ROXBURY — Selectmen learned Tuesday night that the Maine Department of Transportation is planning to reconstruct five miles of Route 17 through town next year.

The project, which is scheduled for construction in the summer of 2011, will begin 3.61 miles north of the Mexico-Roxbury line and extend north 5 miles to the Swift River Bridge in Byron.

In other business, selectmen unanimously gave Town Office workers consent to do what they need to do to feel safe inside after incidents with unruly people or those acting inappropriately.

“For some reason, the situation is very poor, I think,” Selectman John Sutton said, introducing the agenda item titled “Aggressive behavior.”

“We’ve had folks come into the office with the ladies at work here and act inappropriately and impolite, and we’re trying to figure out how to address this,” he said.

Selectman Mike Worthley suggested that Town Clerk Nina Hodgkins and Tax Collector and Treasurer Renee Hodsdon only do business at the glass window and keep the door to their office shut.

“How does that work for you folks that actually work here?” Sutton asked.

“Unfortunately, it makes it impersonal,” Hodsdon said.

“Somebody has made us feel uncomfortable and put us in a position to be impersonal to people coming to the office, which is unfortunate, because we do want people to come in who sit and chat, do their business and talk about whatever they want to talk about,” she said.

“But, if you’re going to come in and be rude and not allow us to conduct business with other people that are coming in, it makes for a rough day.”

She didn’t identify who the offending person or persons were.

Hodsdon said she and Hodgkins have discussed the issue and decided that if only one of them is in the office, they will lock the door into their workplace.

“It’s for personal protection and privacy issues, because if there’s more than one customer in here and I’m waiting on one person, the other person is free to do what they want, and it’s hard,” Hodsdon said.

Selectman Tim Derouche agreed.

“For safety reasons, I think we need to try and do it,” he said.

Derouche said he has looked into the situation in other towns and learned that similar behavior is happening elsewhere.

“The problem is, they have a police department just down the street and we don’t,” he said.

“The other thing we’re concerned about, as Renee said, there’s more than one person and somebody could be walking around and picking up something they have no business doing or going somewhere where they don’t (belong),” Sutton said. “This would limit that.”

“I think for their own safety and with paperwork strewn out in there, (the door) should be kept locked,” Derouche said.

“We generally don’t want people walking around in the office,” Sutton said. “If they’re rude, they should be asked to leave. If they don’t leave, call the police.

“It is a sad state of affairs that we even have to lock it, but we will do what we need to do,” he said.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com