RUMFORD — Three town officials attended Thursday night’s public hearing on the updated Comprehensive Plan, with one of them asking if the state requires the town to have a plan.

Selectmen Chairman Greg Buccina, Selectman Jolene Lovejoy and Town Manager Carlo Puiia were the only ones at the Comprehensive Planning Committee hearing. The updated plan will go to voters at the June town meeting.

Buccina asked John Maloney, a senior planner with the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments working with the committee, if state law requires towns to have comprehensive plans.

Maloney said it doesn’t, then explained why towns should develop comprehensive plans to better manage future growth.

“So, it’s advantageous to have a comprehensive plan?” Buccina asked.

“Yes it is,” Maloney said.

Buccina also questioned a paragraph included in Rumford’s vision for the future, asking if it was necessary to include it.

Reading it, he said, “The vision, or mental picture of what Rumford should look and feel like in 10 to 20 years, is bold and progressive. It is based on facts and uncertainties. It will not be easy to achieve. But without effective intervention by both public and private sectors, current trends are likely to continue, which is not what people of Rumford want.”

Committee Chairman Kevin Saisi said it does need to be included, because the town needs to achieve the vision’s goals to maintain Rumford’s heritage.

Buccina and Lovejoy credited the committee with doing a good job on the update.

Lovejoy suggested the committee give each of the municipal offices tasked with implementing the goals a list of items they could check off as they were completed.

The committee believes that most of the update’s proposed goals can be completed within a year of two of its adoption by voters. Work on many of the goals would be considered ongoing.

A few such goals would be:

* Reimbursing residents a portion of their taxes if they agree to maintain the historical integrity of their property if it is considered important to the town.

* Providing public restroom facilities on the downtown island.

* Assessing the feasibility of developing a truck-to-rail loading and unloading facility.

* Undertaking a public safety building feasibility study to house fire and police departments. Such a building, perhaps shared with Mexico, could be in the Gateway Area along Route 2.

Only a few goals are classified as long-term actions that might take six to 10 years to complete, such as developing a long-range Shoppers’ Island parking plan to include multi-tier parking facilities.

Puiia also commended the committee on its work and recognized groups that have already formed to achieve the plan’s goals.

“I think it’s nice when you see some of these ideas already on the table,” he said.

Copies of the updated plan are available at the town office and will soon be available for review at the library.

Puiia said he believes residents will support the document, because he doesn’t see anything controversial in it.

The update even considers the possibility that Rumford’s paper mill might shut down within the next 10 years and plans accordingly.

“The town needs to not wait until if that happens, but to think about how we’re going to deal with it should it happen,” Maloney said.

“A number of things that we set up in the plan envisions the differences in values, and again, as we say in the plan, you know, something could happen and we’d never expect it to. That’s why in the implementation of it, there’s a process set up to look at it,” Maloney said.

“You know, we’ve had to make numerous assumptions about what’s going to happen in Rumford. We feel those are pretty good based on historic stuff, but, you know, if the dam goes out tomorrow and floods Shoppers Island and there’s nothing left, we’re going to have to do some different planning,” he said.

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