not expressing agreement or disagreement, “just doing my job to convey the town attorney’s concern.”

Board member John Pepin said he would like Kreckel to explain to the board the risks to the town if they go ahead with installing the device.

Chairman Chris Brennick said, “We want to get this across the finish line because when we get it there, this is going to be good for our town.”

Last year, the board voted unanimously to have a baby box installed.

State Rep. Rachel Henderson, R-Rumford, and then-state Sen. Lisa Keim, R-Dixfield, supported the project when it was proposed.

Both were in attendance Thursday, with Keim now an Oxford County commissioner.

“What we have in front of us is a couple of things that need to be ironed out,” Henderson said. “Let’s sit down and have a conversation, maybe with the town’s legal counsel. I really don’t think this is a stopping point. Let’s try to find a path forward rather than this being the end of the conversation. Part of that conversation needs to be the insurance piece of that.”

She said she would also be interested in how the 12 states with baby boxes dealt with these concerns. “Other municipalities have signed contracts with Safe Haven. Has there been negotiations? What do their contracts look like?”

She noted, “The average time of retrieval of a child in a box is three minutes, and that’s across the nation.”

The mission of Safe Haven Baby Boxes is to prevent illegal abandonment of newborns by raising awareness, offering a 24-hour hotline for mothers in crisis and offering the Safe Haven Baby Boxes as a last resort option for women who want to maintain complete anonymity,” according to its website.

“We’re talking about the health and safety of a child, and presumably this is a child that is 30 days old or younger,” Henderson said. “These are terrible, awful and hard decisions that these mothers have to make, and we can provide a place for these children to be put.”