RUMFORD – At Thursday night’s board meeting, selectmen officially hired Len Greaney as interim town manager by unanimously approving a contract that remains active until a permanent town manager can be hired.

Greaney will be paid $1,350 weekly for the salaried position, but will not take medical benefits, according to Greaney and Chairman J. Arthur Boivin.

They also agreed by a 3-1 vote to schedule a public hearing at 6 p.m. July 17 to get input on possibly sharing a town manager with Mexico, something they already did two weeks prior.

However, Selectman Mark Belanger said that according to the town charter, after holding that hearing, selectmen should have decided the matter within a maximum of seven days. That didn’t happen, hence the need to convene another hearing, he argued.

Selectman Frank DiConzo advised the board that they should ease into the process of hiring a town manager by first determining which direction they want to pursue. He suggested keeping Greaney on as interim until March 2009, then start advertising for a town manager.

Selectmen Robert Cameron and Brad Adley said they thought that’s what the board was going to do at Thursday night’s meeting, decide whether or not to hire Mexico Town Manager John Madigan to also lead Rumford on a part-time basis. Madigan is a former Rumford town manager.

“Until we make a decision to share a town manager, we’re still dead in the water,” Cameron said.

Belanger suggested convening a workshop “to decide what we really want to do.”

Both Adley and Cameron wanted to vote the matter Thursday, but DiConzo said it wasn’t on the agenda, so they couldn’t do that.

Cameron, who made the first meeting motion, also motioned that another public hearing be held at 6 p.m. Aug. 7 to discuss whether to put off for a year the decision to hire a town manager or decide on another tact. That was OK’d 4-0.

In other business, selectmen named Vito Gaccetta, 75, as Rumford’s citizen of the year.

They also discussed Seth Carey’s request for endorsement by the board of his casino project, a referendum matter that goes before voters statewide in November.

Belanger suggested that the board should tentatively endorse the resort project as an economic engine for Rumford. He attempted to make a motion, but didn’t know how to word it and sought help from Greaney.

Greaney said he would support a casino if it is within a 15- to 20-mile radius of Rumford.

“If it goes to Oxford, it’s not going to help us any,” he said.

“I’d rather see it in Rumford, but if it went to Mexico, Dixfield or Peru, we’d still get a huge benefit to us,” Boivin said.

Cameron, however, didn’t want to vote on the matter Thursday night. Instead, he suggested convening a public hearing to gauge reaction from River Valley area communities.

At Belanger’s request, the board unanimously voted to have Rumford’s newly formed Economic Development Committee work with Carey to develop a site selection process and report to the board at its second meeting in August.

The board then convened an executive session with police Chief Stacy Carter and police union shop steward Tracey Higley to discuss labor union contractual issues. They exited the session about 15 minutes later, and Belanger motioned that they reopen the police union contract. It was unanimously approved.

After adjourning, Belanger said both sides must open the contract to then make changes.

“The police want to reopen the contract to see what we can work out. There’s problems with it. Hopefully, we can work them out, and I think we can, because we’re trying to move ahead,” Boivin said.