RUMFORD – A consultant studying consolidating services for Mexico and Rumford told officials Thursday night that the biggest obstacles are tradition, political will and resistance to change.

Don Jutton, president of Municipal Resources of New Hampshire, which was hired to do the study, also told members of the consolidation subcommittees and others at the Rumford Falls Auditorium that there are a lot of redundancies in the two communities.

The overall theme of their early meetings, he told the committee members, is to “show everyone what you can do, not how to go about doing it.

“The biggest impediments to consolidation of services with municipalities like this are political will, tradition, history and resistance to change,” Jutton said. “Most communities stall out at the implementation stage. We’ve learned, over time, that the best way to accomplish goals is to work incrementally and strategically.”

Jutton provided examples of areas that may trip up the two towns.

“I know that the community center in Rumford is something that residents see as an integral part of their community,” he said, “but from a business perspective, it’s not really a building worth saving or pouring money into. People don’t necessarily want to hear that, because it’s important to them.

“The truth is, there’s no rationale, from a business perspective, to have two communities of your size operating with dual everything,” Jutton said. “You have a combined population of around 7,500, and you have two police departments, two fire departments, two town offices, two libraries and two recreation departments within a mile of each other. There’s a tremendous amount of redundancies.”

Asked when both communities could start implementing the plans the subcommittees and Municipal Resources come up with, Jutton said it depends on each department.

“Some will be ready to move quickly, while others will take more time to discuss,” Jutton said. “For instance, the fire departments in both towns are right on the brink of being able to make this happen. I was actually surprised at how well-organized they were. In some ways, they’re ahead of us. However, other departments, such as recreation or libraries, will probably take more time.”

Jutton said he is hoping the subcommittees will be able to provide consolidation outlines to residents before the next annual town meeting.

One resident told Jutton that laying off town employees would be necessary because 80 percent of the towns’ department budgets is dedicated to payroll.

“The amount of redundancies is not in people but in technology and equipment,” such as copiers, phone systems and heating systems,” he said.

“Based on the information that we’ve gathered so far, there’s no evidence that there are too many people,” Jutton said. “If anything, we’re seeing that too many departments are understaffed. For instance, in the finance office, they’re running with one person, which is not appropriate. It’s really straining the capability of the individual too much.”

Jutton said, “If any of you are expecting wholesale reduction in personnel, I just don’t think it’s possible.”

The subcommittees for the departments in each town are: Police; Fire and Emergency Management; Parks and Recreation; Libraries; Public Works; and Budget, Finance and Town Hall Operations. Each subcommittee has two selectmen, a department head, two residents and a Budget Committee member.

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