Brownville and Milo officials looking at combined rec department

MILO — With the intention of providing more opportunities for area youth and to potentially save money, Brownville and Milo officials have been discussing the possibility of merging the two neighboring communities’ recreation departments into a new Penquis Recreation Program. A public hearing on the matter was held Oct. 29 at the Three Rivers Kiwanis building.

“Over the past few months the towns of Brownville and Milo have come together to discuss a joint effort and collaboration to provide one comprehensive recreation program for the greater Penquis community,” Brownville Town Manager Felice Lyford said. “The ultimate goal is to improve programs offered for our area youth and to realize potential cost savings for both municipalities.”

“We want to make it clear, we don’t have all the answers,” she told the hearing attendees. “We need all of your input and nothing’s set in stone.” Lyford said town officials in the two communities want to hear residents’ questions and feedback in order to build a great program.

Research has been conducted on what has been done elsewhere in Maine to collaborate on recreational resources, Millinocket and East Millinocket was mentioned as an example.

“Using their examples we created a draft agreement and a program outline for the Penquis Recreation Program,” Lyford said. “Some of the key points that we think are important to mention at this stage, our program would be referred to as the Penquis Recreation Program and would mirror a partially combined budget to run it.”

One full-time director would run the program with a minimum of 30 work hours a week, with a salary between $30,000 and $35,000 for this amount of time. There would be several part-time recreation assistants to work varying hours, similar to what is currently being done in both Brownville and Milo.

The director would receive benefits such as medical and dental and have a cellphone stipend and mileage reimbursement. The position would be employed by just one town in order to receive the benefits.

General Penquis Recreation Program supplies would be funded by both towns through the budget process. Other requests would be made by the communities, either by the select board or via voter approval if needed. Items would be property of one town or the other but could be used by all program participants. The two entities would maintain ownership of all current property, facilities, and equipment.

“The entire program expenses will be reflected in Milo’s individual line budget according to their type, we call things by different names in both of our towns and budgets are set up a little differently,” Lyford said.

“Brownville will pay a predetermined amount of the program expenses to offset the costs in accordance with the agreement,” she said, likely classified as a contract service.

A recreation committee would oversee it with three individuals appointed by each select board, potentially for 2-year terms. The rec director would be a seventh member to break ties if need be.

The committee members do not necessarily have to be a resident of Brownville or Milo, they could reside in a nearby Unorganized Territory. “It’s a community program, it’s not just a Milo/Brownville program,” Lyford said.

“We do not expect any significant increases in either town’s budget as a result of the collaboration, aside from normal cost of living expenses,” the Brownville town manager said. “We all know wages are going up, minimum wage is going up, increased costs are going up. Those are things that we would realize within our own budgets anyway.”

She said if feedback is mostly positive then each select board would vote on the collaboration at the respective November meetings in order to prepare for transition at the beginning of 2025. Milo’s meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 13 and Brownvile’s would be six days later on Tuesday, Nov. 19.

“Our goal was not to change any of the current programs going on, our hope is to expand them if possible,” Milo Select Chair Paula Copeland said.

Milo Town Manager Bob Canney said in order to determine Penquis Recreation Program funding both school population and town censuses were looked at. In SAD 41 about 63 percent of students from the two towns are from Milo and 36 percent from Brownville while per the most recent U.S. Census the combined split is 68/32, so a halfway ratio of 65/35 was agreed upon.

“Brownville’s not subsidizing this program 50/50 with Milo because we have a bigger budget and more people, it’s reflective of populations and school enrollments,” he said. “If we implement this and it goes well and we get down the road and a bunch of people move into Brownville for some reason then we will look at that.” 

The program is set up for two years and after this time the agreement would be reviewed to see if anything needs to be addressed.

Canney said if approval is given next month then he and Lyford will combine the rec director job description and then advertise and interview for the position. He said right now Brownville and Milo each have part-time directors.

“We do approach this kind of cautiously, we have had efforts over the decades of trying things together and some things just fail for one reason or another,” Lyford said. “We’re trying to just get the framework right to start with.”