DIXFIELD — Resident John Gill questioned Select Board Chairman Richard Pickett this week about meeting Oxford County Sheriff Christopher Wainwright at a local sandwich shop last month to talk about law enforcement for the town.

“How is it possible that you can do this?” Gill asked Pickett at Monday’s Select Board meeting.

“It was a conversation about our concern for the fact that we have a lot of people in town who would like to see full coverage again, like it used to be. But there’s no guarantee that that’s going to happen,” Pickett said.

The May 30 meeting also included state Rep. Tammy Schmersal-Burgess, R-Mexico, and state Senate District 19 candidate  Joseph E. Martin, R-Rumford.

“It wasn’t a contractual meeting,” Pickett said. “We had, as a board of selectpeople, we talked about that we weren’t going to take on this coverage at the uptick of the money that we were going to be paying for that. We decided at that point that we were going to look in other directions to see what there might be out there for opportunities to be able to bring coverage into the town.”

He noted, “No one of us can do that. One selectman has no authority to do anything on it, nor did they do anything on it.”

As a board, Pickett said, “We all agreed that we cannot afford to pay what we just had for that contract, with it going up that far.”

Pickett said the town sent letters for police coverage to abutting towns — Rumford, Mexico, Jay and Wilton.

“Jay has taken a look at it and they’re not interested,” he said. “Rumford is not interested. Wilton is considering possibly putting a proposal in, and it’s my understanding that so is Mexico.”

Earlier last month, Town Manager Alicia Conn said the town is facing a $109,000 increase in coverage by the Sheriff’s Office — $307,942 through June 2025 — with no change in coverage. It’s a 40% increase, she said. It follows a 10% increase the previous year.

Pickett said the people meeting at the sandwich shop” know we had an issue with coverage and that we wanted to get coverage in town, and we sat down and we talked. The sheriff had an interest and I had an interest in continuing talks at some point.”

“That’s all,” Pickett said. “I wasn’t representing anybody. I wasn’t representing the town,” he said. “And neither was (Wainwright) representing the county. But we were interested in that and we both thought there was a pathway to something down the road, possibly. But that’s all it was.”

“I don’t think what you did was right,” Gill said. “What any of you did was right. You were having a meeting discussing town business in a sandwich shop. That’s not right.”

Maine law prohibits a quorum of selectmen from holding a private meeting to discuss town business.

The Dixfield board has five members.

Vice Chairman Peter Holman asked Gill, “What would be the difference if it were you and I and this fella here?”

Gill said, “He’s a selectman and he’s talking about police. You shouldn’t be able to do it either. Not if it was at the sandwich shop.”

Holman responded, “As long as there’s not two of these other people (Select Board members) present, I can talk about anything. I have just as much right as you.”

Dixfield has contracted coverage from the Sheriff’s Office since its police department closed in August 2020 due to lack of officers.

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